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A new camera? Ah, visions of more pixels, maybe a full frame, better glass to go with it, and more weight to lug around. Well, actually, no, no, no, and no. Chase Jarvis has a book out that with a title every photographer should memorize. It’s “The Best Camera” with the subtext of “Is The One You Have With You”. The entire book is shots Chase has taken using his iPhone, and it isn’t even the latest iPhone. The book was published about or before the latest iteration was introduced. Here’s a professional photographer with tons of equipment and his thought goes back to lyrics from a 1970 Crosby, Stills & Nash song. “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” When we go out doing some casual shooting we have two camera bags, a bag of just lights, two gear bags, a selection of different size reflectors, a couple tripods and a pretty full trunk. Just in case. And yet, we miss a at least as many shots as we get. We miss them because they pop up as life goes by. As a result, we ordered a couple Nikon S3000 Point and Shoot cameras two weeks ago. They’re tiny, they’re 12 MP, they have a 4x zoom and one of them took today’s image. Are we going to chuck the big guns? No! But I’ve been popping mine in my pants pocket when I dress in the morning. Doris bought a case and carries her camera in her pocketbook. Does it compare to the bigger cameras? Only in the fact that each tales pictures. Are there things that make me nuts? You bet! The shutter lag is something I thought manufacturers had minimized long ago. Not so. With 12 MPs will I be able to make 20 x 30 prints? So far I don’t think so. The JPG compression appears to be too great. There seems to be a pretty high noise level with the Auto ISO turned on. Will I not carry it? No, I’ll keep it in my pocket so I’ll have a better chance at getting those shots as life goes by. To find out what “tricks” were done to today’s image in post, hit the “read more”.
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