Quality of photographic equipment
Good equipment means you need to work less
If you leave all the technical details aside, that is what it is. Better equipment lets you take the picture you want with less effort.
Measurable vs Meaningful Quality
You will read many reviews that will present you numbers and have pixel for pixel comparisons. Based on these they will be able to measurably show that one set of equipment is better than something else. They will be right. However most of those numbers and comparisons will not mean that much. It is not about having the perfect equipment, it is more understanding your equipment, knowing its advantages and limitations.
What is bad equipment?
It is probably easier to explain what is bad equipment, to understand which qualities you should actually care about more in your equipment. I will use some examples to make a point, but in none of these examples do I want to make a statement that equipment A is better than equipment B. They are just used as examples, but I realized using actual names makes the discussion easier to follow.
Equipment you do not carry
The most important quality for your equipment is presence. If you are not carrying it with you when you need it, even the best equipment is not useful. In my personal experience, these are the general reasons:
- Weight: This is a bit beyond the actual weight in grams, it is whether or not you are interested in carrying that weight for whatever you expect out of that equipment. This is actually quite subjective, what I am willing to carry around with me is not the same as someone else. Here is an example, I am going to a half day hiking trip where I expect to take pictures of some animals, and I need to decide between a Nikon 70-300 and a Nikon 200-500. Some will say, doubling the weight of the equipment (lens + camera) is OK for the 200mm of extra focal length, others could say, I can sacrifice a bit the longer end, let me carry less.
- Additional value to your day: There are overlaps between what photographic equipment do for you. Let's just take an example, and say for some reason we already are carrying a Nikon 24-70 with us on a trip. Does it make sense to also take, for example, a Nikon 50 with us? In this case, the Nikon 50 is a small light lens, so there is little to say about the weight argument, it is just that if we already have a lens that is quite good covering the focal length carrying an extra lens that does the same is probably not helping that much (the argument could be made the other way around as well).
- Equipment with technical qualities you do not like : If we are amateur photographers, our goal is to enjoy photography. And face it if something bothers you with the equipment, it will keep bothering you during the day, and you will think I knew that this equipment (is slow, heavy, not sharp, has too much distortion). Whether or not the technical blemishes are real or perceived does not really matter at this point, it is your personal opinion that matters. If you think lens A is not sharp, well guess what every time you make a picture you will be thinking, if only I had a sharp lens I could have done better. This is why that equipment will stay at home on your next trip.
- Special equipment:
These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.