I have just read this interesting essay by Alain Briot: Of Cameras and Art [via Haiko Hebig]. It's about good quality and tools and how many people tend to identify the two without considering the ability necessary to use the tool.

Briot's complaint is very true, but it's also a sign of our times. We live in a curious era when activities which had been reserved to professionals for centuries can be performed by a much broader range of people because these activities have suddenly become much easier thanks to new generations of digital tools.

It's true that you must be a good photographer to take good pictures, but it's also true that today anybody can take pretty decent pictures with any modern digital camera, while just a few years ago this simply wasn't the case. Digital technology improves qulity.

The same is true with graphic design, video, music, cinema and many other crafts.

From this POV the fact that an average user thinks that better tools provide better quality is natural, because it is true that for him the current tools are providing a better quality than what he was getting with the previous generation of tools.

And then, of course, there is a marketing side of it: buying expensive professional tools seems an easy way to become a professional. I might not be a better photographer because I have a big Nikon or a better guitarist because I have a Gibson but hey... it feels good :-)