Camera, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely everything.
(With apologies to Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong who wrote the song “War.”
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, why'all)
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, why'all)
When the Nikon D500 was announced two of the many new features were highlighted by reviewers. Those features were:
- 153 point AF module with 99 cross-type points
- 10 fps shooting for up to 200 shots (lossless compressed 14-bit Raw to XQD card)
Because of these two features in particular, the reviewers stated that this camera would be great for action, sports, and wildlife. YouTube videos featured the D500 shooting those very subjects. So whenever you read a forum post, visited and photography blog, or a YouTube channel that’s all the folks talked about; action, sports, and wildlife photography.
As a result forum posts started showing up like these two recent ones:
- “I’ve read online that the dynamic range on the D500 is really impressive and that it doesn’t struggle with high ISO. I also do a lot of sports photography but I’d love to know if this camera is a good all rounder as well. I eventually would love to dabble in weddings so I’d love to hear anyone’s experience with portraits and weddings with this bad boy.”
- “I know the D500 is touted as a sports/wildlife camera, but I would like to lighten my load a bit for hiking and was looking for some input on landscape use for this camera. Everyone who reviews this camera mentions outstanding image quality, so why wouldn't it be good for landscape use? Full frame is great, but my D810 w/24-70 f2.8 is a monster.”
I didn’t respond to either of these posts, but if I had my snarky response would have been 1) No, you cannot shoot portraits, weddings, or landscapes with this camera. On page 639 of the User Manual it states that shooting portraits, weddings, or landscapes will void your warranty.
Just because a certain camera body has certain features that make it excellent for a specific subject, does not mean that it cannot be used for other subjects. Where this myth came from? Marketing departments of the camera manufacturers? YouTube videos? Photography web sites?
Has what passes for photographic knowledge today sunk so far from reality that these kind of questions are popping up? (And I’m just getting started on what I see passes for photographic knowledge today. After all I am a Grumpy Old Photographer. “Get that tripod off my lawn punk!”)
Look, you can shoot anything with the D500. You can shoot anything with any modern DSLR or Mirroless camera. The belief that certain features make a camera suitable for certain subject and not for other subjects is bunk.
I’ll leave you with some photographs I took with one of my DSLRs. All images were taken with the same camera.
Yeah, but you had to use a different lens for each one!! :)
ReplyDeleteYou must have been reading my mind since I am again thinking about the D500 since the refurbished body is on sale for $1500. My dilemma however is that I need a new snowblower for next year - about $1000. Really would like both. Therefore, how fast do you think the D500 could remove the snow from my driveway?
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