Did you just compare a manual lens to one with auto focus?

None, but I know a few who dropped theirs while taking it out the camera

Nothing major but:

Finding out there is no such thing as “compression”. I was long under the impression, that something like a 135mm can’t be replaced with cropping and a long lens can’t be replaced.

Well I was wrong. A photo with a 24mm can be cropped to look just like one from a 135mm (or more). obviously we would need enough megapixels and would need an appropriate aperture to match the look, but the “compression” would be the same.

Since then my shooting style changed. Favouring high megapixels and worrying even less about the Tele end

unfortunately, most of my non-photogrpahy friends find it rather strange to take pictures of strangers

To me it seem’s like you booked a class for professional studio (portrait) photography, without wanting that.

While everybody has their on technique, the points he made are very valid.

1. Reason for that is, that in a studio, there is no background to be blurred, so there is no real advantage of the wide aperture. since you are in the studio, you have enough lights to compensate. Using smaller aperture like F5.6 or higher, results in sharper images. Of course if you know that you want something blurry, you can shoot wide open, but that is rather untypical for studio work
2. use what works for you. he is probably used to the old days, when the display was very inaccurate. There are many great photographers only using the display. if its about checking sharpness and accuracy, nothing beats tethered shooting and checking the image on a larger screen
3. well, light is king. You can get excellent shots with natural light or a single light only. Guess this class focused on getting the best possible if you have a studio to use
4. … check manny ortiz youtube channel, that guy works alone in his studio. many others as well.
5. ok i call complete BS on this. DSLRs are so heavy for me, that I start shaking almost