Current advances in photography tools

Behind the Old Barn. JAR, Colorado, 2012

Yesterday I pulled out my old, trusty and not yet rusty Nikon D70 as my wife needed it to do some of her bizarre portrait images. Now, the aging 6mp D70 is still not a bad machine, especially if all you do is post to the web–and for my wife’s purposes of creating base images that she later manipulates and builds upon, it is perfect. But it got me to thinking about how much our digital photography tools have advanced over the past few years.

Today, the top DSLRs, like the 22 mp Canon EOS 5D Mark III and the 36mp Nikon D800/800E are starting to push into the bottom edge of the zone previously reserved only to medium format cameras. Resolution, dynamic range, and low light capability are starting to get really impressive. Medium format enthusiasts will likely take me to task for the previous statements, but give the industry a few more years and it will certainly be true.

At the other end of the spectrum, most point-and-shoots have also become incredibly capable–even moving into what was previously DSLR territory. To give just one example, we carry around a 10mp Canon S95 (now superseded by newer versions) and it is capable of very nice image quality and both RAW and JPEG options, all in a package I can fit in my front jeans pocket. For street photography and occasions when weight and portability is important, I now have my eye on a fixed-lens mirrorless machine that looks very much like an old film rangefinder–the Fuji X100.

This mirrorless revolution, with the new interchangeable lens cameras, has also exploded and the Sony products (NEX 5, 6 and 7) are particularly popular, getting good reviews. Thom Hogan, the Nikon expert, has a great website in which he reviews all brands of these new devices: sansmirror.com

In short, now is a wonderful time to be a photographer. You almost can’t go wrong no matter what tool you choose. Just remember, though, the tool doesn’t automatically produce wonderful, inspiring images–that requires an additional, very unique and special, processor that is placed just behind the viewfinder…and that one can’t be ordered from any camera shop!