# Addicted to LR -- Too Much Camera Power -- Don't Need It



## GregJ (Mar 23, 2013)

I went to Chile recently and shot 2000 RAWs with a 7D and 10-22 EFs of every landscape imaginable and came back and spent 3 months developing every one of them in LR.  I'm going to Ecuador next month and will do the same thing, except I just gave my 7D to my son and bought a 5DIII with three incredible L lenses that I have been wanting.  I went full frame finally.  Why?  Because I can.  Do I need it?  No.  Why?  Because I only look at the pictures on a computer screen.

I have 50,000 shots on my hard drive because I have been scanning for 10 years all my slides and negatives taken in the past 40 years of bad amateur photography with cheap gear that was all I could afford as a young man.  Now I'm shooting with the best camera and lenses in the world in RAW only and developing them all in LR and look at the results on a 30 inch calibrated screen.  I never print.  Therefore I never utilize 1/10th of the power of that full frame sensor and these huge high reolution files.  But I don't care.  I'm addicted to photography and developing the RAWs in LR and staring at them on the screen.  

Maybe I should just buy the cheapest Rebel and snap away at the lowest JPEG resolution since all I ever do is look at them on a computer screen.  I occasionally get a shot that I think is awesome.  So what do I do?  I export it as a very small JPEG file dramatically down-sized to say, 350k and 840X640 and email it to my friends or kids so they can look at it on their phone or tablet.  Nothiing like discarding 95% of the pixels captured by your 9,000 dollar camera and lens combination.   It is ridiculous, but I love it, and if they come out with a more powerful camera and mega-monster full-frame sensor that captures 800 MB files, I will buy it.  Why?  Because I can.  Do I need it?  No.     

I remember 20 years ago looking at my Kodakrome slides on huge screens and thinking how awesome it was.  Now I carry around the best gear in the world to take shots that people look at on their I phones.  I haven't printed a picture in the last 6 years and I have 50,000 of them sitting on my 3 terrabyte hard drive taken in 55 countries and a lifetime of bad shooting with bad equipment.  There are some good ones in there, but there are also a lot of bad ones taken with cheap manual cameras and kits lenses in the 1970s and scanned in recently as 4000 dpi, 16 bit, 75 MB files to look at on a computer screen and never to be printed. 

Now I'm addicted to RAW and developing them all in LR.  And knowing what I know now I'll never trust National Geographic again, because I can take a mediocre landscape RAW and make it look 10 times better in 2 minutes with LR than my best Kodochrome slide 20 years ago.  

No question -- just an observation.


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## erro (Mar 23, 2013)

I have pretty much the same situation, only I'm using a Nikn D700. Do I really need it? No? Do I like it? Yes! Can I afford it? Yes.

So? Why shouldn't we do what we want?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 23, 2013)

Big +1 from me too. I get the occasional conscience twinge when I think about how much money my hobby has cost, but then I think "what the heck!".


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## clee01l (Mar 23, 2013)

Greg I had a difficult time wrapping my mind around a 36mp full frame D800 for the same reasons. I had a Pentax that I was happy with.  But it's limitations were exactly the same as the reasons that I wanted to grow my hobby.  Most accessories and lenses by third parties are for Nikon and Canon. I wanted a GPS and 300 mm was the longest Pentax prime I could manage. 

Your 5DmkIII will force you to grow as a photographer. The D800 did that for me.  Join a photography critique group (Flickr), join a local camera club. These will force you out of your comfortable corner. I'm now doing Monochromes and pushing myself to master that digitally. Once I got my first roll of Kodachrome, I saw no need for B&W ever again. Yet here I am. My camera club did that to me. I'm also printing images again for that same camer club's monthly competition. And I'm using everyone of those 36mp too!

Old men are entitled to new toys. You've earned it.


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## pdxrjt (Mar 23, 2013)

I have a similar problem with photography (although without your gear list) in that I have capacity way beyond what I will ever use.  Fortunately, it didn't break the bank and I do enjoy it.  Had the same problem with music.  There is a 6'1" grand piano sitting in my living room and a lot more electronic gear (good mics, synths etc.) sitting in my computer room/den/library.  I've come to say "So what?"---- it is my hobby and I enjoy it.  I have managed to scale back a bit on some of my expenditures, but still like learning about and trying out new gear, ideas, techniques.  Relax, you only live once.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 23, 2013)

...and you can't take it with you.   :nod:

Hal


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## GregJ (Mar 23, 2013)

Hal P Anderson said:


> ...and you can't take it with you.   :nod:
> 
> Yep, and I guess it is better than those kids with the crotch-rocket bikes that they hock every last cent on to buy and then race at 120 mph through the streets of San Antonio.  Sometimes it sounds like an Indy track around my condo.  But there was this one time where I was backing up to frame a shot in Canada and almost fell down a 1000-foot cliff.  I'm living on the edge....


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## Jimmsp (Mar 23, 2013)

I think it is a virus that is circulating around. It tends to strike a few of us, never leaves, and is barely treatable.
I am thinking that if I buy a bigger monitor it might ease some of the pain.


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## Brad Snyder (Mar 23, 2013)

Well, ditto. 

I've been very fortunate that I've been able to sell enough photos, that this particular hobby is free (maybe even pays for a weekly beer).

It's not my equipment that's holding me back. Just as a new guitar won't give me magical hands, a new 50Mp, 64bit sensor, won't suddenly give me 'the eye'. 

I've been thinking along the lines of Greg, the OP, for a while now. Just exactly how many pixels are required for a National Geographic center-spread?


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## Kiwigeoff (Mar 24, 2013)

I've moved this thread to The Lounge as it is (in my modest opinion) chatty rather than informative and the Lounge is the appropriate place for chat!!
If there is disagreement with this move just sing out!!


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## sizzlingbadger (Mar 24, 2013)

Well I just had a bit of a clear out with my gear. I've sold my D700 and a load of Nikon lenses and replaced it all with a Fuji X-E1 mirrorless camera. Its actually been a bit of a revelation for me, I no longer have to lug all that crap around and I still get great photos. Have some extra $$$ left over in the bank too


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## kbfoot (Mar 28, 2013)

Suggestion:
Siphon off a little dough, buy a nice printer like an Epson 3880 or equivalent, and make some prints.  It's not the exactly the same as projecting the old Kodachromes on the wall at 40X enlargement, but you'll see your shots in a new medium.  You could always peddle off the printer at a modest loss if you didn't want to bother in the end.


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## 1361 (Apr 10, 2013)

I think this describes most hobbyist photographers. I have always wanted to get one of those large flat screen TVs and have my pictures rotating to display in my house


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## Stumbl (Apr 10, 2013)

I just love this whole thread


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