Chase Jarvis, CEO CreativeLive
Choosing the perfect camera that meets all of your needs can be a daunting task. You have to ask yourself some basic but very important questions such as:
- Am I focused on photos or videos?
- What will I primarily be doing with this camera?
- What form factor works best for my needs?
- Where will I be taking this camera?
All of these considerations, while paramount in furthering your abilities as a photographer or videographer, become meaningless if you can’t take your gear into a certain environment, or if you forget it at home. As we talked about in the last blog post, there are times when a larger camera just isn’t appropriate for a shoot. There are also times when you neglect to bring that perfect camera to a shoot and are left to your own devices.
Making Do With What You Have
I ran into a situation where I failed to bring my DSLR with me to a shoot. Various Nevada law enforcement agencies welcomed home Douglas County Sheriff Office Sergeant John Lenz following an officer-involved shooting in 2020. I went out to capture this motorcade with my XA-40. I contemplated also bringing the D5200 for photography but decided against it, thinking that it would be excessive for the situation. Boy was I wrong.
There were many cameras, far larger than my XA-40 documenting the procession. While the XA rolled at seven feet in the air, I had to think fast and reached for my phone at the time, which was a Google Pixel 3. Its higher performing camera made quick work of a very dynamic situation and helped me capture the moment in great detail. I was honestly impressed with what my phone was able to pull off that day.
Could I have gotten even more dramatic shots than I did that day? Of course. A DSLR like the D5200 will easily outperform a smartphone in many situations, but it didn’t do much good sitting in a bag five miles north of me. Going back to the quote at the beginning of this post, the best camera is the one that you have with you. My venerable Pixel 3 was the best photography camera I had available to me in that moment.
Don’t Forget Your Head
At the end of the day, remember that your shoot not only depends on the quality of gear that you bring with you, but also the quality of your work on site. Even with your finest camera in hand, a shoot can become worthless if your mind is in the wrong place. Don’t forget to bring that with you as well as your camera. Had I not had an open mind in that shoot, my shots would have failed.
Take your camera and your heart into the world and capture those finer moments in life!
JT Creative 