Wanted to drop by and say thanks to those who commented on my grandmother.
Just to insure that it wasn't a ride to get anybody to feel sorry for me, I wanted to clarify that the reason I posted the image was that it's one of those pictures that is of course important to all relatives that love her. Over the last couple of years I've had several nice inkjets on Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper sent to more distant relatives, and thanks to a good friend I've had copper plate photogravures made up to more closely related relatives and loved ones. It has touched those who didn't know her too.
What immediately comes to mind is that I was very pleased that I had a camera with me at the time, one that I know well, and one where I know what to expect. While I was a bit lucky to get her in such a calm state of mind, and not shaking (Parkinson's disease), I felt comfortable with what I was doing. Also consider that this was a portrait made with a wide angle lens, which many say isn't ideal.
This picture actually helped me overcome some of my own ideas that 'bigger negatives are better', that a certain brand of camera is necessarily better, or that some fancy lens might contribute something of value to a photograph, when it's all about execution, technique, and practice.
With all that said, it's inevitable that somebody will like one camera better than another, and some are most definitely more intelligently designed than others. I have to say, though, that I rarely met a camera I didn't like. The ones I tend not to like are the ones that don't perform well mechanically, like my POS Holga that wouldn't stop scratching the film, or an old Zeiss Ikon that insisted on leaking light through the back no matter what I did.
( Presuming of course that some are now! )
