What camera should I buy?

Not long ago, a young art student here at the University asked me for my opinion of what camera she should buy. I was flattered and frankly, a little intimidated. Did she actually consider me an authority? After all, I'm a student too. In fact, her question seemed doubly odd given that I had seen some her work and it was very impressive. For example, she had recently completed a series of traditional black and white nudes only to find when she developed the negatives, she'd experienced some sort of light leak or other contamination and had been left with negatives that anyone else would have simply thrown out. But instead of giving up, she printed the compositions she liked the best and then - in an act of artistic courage - took a pair of scissors and scrawled intricate designs directly on to the prints. The results were spectacular. I wish I had that kind of genius.

Ordinarily, my response to her question would have been to point out that she already had everything she needed to make great art. But, her question that day was specifically about digital cameras. And, I'll admit, with new technology coming at you at light speed, there is a lot of confusion. But before I tell you what my response was, let me tell you a short story.

I wish I could take credit for this, but, I'll share it anyway. A photographer was sitting in a sidewalk cafe with an art director, showing the art director his portfolio. Meanwhile, the restaurant owner happens by and catches a glimpse of one of the images and asks the photographer if he, too, can see the portfolio. "Well, of course!" replied the photographer. When the photographer had finished showing his work, the cafe owner exclaimed, "Man! These are fantastic! You must have a really nice camera."

The cafe owner went back in to his restaurant, the photographer and the art director finished their lunch and when they were done, the photographer went back in to the cafe and found the owner sitting in a booth, pouring over some papers. The photographer stepped forward and said to the cafe owner, "Before I left I just wanted to let you know that we had a wonderful lunch today. The food was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. You must have some really great pots and pans back there."

I love that story because it illustrates a point so often missed about equipment: your camera doesn't matter. There are two kinds of photographers in this world, artists and gear heads. There are the very few who want to talk about art, seeing the light, and being in the moment. Then there are the remaining 98% who want to jaw-jack about equipment. My advice is, stay away from the latter. They'll only cost you precious time and money and you'll never learn anything from them. If you don't believe me, read this:

http://www.brucepercy.com/blog/?cat=22

So, what was my answer to the young woman's question? Simple: your camera doesn't matter, just get one that you can use without having to think too much about it. In my experience, the more bells and whistles my camera has, the more time I spend fiddling with it instead of looking. In the early days of digital, when the technology was new (early to mid-90s for example) megapixels probably made a difference. But today, even the lowest cost DSLR will pack enough image quality to satisfy just about anyone. And they're cheap, too.

I won't get down in the weeds on the issue of megapixels. That's been done already by more knowledgeable people than me, here. Let me just say that standing around comparing megapixels is not a lot different than comparing penis size. There, I said it.