There is a lot of hubbub in the photo community over an elusive Canon 5D and whether it's real or not. My question is, who cares?!?

Over at the Canon DPReview.com forums, there is a lot of talk about a supposedly new Canon 5D or 2D coming out from Canon soon. The trouble with this is it resembles a group of high school girls talking about who's dating who instead of a serious forum about photography.

Now don't get me wrong, let me state that there are A LOT of good photographers on the DPReview forums, however, it boggles my mind of the importance placed on equipment. Especially when there are already very capable cameras on the market from a number of companies.

To a point, equipment matters, but if all photographers do is chase the next greatest camera, what's the point? I have to say one advantage that film has over digital is that film cameras don't become obselete as quickly and photographers really had to concentrate on taking better pictures.

With digital though, the emphasis is placed on the equipment, Photoshop and all the tech jargon that goes along with shooting digital today. We spend just as much time discussing about RAW techniques than we do with darkroom chemical formulations. Which is fine but what I loved about the darkroom is that it was a separate space. Now, we have our portable "darkrooms" right on a laptop or on our desktops at home, the office or wherever and that separation has blurred to the point where we spent almost all of our time on the computer.

As I said before in an article for Publish.com, photographers are being pulled in more directions than ever thoughts possible. For the independent photographer, it's no longer just about taking the pictures and running a business but also becoming a computer/tech guru that has to know hardware. software, networking and etc. When does it stop?

I have to admit for a while I fell into this trap, religiously keeping up on the latest equipment while my shooting started to ever dwindle. It's a subtle trap because the equipment is so alluring and beautiful to a point. I started buying more magazines with a tech focus than a photo focus. Losing track of photographers that did inspire me and missing out on new ones that could show me something different.

Hence why I love being around people who aren't pro photographers. I have a friend who is a programmer by trade but loves photography for what it is. A medium for expression. We decided to start a mini collective where we would pick a theme and start shooting for a set amount of time. Then we will post our pictures on Flickr and discuss them.

I think doing more things like this is healthy for photographers. Back to basics has always worked for me in a number of situations, whether it be playing drums or getting over writers block, It strips all the complications and "noise", simply bringing you back to where it all began.