5.9. How Good the Equipment?

There are photographers who switch from Canon to Nikon, and back again every few years, as each company moves ahead with new technology. They are always striving to keep up with the best, but at huge financial cost and some considerable cost in getting comfortable and fast with the newest equipment. The cheapest DSLR (digital SLR) is capable of wonderful images, as are a number of the higher-end consumer compact digital cameras. The quality of the image goes up ever so slowly while the cost of the camera rises exponentially. I don't regret purchasing my Canon 1Ds2, as there are times when stitching is impractical due to subject movement, wind, or speed, and the large prints I am able to produce with the camera are something I can sell.

On the other hand, unless you are already selling big prints (24 × 36 inch), just what the heck are you going to do with such large images? Do you really have that much wall space? Can you really afford the $10 in ink it takes to make just one of these large prints? Of course, it's nice to be able to on occasion, just out of curiosity, but the fact is that many of the images in this book were made with a 6MP DSLR. And, with stitching my images, I can make prints that are more than big enough for 99% of my purposes (never mind someone who isn't selling).