Perfect Gear Goes Against Your Memory

The argument for better gear is seductive because simple: get more sensitive sensors, better autofocus, faster lenses and motors, and you’ll produce better photographs. The problem is that “better” assumes the goal is optical accuracy. Accuracy, in fact, is exactly wrong. Visual accuracy is not the point Memory research, starting with Bartleson’s 1960 study on memory colours of familiar objects and extended since to shapes, scenes, and spatial boundaries, establishes something inconvenient for anyone invested in high-fidelity photography: we don’t remember what we saw. When you remember something, your brain gives you an improved version. Colours drift toward more saturated. Grass is remembered as more green, not just light green. Scenes are remembered as more complete and meaningful than they actually were. Shapes become cleaner, sharper, and more archetypal than they really were. Brewer and Treyens showed in 1981 that we even remember objects that were never present, as long as they…