Are the days of the DSLR numbered?

[richard bowler]

I think it all depends what you want from a camera, if all you need are some nice catch shots and maybe some images for an article then point and shoots like the Canon G12 are plenty good enough especially if you shoot in RAW. However if like me you supply photographic stock libraries then your files would not even be considered unless they were shot with an approved camera, more often than not a DSLR especially for wildlife photography.This is because images are scrutinised at 100% and most point and shoot images would not be good enough enlarged that much.
Having said that I do like the look of some of the new top of the range waterproof point and shoots for some interesting release shots.
All the best
Richard
- Home

[Jeff Woodhouse]

I still don't see the need to even consider buying a Leica, not if it's not your profession and even then I'd have to agree with Richard above, use what you're told to use. Buying something expensive and then not using it makes it become nothing more than an expensive door stop at which point all the best electrics and optics are junk. Learn to use well what you have and be happy with it, move up one small step at a time only if you need to, having the best doesn't make you the best.

Incidentally, soem nice work there Richard... I like the stag under the tree, sepia style... Very nice.

[Ron The Hat Clay]

Originally Posted by Jeff Woodhouse

I still don't see the need to even consider buying a Leica, not if it's not your profession and even then I'd have to agree with Richard above, use what you're told to use. Buying something expensive and then not using it makes it become nothing more than an expensive door stop at which point all the best electrics and optics are junk. Learn to use well what you have and be happy with it, move up one small step at a time only if you need to, having the best doesn't make you the best.

Incidentally, soem nice work there Richard... I like the stag under the tree, sepia style... Very nice.

Ah but what about the "Pose Value"?

You can bet The Monk would die to be seen with a Leica M9 on one shoulder and a Nikon D4 on the other. Together with a suitable number of lenses.

"20 Grand on the hoof", or in the habit!

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Originally Posted by Ron The Hat Clay

Ah but what about the "Pose Value"?

But that's all it is, Ron, the pose factor. Frankly, I'd sooner have a much cheaper, yet still good quality camera, and spend the extra I'd saved on fuel to get me to spots where good photos leap at you - and that needn't be too far away.

Monk is mad anyway, anyone spending so much on Axes has got to be a screw loose. Get a proper guitar man!!!

[mark brailsford 2]

Originally Posted by Jeff Woodhouse

But why when you just said that a guy with a Leica M8 was suitably impressed with your little Nikon? Loads of cameras starting around £150 today will take very good pictures providing the user knows how to take a decent picture to begin with. You just don't need to spend loads of money unless it's to impress others who might know what they're looking at, but if they don't then the most expensive camera in the world isn't going to work. Especially if the user doesn't know how to use it.

There are a lot of folk out there that think the more the spend on a camera the better the pictures!
I used to be really big on photography and had thousands of pounds worth of gear (CANON EOS 1 system) but I realised that all the hundreds of pristine Kodachrome and Fuji slides were just stuck in a draw gathering dust, and I really found it hard to sell my pics so I packed it all in!
I try to tell folks that they do not need a camera with 12 mega pixels unless they are going to be blowing something up the size of a house and that you don't need a bag full of lenses if you are only going to take holiday ''snaps'' but I still find it hard to convince folk not to waste their money. I have even tried to explain to folk that the ''camera'' on the average mobile phone is ok for snaps but they just give me a funny look!
I always aspired to owning a Leica M3 but I now know it would just have been for the pride of ownership and would not have made me a better photographer!
I now just own a nice little Samsung compact with 7 MP and a manual facility and it does all I ask of it, in fact some of the pictures I have took with it have been really impressive!

Mark

PS: Forgot to say I am a Leica owner, I have a pair of Trinovid 8x42 bins, but even those have not made me a better birdwatcher, they are still nice to own though!

[MarkTheSpark]

There's much truth in what Mark says; tackle maketh not the angler/photographer. Though it is also true that if you want to shoot pictures for magazine reproduction, 12Mp will provide a pixel for every 'dot' on an A3 page, and anything less won't.
Not that I (or many others) have had pictures printed A3 in mags.
I'm ever so slightly a lens tart; I have just borrowed a fab 600mm f4 from a good friend and I'm going to try some wildlife photography. But it won't be the lens which gets me the picture, it will be my fieldcraft. Let's hope I can remember all I once knew when I stalked rabbits with an air rifle....

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Originally Posted by mark brailsford 2

There are a lot of folk out there that think the more the spend on a camera the better the pictures!

I'll add one thing, when you have the very, very best quality camera that money can buy and you still take crappy pictures, you have nothing else to blame but yourself.

PS 'you' meaning general, not meaning you Mark.

---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:42 ----------

Originally Posted by MarkTheSpark

I'm going to try some wildlife photography.

Big cats in Gloucestershire, by any chance?

[MarkTheSpark]

Originally Posted by Jeff Woodhouse

I'll add one thing, when you have the very, very best quality camera that money can buy and you still take crappy pictures, you have nothing else to blame but yourself.

PS 'you' meaning general, not meaning you Mark.

---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:42 ----------

Big cats in Gloucestershire, by any chance?

I've got more chance of shooting a unicorn, Jeff. I think I'll practice on fallow deer and other woodland critters to start with. This lens weights about 10kg and I'll need about the same in tripod and pan-tilt head to support the thing. Manual focus, too, so it's back to first principles.

Wish me luck. Wish my back luck, too.

[Colin Brett]

Originally Posted by MarkTheSpark

I've got more chance of shooting a unicorn, Jeff. I think I'll practice on fallow deer and other woodland critters to start with. This lens weights about 10kg and I'll need about the same in tripod and pan-tilt head to support the thing. Manual focus, too, so it's back to first principles.

Wish me luck. Wish my back luck, too.

Bloody hell Mark will a little bloke like you be able to lift that lot??

[mark brailsford 2]

Originally Posted by Jeff Woodhouse

I'll add one thing, when you have the very, very best quality camera that money can buy and you still take crappy pictures, you have nothing else to blame but yourself.

PS 'you' meaning general, not meaning you Mark.

I know that kind sir!
---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:42 ----------

Big cats in Gloucestershire, by any chance?

Iv'e seen these big cats...mainly in Longleat safari park!!