The Magic Bullet, Revisited

Just added to the archives: The Magic Bullet, a column from 2005 that remains apropos today, especially in light of the dazzling recent new camera announcements from Canon and Nikon.

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Mike

Comments

[Eolake]

I know that I definitely have a touch of "Magic Bullet Syndrome". "Ooooh, 22 megapixels! With that I could really make great art!"

[Michael]

The magic bullet indeed!!! Over the last 55 years or so I have managed to take many lousy images, along with a few good ones, with the likes of Leica's, Hasselbald's, Arca Swiss and numerous other cameras.

When someone tells me their camera/lens is not getting good results, I always ask them have you ever taken a good image with this camera/lens? If they say yes I say obviously the camera/lens works and you must be the problem.

[Stephen Best]

I do most of my significant work with the same camera I've had for 25 years (a cheap Wista). There's nothing wrong with new toys though ... as long as you don't let them distract you from the main game.

[Glenn Brown]

Tried full frame, lenses are made for film, tried reduced frame APS and my favourite lenses were'nt my faves any more.
Moved to Olympus four third system, AHHHH it works. Gb.

[Dennis Mook]

Let's encourage the manufacturers to end the race for quantity and increase investment in quality. How many pixels do we need? The answer is different for everyone of course, but I suspect the vast majority of us have more than enough to eclipse anything we produced with 35mm cameras and film--even the absolute best of them. Let's get the race going for lower digital noise (making progress here) and more dynamic range. Let's get some features that would allow us B&W photographers to have all of our pixels utilized for grayscale content instead of breaking them down by a factor of four. Add your own desires to this. The quanity is there but the quality bullet is still not quite out of the gun's barrel yet.

[Rob...]

Dennis, I think Nikon may have made the first tentative step in the quality direction with the D3. It'll be interesting to see Sony's FF camera to see if they try for 25MP!

Back on topic, I'd quite like to have a 1 in 50 keeper rate personally! I'd also like the willpower to be able to discard the "nearlys"...

Regards,

Rob...

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

"your maternal progenitor's military footwear"???
!
:)

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

"As with virtually every other camera known to technology, a few good photographers will make excellent pictures with the Canon 5D, and most buyers will make mediocre snapshots with it. Cameras don't take good pictures, photographers do."

It's funny how Michael Reichman has sometimes active fought that sentiment.
Of course he has sometimes come down on the other side too.
I guess I know how how feels in both cases.

I'm reminded of a chairman of a photo club back in Denmark. He had invested more in gear than most people have in their house, and he could not take a good picture to save his life. He could not even take a straight picture, or a sharp one. Life's funny.

[Stephen Scharf]

I wasn't reading TOP when "The Magic Bullet" was written, and while I agree with it's *general* perspective (that it's photographers that make great photographs, not cameras...), I find it ironic that, despite the initial comments made in Sept. 2005, the Canon 5D, has, since it's introduction, become the de facto Laboratory Reference Standard for image quality from D-SLRs...

[Rob Griffin]

Seems like I read once that Ansel Adams said something like he thought 12 good pictures a year was a pretty good goal. I don't know for sure that he said that but I do know that thought has given me some comfort when I look at my meager efforts.

Rob