Jax2, your point is well taken. I should have said something like "Using a manual camera can teach a person a lot about lighting, etc..."
I am in absolute agreement with your statement regarding people who buy cameras, computers, audio equipment, bikes, cars, etc. loaded with features that are often mistakenly equated with better results (or that he/she, simply by association, will somehow be 'better'). The potential certainly may be there, but key is how the thing is used.
In the field of music, I've witnessed the following phenomenon more than once: A professional string player will buy an expensive instrument (even a good quality bow can easily cost five or six thousand dollars) which is clearly superior to the one they played previously. For a while, perhaps a few months, that player will sound 'better', but after a while they slowly slip back into old habits--the challenge and novelty of the new instrument has waned--and they end up sounding very much the same as they did before. Their only growth is in their debt.
Like computers and cameras, musical instruments are inanimate tools. Their real value is in their use.
Sorry Cdc (didn't you have a question a while back?) but some interesting issues have arisen. Then again, isn't that what can happen in forums...
Nick
I am in absolute agreement with your statement regarding people who buy cameras, computers, audio equipment, bikes, cars, etc. loaded with features that are often mistakenly equated with better results (or that he/she, simply by association, will somehow be 'better'). The potential certainly may be there, but key is how the thing is used.
In the field of music, I've witnessed the following phenomenon more than once: A professional string player will buy an expensive instrument (even a good quality bow can easily cost five or six thousand dollars) which is clearly superior to the one they played previously. For a while, perhaps a few months, that player will sound 'better', but after a while they slowly slip back into old habits--the challenge and novelty of the new instrument has waned--and they end up sounding very much the same as they did before. Their only growth is in their debt.
Like computers and cameras, musical instruments are inanimate tools. Their real value is in their use.
Sorry Cdc (didn't you have a question a while back?) but some interesting issues have arisen. Then again, isn't that what can happen in forums...
Nick

