What Is the Best Camera in the World?
Even in today’s world of technology, film cameras still bring fascination to most of us.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
When it comes to photography gear, there is always going to be a brand war. This war will always have funny stereotypes that normally wouldn’t apply to reality, but are part of the constant funny comments people make, mainly while interacting with photographer friends who have different systems.
There are different ways to look at this, but some of the ones I have heard go like: “Nikon users berate and troll Canon users and vice versa,” or “Sony Alpha users troll everyone,” or “Leica users simply think they are in a different league and universe,” and even “Hasselblad users just think the price of their gear makes them better than everybody else.”
However, despite the fact that sometimes those comments are aimed at joking among friends and peers, the debate sometimes feels empty: is there truly a “better” camera brand to get?
If we race cars, the fastest car or the one with the most powerful engine has more chance to win in a race. However, if the difference between the two cars is not that big, we can encounter some intangibles that will define the race: the driver’s wits and courage.
I believe the same things happens to cameras. It is my opinion that there are three great cameras in the world, and none of them have anything to do literally with any brand and everything to do with the photographer. Some may agree or disagree with me, but again, it is what I believe.
Camera #1
The first great camera that you have is your eye and heart. Try as you may, but there is no doubt that without a good eye, there is little chance you will be able to compose, angle, and/or capture the photograph in the right moment. You also need to have the heart to capture the emotion or at least to click when something you see makes you feel emotion.
No matter what people say, this camera should ALWAYS be with you, no matter that the physical camera is, whether a full-frame camera, a cropped-sensor camera, a point-and-shoot camera, or your phone.
You may be lucky or wealthy enough to get your hands on the latest Canon EOS R1, and still render mediocre photos because 1: you don’t have the eye, and 2: you don’t have the heart. Photography, we must all understand, is less about cameras and more about the gut and talent of the person manning it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be admired at the captures but some of the greatest of all time, many of whom never knew about the digital camera.
Maybe, just maybe, the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus et al did have some of the best cameras available to their generation, but even with today’s advances very few have managed to replicate the composition and emotion behind every capture they made.
Talent matters.
Camera #1 Result: Your eye and heart
Camera #2
The second great camera that exists is the one that you master: I have witnessed and been part of the debate between Nikon and Canon, or heard the die-hard defenders of Sony, Fuji or Olympus. I have heard and read about how great the Leicas and Hasselblads are. But is there one that everyone should turn to?
My answer is: it depends. A Canon shooter for over 10 years now, after four years using a Samsung point-and-shoot and two Fujifilm FinePix bridge cameras, I can tell that I will choose Canon over and over again. I have owned eight Canon cameras in my life. Some of them have been better than others, some have been faster than others, some have come with more capabilities than others. There is no rocket science to this. I will always choose Canon not because they are “better” than the others, but because I know their system better than I know the others.
While facing a Nikon for the first time will make me literally illiterate and have to go on the Internet to master the simplest things, I only need ten minutes of hands-on experience with any Canon to make it work smoothly and effectively. In some cases, I haven’t read a single page of the manual, and I have shot at least one full year with all of them except for my 40D, which was a secondary body for some time.
Mastering a system is one step closer in the right direction. It is more than obvious that you will be able to capture better images if you know the functions and capabilities of your camera from A to Z. Pushing yourself, and your equipment, to the edge might get you even better photos than some of your peers using the same gear. But only by mastering your tool you will be able to beat others and excel. You have to know its strengths to the letter, but you also have to MASTER its weaknesses.
Camera #2 Result: The camera that you master
Camera #3
Here is when things get complicated. What happens if you don’t have your camera at hand? Well, then you turn to the best option. And to many photography purists, (myself included) when it comes to the sacrilege of becoming cell-phone addicts and we shake our heads in denial, hearing this might hurt a little. Yet, it is true, as a photographer and reporter, your phone may save your life.
I remember that the first time I toured New York City with my recently deceased friend Kathy Willens, she told me that I always had to have my cell phone at the ready. When I smiled at her in disbelief, and pointed my eyes at the camera, she simply smiled and said: “What if your camera battery dies at a pivotal moment and you miss your shot because you are changing batteries?”
That moment, I realized that photographers need to use all tools available to them to capture the right image at the right time. The truth is, it had happened before and it happened again: my camera died at a crucial moment and I had to end up using my phone.
However, it is not only a matter of the camera dying. You may have your telephoto zoom lens on, and need a quick wide angle photograph to document a moment. Do you change your lens at that moment, just for that one picture and having to put back the telephoto on, or do you use your phone? Think about it: the weather conditions might not be ideal and dust or water could get into your camera in the process.
As photographers, we prepare and anticipate, but there are moments when we cannot anticipate. If we only have one body, we choose the lens we know we are going to end up using the most, leaving any other possible photo at the mercy of other photographers or pure luck. Then, in those cases when we have the telephoto zoom lens on, the phone becomes a very acceptable “second body with a wide-angle lens” that we can use to snap those one or two photos we need without risking our whole system with weather nuisances.
That is, without counting the fact that if you are a reporter overseas and your equipment malfunctions, you will either have to borrow or rent a new gear. In some places, that is not possible, so you are left alone with your mobile device to capture everything you can on an assignment that might be life-changing for you professionally.
I had a telephoto zoom lens on my camera as I was strolling Broad Street in New Britain. Not having any time to swap lenses (I was running late), I took out my One Plus cell phone and snapped this one.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
Taking into account that today mobile phones produce very acceptable quality images, it would not be a bad idea as a professional photographer to turn that phone into just “another camera that you master”. Doing so will create an extra piece of equipment that we carry with us at all times. So, keeping the camera on the phone clean will help us save a few shots and a few hundred dollars of equipment maintenance if the weather is not friendly for lens swap.
Other photographers, refusing to give in to the cell phone craze of these days, buy a high-zoom compact camera that they keep charged and ready while shooting with a lens that might not be suited for a given specific shot. They too master this camera as much as they master their main body, and are ready to zoom in or out in order to take that shot that the lens they have on their DSLR or mirrorless will not allow them to take.
So, sometimes, the best photo will not come from the best camera you own, but from the one that was suited for the occasion, or the one that was ready for the shot.
Camera #3 Result: The camera that you have in your hands at the crucial moment
Final Thoughts
While it is true that Camera #2 and Camera #3 are important, one reality is that you can’t do anything without your heart and eye (Camera #1). Those two elements are the components of the very first camera that you need to use.
Canon EOS Rebel T2i with Ef 70-300mm lens. The idea of using a different system from Canon EOS has been waved over and over. Knowing this system and understanding what it does has helped me a little better at photography.|Credit: Reynaldo Cruz Diaz
As photographers, we need to compose without the camera, imagine the resulting photo, look and see what we can capture, and be able to then put all of that knowledge and skill into Camera #2 or Camera #3 or both.
While I will always recommend Canon to anyone asking me, my biased opinion is based on the amazing experiences I am having with this system. I will not deter anyone to get a Nikon or a Sony or a Pentax or an OM-System if that’s what they want, but I will probably not be a very reliable consulting source when it comes to the capabilities and the pros and cons.
What I did learn, though, is that having your phone or compact camera with you and ready at all times is a wise decision if you don’t want to miss that crucial moment. Maybe the image quality will not be there, maybe the colors are not what we are used to with our system camera, maybe the photo is not worth a large print… but it will exist, and it will have been taken as proof we were there and as a documenting piece of history.
