Lots of people spend lots of time worrying about cameras. I have news for them: your camera doesn’t matter. Over the years this has been repeatedly iterated in blogs and on camera mogul’s web sites, yet people are still suckered into the festival of consumerism surrounding digital cameras.

The truth is, though, that much of the time, I make some of my most inspired images with some of my least expensive hardware, just because I am tired of carrying the big, heavy pro gear and just want to have fun and create something I feel is artistic. I cite as one example my Minolta DiMage 7i, a camera that dates back nearly a decade, with which I am still able to create images that move me.

But I did use the word “proof” in the title, so here it is. My friend Robert Stinson is going through one of the most spectacular photographic renaissances of his life, and the images he is making are nothing short of inspired. The thing is, all of his digital SLR cameras have bit the dust for one reason or the other, and he is making these amazing images with a point-and-shoot, the Panasonic DMC-LZ7. Check it out if you still won’t take my word for it: his web site is imageer.net.