Gary from Seattle
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Of course, carried to an extreme this is an absurd proposition. The question is simply what is good enough for each individual photographer. You mention this but lean towards more and bigger. m43 is more than good enough for nearly all of my images, and even a higher percentage of my best composed, best lighted images. Sure there are some noisy ones and it is not the best for astro/landscape. But for 99% of my images it more than makes me happy. And I can guarantee you that my travels yesterday took me places I would not want (and you would not want) to have carried heavier gear. Downclimbing 50 degree pine needles on a bear trail and holding onto branches and using an ice axe to prevent a long sliding fall I was "more than happy" I had just 2-1/2 pounds of camera gear....who actually believes that more resolution, more DR, less noise, "feathered bokeh", etc., etc., etc., by themselves make for a better photo? Or is it more a matter that more resolution, more DR, less noise, better bokeh, etc., etc., etc., can make for a better photo and it is better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them?Another interesting post on Mike Johnston’s TOP concerning the obsession with technical progress as opposed to photographic content.
This snippet sums it up nicely. It also gave an interesting pause for thought.
“I call the look "CAF"—clinical analytical forensic. It's when you see the crusty mascara on a model's eyelashes instead of a girl with thick eyelashes.”
I am having a moment of personal re-evaluation regarding my camera equipment, so this article was even more interesting to me.
It is also a nice antidote against the exasperating technicisms that often obsessively dog this forum.
Enjoy.
The simple fact of the matter is that I've seen any number of uninteresting photos that wouldn't have been any better in my eyes no matter how technically perfect they were. But another simple fact is that I've seen a great number of photos that were less in my eyes due to technical failings as a result of limitation of the equipment.
So, for sure, step one is to take a photo "interesting enough" to where "more IQ" would even matter. Step two is to realize that the equipment you own may already give you all the IQ you would ever need and that not all photos depend strongly on IQ.
I can print to 20x24, but more importantly, they look great on my monitor. I can crop to about 150% but I don't do many birds. I don't want heavy gear and the features in m4/3 are amazing. I need depth of field not bokeh in nature.
Pixel peeping if not intending to blow up an image is a fools errand.

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