Your comment falls into the engineering superiority trap. Yes, one needs to understand how camera (or many other instruments) works, but only because different tweakable parameters are not completely orthogonal.
> The camera is the artistic instrument of cinema and using it well requires understanding how to leverage lens selection, aperture, shutter speed, exposure, focal plane, lighting, framing, etc to achieve the desired artistic outcome.
This is the key sentence. If you had a digital camera that perfectly mimicked output of film camera, you could take a "filmmaker" from 70s, give them the digital camera and they will successfully create a film of equal quality. Yes, one needs to understand that e.g. focal length changes depth of focus, but it's all about controlling the output. One does not really need to understand the inner workings of a system, all they need to understand is which parameters affect output in what way.
>> there is probably not much of a predictable relationship between knowledge of how the camera works and quality of the resulting film.
Yes, usually some technical understanding is required to understand the relationships and use them well. However, even perfect understanding of inner workings of a tool does not translate to being a good craftsman. There is some overlap, but that's it. One still needs to understand the filmmaking part well to make a good film. Hence, the observation that technical knowledge does not translate to film quality - it's a required, but not sufficient criterion.
> all they need to understand is which parameters affect output in what way.
Yes. That was the point I was trying to make and after reading the responses, I see I didn't make it as clearly as I could have. I think the confusion is in the multiple ways to interpret this phrase in the original article, "knowledge of how the camera works." I thought the examples I cited (lighting, lens, aperture, etc) would make clear how I took that phrase but they didn't do so sufficiently.
I'll give an example. In the example I'll substitute violin for camera again because I think it helps to remove some of the technical nuance specific to cameras. I took "knowledge of how the violin works" to include "knowledge of how to..." apply finger pressure on the strings, rock the strings to create vibrato, use bow strikes, apply rosin - all to achieve. I did not take "knowledge of how the violin works" to mean things like: the effect of internal geometry on acoustic resonance. To me, those are "knowledge of how to build the violin" which I already said wasn't necessary to be great violinist (although the example of 'geometry -> acoustic resonance' is more 'designing a violin', I group design as part of 'building'.
I know see several people took the phrase differently when that interpretation wasn't the point I was trying to make. As a filmmaker, "knowledge of how the camera works" means knowing how to apply lighting, lens, aperture, shutter speed, etc to achieve the desired artistic result. I didn't mean "knowledge of how the camera works" in the sense of "the impact of pre-charge voltages on charge coupled devices", which to me is akin to "the effect of internal geometry on acoustic resonance" in a violin. As I said that's designing a camera/violin, which is part of "knowing how to build it" not "knowing how it works". "How it works" is simply too open to interpretation.
> If you had a digital camera that perfectly mimicked output of film camera
You must first prove it's at all possible.
And they could of course not do any of the special effects obtained by compositing images on the same film. And they would have no idea how to do that with a computer.
> If you had a digital camera that perfectly mimicked output of film camera, you could take a "filmmaker" from 70s, give them the digital camera and they will successfully create a film of equal quality. Yes, one needs to understand that e.g. focal length changes depth of focus, but it's all about controlling the output. One does not really need to understand the inner workings of a system, all they need to understand is which parameters affect output in what way.
This paragraph tells me you don't understand how cameras work, because what you said is not true. The study of photography, and from it cinematography, is FUNDAMENTALLY about understanding the relationship between light, color, and the camera. This dates back to the beginnings of photography, and is the /primary/ topic written about by many of the world's best photographers (and famously a key area of focus for Ansel Adams). Photography, and from it cinematography, is almost entirely about lighting and exposure, and it requires a deep technical understanding of the inner workings of the camera to do it at a professional level. A cinematographer working on feature length films is not an amateur recording video clips, every element of the frame affects the mood and context of the story that is being told, and controlling for light and exposure is essential and goes beyond merely adjusting settings on the camera until it looks good in the viewfinder, it requires adjusting the actual environment you are recording (e.g. artificial lighting, light control, shadowing) in conjunction with technical details of the camera system, the lens choice, and things like adjusting aperture.
To have no understanding of the basic principles of light and its relationship to the camera, which is the core principle of a camera's operation, makes it impossible to produce professional quality work.
> The camera is the artistic instrument of cinema and using it well requires understanding how to leverage lens selection, aperture, shutter speed, exposure, focal plane, lighting, framing, etc to achieve the desired artistic outcome.
This is the key sentence. If you had a digital camera that perfectly mimicked output of film camera, you could take a "filmmaker" from 70s, give them the digital camera and they will successfully create a film of equal quality. Yes, one needs to understand that e.g. focal length changes depth of focus, but it's all about controlling the output. One does not really need to understand the inner workings of a system, all they need to understand is which parameters affect output in what way.
>> there is probably not much of a predictable relationship between knowledge of how the camera works and quality of the resulting film.
Yes, usually some technical understanding is required to understand the relationships and use them well. However, even perfect understanding of inner workings of a tool does not translate to being a good craftsman. There is some overlap, but that's it. One still needs to understand the filmmaking part well to make a good film. Hence, the observation that technical knowledge does not translate to film quality - it's a required, but not sufficient criterion.