I saw the other day that NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration are going back to the moon...
I mean, I’m sure it’s nothing to do with the US elections coming up, you know, big announcements like that never really connect to anything like that, do they? Sceptic that I am! No, they’re heading back to the moon and they released information that the cameras that they’re taking with them are going to be the Nikon Z9s. Back on the first moon landing it was a Hasselblad that they used. Hasselblads even 20 years ago, were £30k cameras and back in the Sixties it would have been extortionate money for these cameras, like ridiculously super-high end to survive everything that’s going on up there.
When I first started in my career and, until the last five years or so, there was still that judgement, ‘Ooh you’re this platform,’ or, ‘You’re Canon/Nikon/whatever.’ And I feel as though the vast majority of photographers have confirmed that’s kind of gone away now, it’s just kit isn’t it? And I’m happy about that, kit’s kit and whatever you use is what you use for you and your business and it doesn’t need to be. ‘Ooh, you’re using this or using that.’
For me, knowing what equipment people use is handy because if ever I have a problem, or something’s not working properly, I can ask other photographers that use the same kit as me, and vice versa. I certainly don’t ask out of a judgement perspective, because it doesn’t make any difference really. The pictures that are produced are really nothing to do with the cameras that are stuck on the other end of the person, it’s very much the person’s eye that’s creating these things. It’s a running joke with me and Karl, he’s a Sony shooter and every time he picks up my camera, he looks completely confused; I’m exactly the same when it’s the other way.
But I’ve not seen any ‘Oooh, Nikon’s won the battle’, which it would have been a few years ago. It would've been a big story that one of the manufacturers had been chosen. I don’t think anybody’s that fussed, one way or the other, it’s just, ‘Oh well done, crack on,’ you know? Nikon produce good stuff, Canon produce good stuff, Sony produce good stuff, they’re all producing good stuff, so you’ve got to pick one of them.
So what are your thoughts, any photographers agree? Have we actually come to the end of kind of the ‘camera wars’ (that’s maybe a bit of a stretch!)? But you know what I mean. Is this grumping about cameras, is it not quite as bad as it was? I don’t know, it’s very strange, isn’t it? Let me know your thoughts.
I’ll ask Andrew Aldrin next time I see him, I’m meeting him for a cuppa over the summer and we’ll see how his Dad got on with that Hasselblad. I know Andy’s a Canon shooter, so I’ll see what he says about this one, that may be a bit of a different discussion to what I’ve just said. What do you think, Andy? Would you rather it have been your R5 going up there, than a Nikon Z9?
#nasacamera #nikonz9 #photographynews
Founder and Chief Executive Officer at MISX
1mo1000 years from now our space children will think this is how it all started