[Aloha]

Anyone can be an amazing photographer - but there is a distinction between a camera nut, and a photographer, to this end, Ken Rockwell makes a really interesting point:

"You need to learn to see and compose. The more time you waste worrying about your equipment the less time you'll have to put into creating great images. Worry about your images, not your equipment."

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

You can guess which category I feel this fellow falls into.

I hope he got a great deal of pleasure building his system - it does look very impressive (if not downright pretty), but it doesn't make me think any more, or less of his photography.

[PStamatiou]

I am definitely of the same mindset - but it's also my hobby and I do get some fun from building a bit of an overkill system (and documenting it in detail) :) I also viewed the build as its own project - I tend to do these very long blog posts about such projects in the 12 years I've been running my website.

I started out with just the cheapest camera I could get my hands on, including working on my high school's yearbook staff in ~2000. Now that I've been working for over a decade and have some resources I pick up a few gadgets here and there for my hobbies.

[Aloha]

Awesome!

I'm still a film guy when I want to go make pretty pictures - though I've taken some killer stuff on my iPhone of all things - I dont have a good digital camera, so all of my really good cameras are still film bodies - nothing to me beats the Ergonomics of an EOS-1

At the risk of giving myself the hug of death - https://leho.blastpuppy.com/~aloha/photos/

[toomanybeersies]

It's ironic that you quote Ken there, because he is definitely in the camera nut camp.

His entire site is dedicated to cameras and lenses, virtually nothing on actually composing or photographic technique. Most of his photos are generic family holiday snaps, particularly his newer photos.

[Aloha]

Camera geeks have money - and he's a businessman first, photographer second. ;-)

[Sevrene]

Interesting point! I admit that spending a lot of time worrying about equipment with little or no direct effect on the work or how you produce it is over the top — but worrying about equipment makes a lot of sense for any creator and especially in photography. Different lenses and different cameras will have a huge impact on your final photograph. Changing your tools affects your work flow and your final photograph as a result. Swapping cameras or lens will obviously affect your final image much more so than changing PC but it's still there and it is worth thinking about.