“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things” Henry Miller
“No photographer is as good as the simplest camera” Edward Steichen
Previously I had written about the pros and mostly cons of a point & shoot (P&S). Out of that I did some research and bought a Sony Nex 6 for about the price of a nice lens on my Canon system. I am looking forward to experiments and trying it out…. Here are some of the lessons learned the day after.
What I had forgotten about is all of the other stuff that is needed to go with a new camera…
- Camera bag of some form to carry it
- New strap to replace miserable out of box strap that all new cameras seem to have
- Spare batteries
- Battery charger (it only came with in camera charging)
- Arca-swiss plate for tripod mounting
- SD cards
- SD card holder (I have one for my CF cards for the Canon)
- A circular polarizing filter, and UV haze filter for each lens
- A filter holder / wallet
- Nex 6 flash adapter so that I can use flash
- A new large speedlight (possibly)
- Adapter for Canon lens onto the Nex 6
All of this needs to learned anew. How to use the camera in manual mode with and without a flash. How to change lens quickly and easily. What is it like on a tripod?
Then there are all of the reasons for moving away from the P&S.
- Better image quality, no more barrel distortion
- higher dynamic range
- Enough pixels that the photos don’t look grainy to my eye.
- Decreased chromatic aberration
All of these things will take time to validate or learn. And it all takes time and practice. I guess I should not plan on shooting a wedding with the new camera. What will you learn the day after?