In photography frustration is part of the package, but too much of it can make one crazy. I should know. I am perpetually frustrated by lack of opportunity and lack of equipment. Every hobby that I have ever had has come with its share of frustration. Whatever you do in the realm of hobby requires gear, tools or material sundries, including fine instruments that all cost money. I have left a trail of hobbies that were abandoned because of lack of funds or great difficulty in obtaining essential materials.
Frustration does stimulate creativity. When anything comes too easily because you have and everything you need at your whim and disposal then you probably don’t manage to learn as much. Working with marginal equipment means you need to try harder and innovate. In fact, some neophytes purchase superb gear without even knowing what is most desirable. Large sums spend on the wrong thing because of an underlying misunderstanding of the basics of the hobby.
Shooting planets with a bridge camera sporting an enormous zoom ratio may seem like just the thing because the maximum magnification is so impressive. The magnification, while important, is not the main requirement for this kind of photography. Celestial targets demand high resolution and that feature only comes with a large diameter objective lens, or mirror. The small diameter of a bridge camera’s zoom lens cannot deliver the resolving power needed. A 400mm f4 lens has a 100mm objective lens, a 500mm f4 has a 125mm lens, while a 600mm f4 has a 150mm lens diameter. So, although these three lenses have the same speed and comparable magnification, the bigger lens is sharper, has a greater resolving power. The bigger the objective lens the higher the cost, just like the analogy of rapidly escalating cost as the sensor size is increased. Is it any wonder frustration arises when the gear available is just not able to do the required task.
