Day one Self portrait
In society name brands have become a sign of status and success, not only do we have this need to show off what we have but we also have the tendency to judge others from what they have. This holds true in many aspects of our society but also in the world of photography.Twenty years ago digital photography was still in its infancy, and the last of the highly rated Pentax, Minolta, and Holga 35mm film cameras used by the average professional were slowly dying out, and not until thirteen years ago Digital cameras were limited to the quality of most cellphones with nothing more than 1.5 megapixels in a camera that looked like a Nikon 35mm but cost between $6,000 and $30,000 for professionals. Whilst today you can get a camera with 16 megapixels between $500 and $1,500. If you think about it that has been a very little amount of time that this technology has grown, but what made Canon and Nikon the industry standard? It would probably be attributed to the collaboration between Kodak and the two, Kodak being one of the first companies to integrate a digital sensor with a 35mm camera.
So with this boom in innovation from three of the top companies helping to make better quality cameras cheaper and faster we gained this social branding that we see in so many other places; to a point where other photographers look down on each other for the camera they prefer to shoot with, and clients and consumers of a photographers service build an impression in their mind that only photographers with a Canon or Nikon camera can shoot high quality pictures. Could this stereotype be true though, does the brand of your camera make you a better photographer. To an extent yes though it is not just in the equipment that makes a photographer great better made products do assist but with technology growing at an exponential rate as it has been for years the emergence of competition to these two industry standards also comes with examples from Sony and Fuji-film, and since the acquisition of Pentax form Hoyo by Ricoh Imaging. These companies have risen to produce high quality cameras that rival Canon and Nikon in both functionality and price.
With these advances at our fingertips, as a photographer I advise others to take a look carefully at the technology you are choosing to use, and in a day and age where you can rent a camera and lens for a weekend for a measly $50, test and test and test to find a camera that will perform the best in your own hands, because at the end of the day a portfolio showing your work will speak more than the camera you hold in your hands.
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