Despite the collection of stuff listed above, photography is emphatically not about equipment. Photography is about light and the ability to capture what you see in your minds eye.

Equipment is merely a means to an end i.e tools, good or bad, that allow you to make photographs. Equipment freaks are deluded and brand tribal members the most deluded of all. Remember the old saying “Buying a Nikon does not make you a photographer, it simply makes you a Nikon owner”.

Is Zeiss better than Leica or Nikon better than Canon? Don’t know and don’t care - they are simply different. Shoot out comparisons are just so much tosh. As you can see I prefer cameras without mirrors (non reflex cameras) and that use film, but that is me, you must choose whatever works for you.

There is another old saying that goes “Whatever people lack in ability, they make up for in equipment”. I wonder how much lack of ability my list above reveals?

Photography comes from the Greek; photon = light and graphus = drawing, thus drawing with light. That drawing is made by lenses, so invest in a few good lenses and really get to know them and how they draw. Do not waste money on gadget laden, expensive camera bodies - the complexity of driving them will get in the way. The costly extras will be mostly unused and serve to confuse. Spend your money on quality lenses.

Although I own a couple of flashguns, they rarely gets used as I much prefer working with available light using fast lenses and fast colour negative film.

For me, digital imaging is a very different medium to film photography with a completely different look and feel that is less true to real life than film. To paraphrase Kodak:

“Film has the powerful ability to accurately emulate mood and tone, bringing a picture to life. Because film sees light much the same way as the human eye, the captured photograph feels natural and real. The unrivalled dynamic range of film allows the photographer to capture more detail from the brightest highlights to the deepest shadows giving faithful colour reproduction and a wealth of detail that simply wouldn't exist with other formats. The look of film speaks for itself.”

When I need full frame digital I simply use scanned film; quick, clean, easy and (using 48 bit colour scans) of a very high quality. I do own a compact digital camera which I use mostly for illustration work (pictures of my real cameras and lenses for putting on this site for example), for which purpose it is convenient and where image quality is of secondary consideration.

Finally, my best photographs seem to be made when I am using a camera completely subconsciously where the camera simply “gets out of the way”, hence my use of rangefinders.

Photography is emphatically not about equipment

Zeiss Ikon ZM    

Zeiss Biogon 21mm f2.8 ZM

Zeiss 21mm Finder

Zeiss Biogon 28mm f2.8 ZM

Zeiss Biogon 35mm f2 ZM 

Zeiss Planar 50mm f2 ZM

Zeiss Sonnar 85mm f2 ZM

Leica Tele-Elmar-M 135mm f4

Leitz 13.5cm Viewfinder

Kenko RF Vernier Polarisers

National PE-387S Flash

Favourite Camera System

Fujicolor Pro 400H, 800Z

Fujicolor Superia 1600

Kodak CR1/3N Batteries

Zeiss Ikon Ever Ready Case

Kata Format Q Waist Pack

Hama Pro Cable Release

Manfrotto Neotec Pro Tripod

Manfrotto Grip Ball Head

Manfrotto Tripod Bag

Canoscan 8800F