What's happening and how do we pick up the pieces moving forward?

A stormy sunrise at Cannon Rocks in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province.

So for the last few months or longer my personal photography took a serious backseat to life in general and was limited to snapshots with my iphone. Now the best camera is the one in your hand, right?

As true as this philosphy might be, there is a real reason or two why "real" cameras are still being made. The horrible reality is that we are becoming so accustomed to cellphone imagery that we will soon not be able to appreciate a good portraiture image. I am now specifically talking about the (very improper) selection of wide-angle lenses for portrait photography.

Looking at the typical Instagram post it is easy to see pretty girl pics where feet or hands in the

foreground appear enormous. Hardly flattering!

Now please forgive me for not sharing examples. If I did I believe I would have a few angry models and offended photographers on my back in no time flat.

Is there a solution?

Of course, there always is.

Picking up from a blog post of nearly 3 years ago where I showed some macro comparisons of these same cameras. This time I will explore landscaping and possibly even some portraiture comparisons.

Nikon D700 from 2008

One of them might well be to buy an old camera and good lenses. Great lenses will outlast a number of cameras.

Let's face it, in the crazy times we live in lately not everyone can afford to buy the latest and greatest new. So why not explore options of getting into a camera system buy buying an "old" used camera?

Canon 5D Mk 1 from 2005

For my very limited commercial work I recently moved over to a Fuji system and I am loving it but even the basic camera and three lenses did not come cheap.

For the next few weeks I will be doing some tests with two "old" but very viable cameras that produce outstanding results despite their age and so-called low-megapixel sensors.

Sure, if you do high-end commercial work you will probably be forced to produce 20-30+ Megapixel images from your camera but do we really need that amount of resolution?

My vote is for definitely not.

Over the years I have learned a huge lot from other photographers. One or two of them will very openly and honestly admit that they had to go back to basics on a shoestring budget because splashing out on the latest and greatest simply did not work.

So where does all of this leave me and what gives me the right to offer this advice? Probably not all that much. My commercial work is very limited and I mostly do photography for the pure enjoyment of getting out in nature. That also does not happen nearly enough.

I have been blessed over the years to sell some limited edition large format landscape prints. Some even went to international clients. Because of this I understand the importance of treating the file right from capture to print.

The above cameras I will be shooting over the next weeks have humble 12-13 Megapixel sensors. That is more than enough as I will be showing you.

So, buckle up and enjoy the ride as I get my ducks in a row to share the results with you.

Anton