This should be fun; i'm getting some popcorn. We're already on page two of another useless-but-contentious thread and it just opened.
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Your probably right and I shouldn't have started that "why bother" thread, other than to make a point about how we can all draw from a world wide viewership to learn and get better.
The thing is it's not that any one person or thought needs to be sensored (pun intended), it's just that most of these comparisions between different brands or formats become exhaustive and rarely prove anything.
I regularly shoot the same projects with different cameras, usually for effect, or useability or maybe just to wake myself up. That's my way of working and doesn't make it better or worse, or good or bad, it's just my way.
Because I own and shoot the Nikons, Canons and Phases and do it in so many different situations I have a pretty good idea of which one works best for the way I shoot under different lighting and subjects.
In fact I could argue both sides and show detailed data to prove that the Canon is better than the Phase, the Phase stomps a 1ds2, the D3 will resolve equally to anything under high iso.
None of it would do anything to improve anyone's photography.
The first rule, the only rule is to get the shot and to do it beautifully and hopefully with some unqiue quality. Anything past that is just tech talk.
There is a story about the Legendary photographer Phillip Dixon [a href=\"http://tinyurl.com/2tf3u]http://tinyurl.com/2tf3u[/url] and I don't know if it's true or not but I still love this story. Someone told me that years ago on a very large production with a honeywagon, grip trucks, dozens of crew Phillip planted his tripod and a Nikon F3 and took a few frames of the model that was in hair and makeup, turned to the Art Director and said, "we're finished". The story continues that Phillip then left and went home.
Now whether that is true or not I really don't know but I love the thought behind it and doubt if I've ever had the stones to pull it off, (though I've thought about doing it a lot).
Still, if it is true, that is the way photography should work. A great talent shoots a compelling photograph and then stops.
A friend of mine who worked for years with Guy Bourdin
http://www.guybourdin.org/ told me that Guy's process of editing a shoot was to go through the film and stop looking once he found the frame he liked, regardless of what was on the next two, three or four dozen rolls.
I also love that thought that he was so sure of what he wanted and could recognize it that it was just a waste of time to keep looking for something else.
There is a lesson here and that is not to waste time. These forums are great for passing time when your batch processing, or just a break from the tedium of digital post, conference calls, or waiting for your flight delayed plane to final get to the boarding stage.
Still, the most important part of these forums is to come away either entertained or informed, hopefully both.
JR