No contest, the photographer is always responsible for making a photo what it is. S/he is the single most influential component in photography. Gear is just that, gear, it has never taken a great photo without the photographer.
Yes, having the latest camera and a half dozen $3,000 lenses can benefit a good/great photographer. Heck, it can improve the work of any photographer, even a horrible one (the extent of which is debatable), but it'll never make
him good, let alone great.
The photographer sees the picture in his/her minds eye. S/he decides on composition and a billion other artistic issues, and ultimately whether or not the photo is great. The camera can only assist him in his endeavor by taking care of the technical issues.
Art is what photography is really about, in the long run nobody cares what brand of camera you used, or the quality of the lens. They care about the photo.
How many here know off the tops of their heads what camera and lenses Ansel Adams used? Who would even bother pondering such things? It doesn't really matter what he used, it's how he used it that matters.
*Steps down from his soap box*
That said, I'd still love a Nikon D3.
