Re: IMC and other camera aids

[Zolt Levay <zgl@xxxxxx>]

Interesting thoughts and discussion. Even in areas of photography most dependent on more sophisticated technology, the “production values” have increased dramatically in recent years as the technology has become more accessible; available and relatively affordable. 

For example, we’re seeing an explosion of high quality astrophotography, with the availability of numerous sophisticated, dedicated cameras and a wide variety of high quality optics, automation, telescope mounts, control devices, software, etc. It’s now not that hard to get what I might describe as “Hubble quality” (qualitatively, though still nowhere near the same resolution) astrophotos from most back yards, albeit with the investment of several thousand dollars and the time and effort to understand how to use it.  

Seems like it used to be, a number of decades ago (back when I got into astronomy and photography) amateurs might get interested in astronomy and photography and get inspired to try taking photos through their telescopes (which was pretty challenging back in those film days). Nowadays I think folks see lots of nice astrophotos online and think, “hey, I can do that.” They seem to know more about the equipment than what they are photographing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — just an observation. 

Zolt Levay

On Jul 6, 2021, at 3:23 PM, andpph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:



IMC etc.

You often hear that "You must have a good camera your pictures are so good!" and "we" think to ourselves "wow, that cook has a great frying pan his food is so good" ... NOT! However .... I confess that regardless of composition and similar factors, the current cameras sure improve the technical quality of photographs made by the masses. I can't focus fast enough or reliably enough when subjects are moving (like in flying bird photography). Also my hands are not as steady as is sometimes required. In short Image Motion Compensation is a fantastic aid.

I was making photographs from a rocking sailboat of other boats on the water. Some with AF but no IMC and others with AF but with IMC. The former were mostly unusable.

Bird photography and photography from rocking sailboats or similar is sure a lot easier with IMC and probably a boon to birders and nature photographers all over. Just like there is today a proliferation of photographs (phone camera's impact) IMC and long fl zoom lenses have significantly multiplied the number of successful images made by relatively inexperienced photographers.

Sorry for some of the disjointed thoughts in the post ... just thinking out loud. 

Andy