Yes, rambling may well be good to get thoughts out but they don't always come out clearly as in my case!
I use the term Pro's to mean those that are getting a shot to put food on the table, I don't and so I can see my needs are different. There's no doubt that there is added pressure to being a Pro, if I can't get the shot I need I go and have a beer and don't worry about it, I certainly can't blame the equipment I've got. Reputation and business can rest on gear choices as well as the obvious talent required, I need neither gear nor talent to enjoy what I'm doing! I can't imagine a fashion photographer asking the girls to stand still on the runway because their focussing screen is rubbish and they have managed to focus perfectly on an elbow rather than an eye with their heavy expensive manual focus lens! Those pro photographers who can make money by producing wonderful landscape images of stunning locations with their tech cams are complete gits, I hate them all! Haha!
I agree that my comment on technology may have come across negatively but I'm talking from my own view, with this D800 I have such a huge file, loads of dr, pretty advanced af and the camera can control absolutely everything, I don't even need to look through the viewfinder, just sit back and look at the screen, I can even sit in my armchair 50 feet away with an ipad and focus, take shots and everything without getting up! I don't but people must because the functions are there for a reason. I'm not saying that the skill is removed, actually I might be saying that! I'm sure with a D800 you could just stick it out the window and press the button and make something decent of it in post if you wanted. I don't see many of these tech advances useful to Pros really, I could be wrong but I can't see top flight photographers searching through the menu for the smile recognition function! I think these functions are mainly aimed at those amateurs who want the quality and the nice picture without actually having to know anything about photography. Nothing wrong with that of course, just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it.
I see lots and lots of heavily manipulated photographs on lots of forums, some good, some really dreadful to my eye, it does appear to me that to a "fair" proportion of photographers, the image captured is one thing, what you can push it to in post is an entirely different thing. Again, if it pleases you, if you like it then that is all that matters. I saw that long thread over on LL about the guy who posted his workflow on the picture of the tree, Kevin somebody. I would never have taken the shot in the first place but he did and created what he wanted in post, to my eye it was just dreadful but I don't need to like it I suppose, he didn't take it for me. Manipulation has obviously been a part of photography from the beginning, I try and use filters, that's manipulation as much as running it through some software, to me it just feels less connected doing it in front of the computer, there's no right or wrong, I'm aware of that.
Anyway, i've taken this way off topic so I apologise, I like the look of the Zeiss, i will try it and if I like it I will raid the piggy bank! I think it I can't focus it, it will because of me, not the camera or the lens.
Mat
