In the past I have written about how unimportant the tech is; I think it is fair to say that many photographers would agree that you don’t need a camera to be a good photographer, I would concur with this.

To explain.

For me, the tech is what gets in the way between what one sees and what one realises, but photography is about seeing. Yes I like cameras, I have some nice ones too, but in the main what I like about stuff is that it doesn’t get in the way.

My first proper camera was a Nikon, or a Nikkormat to be precise. I had two FT2s: one black, one chrome and four prime lenses. (28, 59, 105, 200). So I have always had Nikons (and the odd Mamiya) until I bought a Leica.

The D800E in my terms compliments the Leica M9 nicely. It is unlikely that I would need the full 36mp file size often, but, I have created large signs and billboards recently. In most conditions a Nikon with a good zoom will be faster and more flexible than the Leica and of course there are those occasions where I have to acquiesce to flash. I don’t like flash, I like prefer a good lens wide open and the shock that the camera could pull something that glows from the gloom but sometimes flash is needed.

By-the-way, I went for the ‘E’ because I couldn’t see the moire thing to be an issue for my intended use. First tests of the camera were a worry, I had heard that the camera needs to be welded to the floor to avoid the merest camera shake that would destroy any benefits from the mahoosive resolution. I like tripods less than I like flash. Out with the Manfrottos though, better but hardly fun.

So, enough of shooting the house brickwork and perplexing the neighbours, off to the real world, photographing people in a meeting. Fast moving people interacting indoors in mixed lighting: people who would not welcome 400 flashgun disturbances in a session but would otherwise forget the photographer’s presence. Armed with an older Nikon as a security blanket and my ancient but lovely 80-200 f2.8 I soon found reassurance.

Back from the session, huge file transfers done a pleasing result in Lightroom.

Most of the images were shot at f2.8, and most hand-held at ISO 1250. In some instances shutter speed was as low as 1/40 at 200mm. The shot at the top is is a tiny crop from an image I used. Deliberately non-sharpened about 1/4 of the width of the original file and hand held at 1/80 (ISO 1250). It’s not great technically but, out of the camera with little working time before being applied to the document it does a job, the customer loves the complete image.

And that is the point. We as photographers need to keep sight of the bigger picture and they don’t come a lot larger than from the D800E.

Give me a call if you want to see the results from this session.