Once upon a time, I was enthused about photography, enough so that I got a Sony Alpha 6000 when they first came out. I’m not horrible at photography; I consider myself ‘semi professional’ since I have been paid for some photos I have taken. Others I permitted use for in academic publications at no cost.
While I was out with friends a few weekends ago, I encountered a professional photographer, someone whose work I know and respect. We talked a bit about cameras, and then I griped about how I bought a Sony Alpha 6000, and the very next year the upgraded camera used different lenses – and I just never bothered after that. It’s true. And for a while I beat the snot out of that Alpha. It was fun, but then when a DSLR gets orphaned for lenses a sense of, “why bother” permeated the phoographic aspect of my soul.
Imagine my surprise when I was agreed with.
I did the image at the top of this post with a Samsung S22 Ultra, demonstrating it’s ‘nightography’ ability which seems to be a multiple lense HDR on low lit aspects of the image. It’s nifty, cool and… relatively inexpensive on something I have to upgrade every few years anyway. A phone.
It seemed intuitive that the standalone cameras would have decreased in cost while increasing in value, yet when I did a quick perusal on Amazon.com I was quickly disappointed. The cameras I would consider buying are over $2,000. With how quickly my camera and lenses found their way to antiquity, I simply don’t see spending that much to be relegated to a museum that quickly. It’s ridiculous for someone who is semi-professional if one gauges that the camera should pay for itself and pay toward another before it becomes outdated. It’s not worth it. Using two sticks to start a fire with your wallet seems much more understandable.
So, for now, I’m done with stand alone cameras in much the same way I stopped getting cable television with my internet access, or when I stopped having a landline when I got a mobile phone. I just don’t see it unless you are in a position that pays to have the cameras replaced that quickly and expensively.
The way things are looking, that’s not happening soon.
I found myself this morning dusting off the Sony Alpha 6000 and making sure it was charged because of an event that I had RSVP’d for on a whim. I don’t even know that I’ll need it, but the Trinidad and Tobago Photography Society (which shares the acronym TTPS, with the distinction that while both shoot targets, one tends to leave them alive and unwounded).