Knowing where to put your money matters when it comes to camera gear. Most people mistakenly assume a great camera body guarantees great results, but the truth is far different.
Coming to you from Scott Choucino with Tin House Studio, this insightful video ranks camera equipment from most crucial to least essential, based on real-world testing and experience. Choucino stresses the importance of modifiers above everything else. Good modifiers, such as high-quality softboxes, significantly shape the outcome of your shots more than anything else. Surprisingly, even the lighting itself takes a backseat compared to modifiers. Choucino emphasizes this with a practical example: a great modifier paired with even a modestly priced light produces far better images than a high-end light combined with an inferior modifier. Considering how much influence modifiers have on your lighting, investing more in this equipment is the most strategic choice you can make.
Choucino also highlights that your lighting equipment, while secondary to modifiers, is still critical. Good lights bring out the nuances in your images and ensure consistency and reliability. Yet, he wisely advises against overspending on lighting at the expense of modifiers. The logic is straightforward: a slightly less expensive light combined with a superior modifier outperforms a costly light with a subpar modifier. Next in line after lighting comes the lens. Choucino asserts that lenses today are generally excellent, especially compared to past decades, but there are still noticeable differences. Investing in reliable, quality lenses—primes or high-quality zooms—yields meaningful improvements in sharpness and image clarity.
Software makes its appearance as the next critical factor. According to Choucino, selecting the right editing platform significantly impacts your workflow and the final look of your photographs. He specifically points out the differences between Lightroom and Capture One, clearly preferring the latter due to superior results and ease of use. The same logic extends to video editing, where DaVinci Resolve notably surpasses Adobe’s offerings. It's a subtle reminder that your editing process can transform good images into outstanding ones.
Interestingly, Choucino ranks camera bodies at the very bottom, arguing that almost any recent camera—from around 2008 onwards—will perform adequately. This ranking flips conventional wisdom on its head since most budgets disproportionately favor expensive camera bodies. Instead, Choucino encourages prioritizing equipment with a more direct and immediate impact on image quality, particularly modifiers and lighting setups. He attributes this misallocation of budgets to persuasive marketing and flashy specifications, elements that camera bodies readily offer. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Choucino.
