Well, now von Tharau is on thin ice, you might think. True, but it has to be said: Sometimes photographic subjects take on religious overtones. Here are the bestsellers.

Original or third-party lenses

Quite a few, mostly self-proclaimed experts, believe that usable photos can only be taken with original lenses. Because they are simply more expen… er, better. Apart from the fact that this is not necessarily true: Do these experts really believe that you can actually see the difference in quality in the real existing photo? 90% of all photos that see the light of day are not larger than 10×15 cm… You could also take a photo with a bottle bottom in front of the camera! However, if you only ever photograph Siemens stars or other test charts, like the experts mentioned several times already, yes, you could possibly see a difference in quality. Especially if you display the actual pixels on the monitor.

MFT, APS-C or Full-frame format

Some people believe that a photographic life without the holy grail of a full-frame sensor is unthinkable, or at least not worth living. But the smaller sensor has many advantages. The camera and lenses are smaller, lighter and cheaper. And the crop factor is especially good for wildlife photographers, who no longer have to run around with huge, heavy and sinfully expensive 500 mm or 600 mm telephoto lenses that scare the rabbits. And the image quality? Well, beyond ISO 3200 or 6400, the large sensors naturally show their advantages. Especially if you display the actual pixels on the monitor.

And by the way, 90% of all photos that see the light of day are… oh, I think I mentioned that already.

SLR or mirrorless camera

Yes, SLRs are big, heavy, impractical dinosaurs, and as we all know, they will eventually die out. And many mirrorless cameras have useless viewfinders and way too small batteries. And most of them don’t even look sexy.

But you can take good and bad photos with both. And you can’t even tell which type of camera they were taken with.

Manual exposure mode

Of course, my favorite photo-religious topic can’t be left out. Another holy grail: the manual exposure mode M. Yes, yes, sometimes there is no other way, for example when you are using a studio flash unit. Do you have a studio flash unit? Well, I am of the opinion that the “M” stands for “masochist mode”. If you like to make life difficult for yourself and want to turn a lot of knobs, you use M. Everyone else uses Aperture or Shutter Priority. With these modes you can do (almost) everything. Or as Rainer always says:

Anyone who has understood the basics of photography will need the manual exposure mode only in a few exceptional cases.

And Finally

Yes, and then there is of course the question Canon or Nikon… But I think you can already guess how I feel about it.

Yours truly Louise von Tharau

Disclaimer: The articles in the section “Louise’s World – Waddled Up” do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editorial staff