VIDEO: Spot the difference! Images from a $400 & $4,000 set up

The majority of photographers are gearheads; either self-confessed or still in denial. But how important is it to have the latest, greatest, and most expensive kit? Working professionals need reliable gear that works well under constant use, and, sometimes, challenging conditions. But what about everyone else? Is it worth shelling out all those extra dollars?

American photographer and YouTube sensation, Peter McKinnon, who has over 2.5 million subscribers to his channel, decided to perform an experiment examining the output from two cameras, with one setup costing 10 times as much as the other. Were the results of one 10 times better than the other?

McKinnon shot the two sets of images with two different camera kits from the Canon range: a 4000D and the recently released full-frame, mirrorless EOS R.

Once the images had been shot, McKinnon then showed them to a friend, a working professional, to see if he could say which gear has been used to shoot the images.

Take a look at the images below and see if you can work out which were shot with the $400 kit and which came from the $4,000 set-up.

Check out the full video below to see how you rated in the test.

McKinnon’s takeaway message: “The knowledge that you have, the eye that you have, how creative and how clever you’re going to get with it — those are the ingredients that make a great photographer.”

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