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Thread: Existential musings, SLM's neurotic fun ride, also should I bother with a full frame DSLR?

  1. #1
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    Existential musings, SLM's neurotic fun ride, also should I bother with a full frame DSLR?

    I'd like to take more photos. I have a somewhat flexible policy of never deleting any photos I take, even the bad ones. It's born out of a recognition that every time the shutter cycles it's capturing a time and a place that isn't ever going to be replicated again. Isn't holding onto that worth a few small megabytes of disk space? All of my photos get redundantly copied onto a pair of 1TB hard drives. They have over 10000 photos on them just from my current camera. Surely there are a lot of photos on there that I don't really want and I'll never look at them. What will happen to them? Will a time come when my children and grandchildren go through my things, find these drives, but decide that the effort to find an old computer capable of still reading them is too great, and then toss the drives in the trash or sell them at a yard sale? An entire era of memories captured, put up for sale for $50? (This will probably be more like $5 in today's money.) What happens when those drives go in a landfill? Slowly fall apart no doubt. If a future civilization unearthed the hard drive platters, even if they could detect the magnetic aberrations in them, surely they wouldn't be able to decode and understand the .jpg photo format, could they? Then what? A collection of moments in time captured but locked away in a format completely undecipherable by anyone.

    It seems like I make the mistake of assuming that eras of the past all looked in person like their photos did. But people of the early 20th century didn't live in sepia tone, did they? I wish I could better grasp that the people of that time weren't as foreign as they look, aliens existing in a world of off-whites and tans. It makes me wonder if we've achieved a sort of photographic holy grail. Do our photos represent our view of the world yet? Will future generations look at what we've captured and understand what our lives looked like, understand how rich they are? Will they understand us? Or will we be another era of captured moments that look somehow foreign to our descendants?

    I guess it's naive to assume the former. I imagine at best people will someday look at our photos and be shocked at how flat and two dimensional they are. When people are looking at their holographic displays, current photos will be shown on a lifeless, two dimensional plane, while all current content will take advantage of all three dimensions. We'll look back at the viewer of the photos and seem just as aloof as people from 100 years ago look to us now. Our gasoline fueled vehicles will look just as unreal when represented in a flat photo as Model Ts look to us when shown in the drab color scheme of a moment in time captured by monotone technology. Or worse, will the proliferation of inferior cell phone cameras give future citizens the impression that our world was full of noise? Will they think our lives were blurry and poorly lit?

    I'm continually tortured by the cruelly imperfect nature of the way that our brains neurologically store memories. The things I want to hang onto the most in my mind are the first things to go, like a VHS movie you've watched too many times. There are some scientific truths about the brain I wish I didn't know. I'd link you to them, but I would have to give the disclaimer that your life is better off without these facts in it, which ultimately would only entice you to learn these forbidden things even more.

    This is why I need photos, at the very least. But the question becomes, how big of an image sensor do you need to have to capture an experience and do it justice? Will more megapixels let you time travel any closer back to that perfect point in time? How many thousands of dollars need to be spent in order to perfectly replicate the function of the eye, something that was effortlessly created by accident and natural selection.





    Anyway, I'm not sure if I want to stick with APS-C and start investing in lenses optimized for that sensor, or just jump ship while I haven't invested much and go full frame. I think I'd like to stick with Canon though. I just like them. The new 5DS is a 50 megapixel beast, but I can get a 5D Mark III for $1000 less, and I don't think I want to have my photos be that damn big. About 20MP seems like it should be adequate. the old 5D also has higher ISOs.
    Last edited by Sad, little man; February 26th, 2016 at 01:37 PM.

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    Way TLDR. I'd wait for the 5D Mark IV either way. You can get that or save extra money in a close out Mark III.

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    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    I've added a D750 to my cart on Amazon or BHPhoto then closed the window before buying maybe a dozen times

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    What fresh hell is this? overpowered's Avatar
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    Sony A7 series is worth looking at too. Can use Canon lenses with an adapter.

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    Corvette Enthusiast Kchrpm's Avatar
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    Photos suck at capturing memories compared to videos. Get yourself something that is full frame and also shoots at least 4K video, preferably with surround sound recording capabilities.

    So, as op said, an A7 (like this one) or, if you are satisfied with capturing things at about your own focal length in exchange for portability, an RX1.

    Then get something like this to go with it, a Dolby ProLogic-compatible surround sound mic.

    Then you're not just capturing a single instant of visual input, you're capturing the atmosphere and motion of a moment.
    Get that weak shit off my track

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    Considering buying this thing and using it on my APS-C until I get up the nerve to drop down cash on a 5D. I want the 2.8 aperture for low light shooting. Canon's equivalent lens is more expensive without image stabilization... Lame.

    http://amzn.com/B007SNP02K

    Only problem is that a 24mm focal length is not very wide on an APS-C camera.

    Yet at the same time, years later, will I look back on a wealth of photos taken at dimly lit punk shows in downtown Detroit with a strange fondness, or will they just be an ominous reflection of a dark time that has been left behind?

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    Yeah, I know, my 24-70 mark 2 is DEFINITELY lame.

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    Well, I bought the Tamron lens used from Amazon. By this time next week, I expect to be swimming in some beautiful bokeh.

    And I was sure to buy one that looks like it's actually a used lens and not just a grey market lens someone is selling new for cheap.

    Now I'm prepared to be disappointed by the less than ideal focal range on my camera, and prompted to upgrade to a 5D. I love how I subconsciously work against myself to get what I really want like this.

  9. #9
    What does the Bat say? Jason's Avatar
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    I consider myself to be a pretty big enthusiast when it comes to photography, and I've been more than fine with a crop sensor 16mp sensor, attached to good glass and a light body. The megapixel race is largely stupid, imo.

  10. #10
    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    I agree, my D300 has plenty of pixels for me 99% of the time. If you're not shooting for large print ads, or trying to make up for a lack of lens reach with cropping, you don't need much. The key is going to be low light/low noise sensors IMO. The full 35mm size with equal resolution (=larger pixels) will yield better results in that regard.

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