An idiot???

[willie_901]

Am I the only one who doesn’t like getting a new camera? ...

You are not alone.

I was doing interior photography gigs I bought a new digital camera whenever there was a significant improvement in dynamic range. More dynamic range saved a lot of time and trouble.

Buying a new camera wasn't fun or exciting anymore. It became a way to use a better tool and take advantage of tax depreciation.

Then I switched to use X-T1 bodies and XF lenses because I could do the same job with better results and eliminate one of the two roller suitcase bags I had to haul around to every gig.

When I stopped doing gigs I sold a lot of gear and settled on the X-Pro 2 with 14,18, 23, 27, and 35 XF primes. I kept my X100T as my goes-everywhere-I-go camera. For the first time since I stopped using film RF cameras (Zeiss Ikon M and Cannot QL-17 III) I own cameras I enjoy using.

I have no desire for the X100F. I have no desire for the X-H1. My motivation to learn a new system or otherwise upgrade is nil.

BTW, the pixel size/resolution compromise is currently much less of a concern than before.

 

[roscoetuff]

Chris Platt hits the nail on the head: Some do enjoy the complexity. IT's a demographic divide. Me? I'm sensitive to Carl Olson's podcast on this (Artul Camera) where he mentioned that at the recent tech show in Vegas, the current buzz is about a refrigerator with a display screen that you can program to show you what's inside, when the light turns on, how the thing cools, etc. As Carl notes, today we've moved on from technology that simplifies to doing things "because we can and wouldn't it be cool?" without the discipline of "Does this make the technological benefit easier to access?" Carl notes Steve Jobs was a demon about simplicity. I seem to recall John Lennon applied that to music with some degree of success in the 1960's. Maybe there's a reason for fewer camera sales?

With my Sony and Fuji digital cameras, I found it helpful to build a spreadsheet of the menu options and my choices as a record. Then I switched (mostly) back to film with a Leica M4-2, M6, and a couple of Rollei SLR's (Medium Format). I'd forgotten how simple photography can really be. There's a line in the book on "Being a Photographer" where he presciently refers to digital as the age where the photograph became less about the truth in front of us and more about making it what we want it to be. That's the power of digital, but at the same time, it robs the image of its power to change the world. The authors noted that no one believes a photograph is real any more. That's a huge cost.

 

[ptpdprinter]

You can make things as complex as you want. Today's menu driven digital cameras certainly give you that flexibility. I take a different approach. When I got my camera, I set it up how I wanted and now have little need to access menus. What more do you really need other than ISO, shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation? All of those are on dials with the newer Fujis. Why futz around in the menus all the time?

 

[cz23]

...The authors noted that no one believes a [digital] photograph is real any more...

Don't buy it, Skip. I call your attention to Bill's recent thread on Nachtwey, who I believe shoots Canon digital.

John

 

[jsrockit]

When I stopped doing gigs I sold a lot of gear and settled on the X-Pro 2 with 14,18, 23, 27, and 35 XF primes. I kept my X100T as my goes-everywhere-I-go camera. For the first time since I stopped using film RF cameras (Zeiss Ikon M and Cannot QL-17 III) I own cameras I enjoy using.

I feel the same way...and it's the X-Pro2 and 35mm f2 that makes me feel this way... even though I use two other Fujis sometimes. I keep seeing newer stuff come out and I ask myself, would I rather use that than the X-Pro2? Nope.

 

[Axel]

Chris Platt hits the nail on the head: Some do enjoy the complexity. IT's a demographic divide. Me?...

That´s important I mean. A demographic... factor. If my life goes with (in today´s meaning) "simple tools" - why should I switch?

A very subjective decision. There is no rule or line that can describe the point to replace a tool. It is very individual.

Bill, of course you are not an idiot. I am with you in most points of your thoughts.

But as a member of the 50+ generation I understand that there is a huge difference of the "easiest" way to get the aimed picture between me and younger people like my kids.

The commercial world of today tells everybody that it is just a question of the right tool to get along. Seems that many people have to buy and to try until they are in their best conditions 😉

 

[roscoetuff]

John: Will look at the thread. But in view of "fake news" and all the photos we see of imaginary folks floating on their back 5 feet off the ground, people actually suspend their belief of the photos more than folks my generation are inclined to do.

Bill: Axels' right: Carl Olsen actually defines this as the ratio of years of utility from learning something new vs. time involved to learn it. A digital refrigerator? If I amortize the 4 hours learned over my remaining life, it ain't worth it relative to just opening the door and sticking my head inside. For a twenty-or-thirty something, the ratio is much more favorable.

 

[ptpdprinter]

Bill: Axels' right: Carl Olsen actually defines this as the ratio of years of utility from learning something new vs. time involved to learn it. A digital refrigerator? If I amortize the 4 hours learned over my remaining life, it ain't worth it relative to just opening the door and sticking my head inside. For a twenty-or-thirty something, the ratio is much more favorable.

I guess if you have someone to update the inventory of your refrigerator for you every time you use an egg or a squirt of ketchup it might be useful. If you have to do it yourself, you might come to a different conclusion. My vote is for the look-see approach. Can you imagine getting a reminder on your smartphone to update your refrigerator inventory? Seriously? Whether you are twenty or sixty, a refrigerator has the same useful life before you have to learn a new inventory program, so the investment/payback are the same regardless of age. And it is not really the time spent learning the program, it is the time spent entering the data.

So, are you sure you want to update your camera firmware if it changes the menus? It better be for a feature you really need.

 

[Pherdinand]

DOn't know Bill, i just bought a 30mm arsat fisheye for my kiev88 6x6 beast🙂 it does look like brand new!

You didn't really expect anyone replying "yes you are an idiot" now did you?

 

[Ronald M]

I have no trouble with each new Nikon. Turn mode to M. Figure where to turn on image review (chimp) and then good to go. Forgot to add turn on back button focus for when I use AF lenses.

Probably missing 90% of perhaps useful features this way so I am not buying any new Nikons . I did pick up a like new D3 to keep the one I have company.

 

[willie_901]

...
So, are you sure you want to update your camera firmware if it changes the menus? It better be for a feature you really need.

I'm sure.

However. my professional life (1972-2000) was spent in a field where technological change was rapid and relentless. One either embraced change or found a different way to make a living. It was possible to leverage change into success when the change had strategic leverage.

Gratuitous change is a waste of time. Gratuitous change is limited. It takes a lot of corporate resources to change those menus. The more they change, the more it costs.

 

[creenus]

Well, I have no problem thinking of myself as an idiot as it gives me nowhere to go but up. 😀

I just started a part-time job as a B&W darkroom technician at the junior college in New Mexico where I already work as a writing tutor. My boss needed a tech as his former assistant vanished for this Spring semester.

Last year, I had developed at home some really old B&W 620 roll film (Verichrome Pan from 1973) found in a yard sale camera for my Writing Center supervisor. The Assistant Professor of Photography asked her if she knew anyone familiar with a black-and-white darkroom, and she recommended me.

So now I am running his darkroom and helping 20-odd students with their film and printing. It's a new facility with nine Beseler enlargers and a really sweet Arkay stainless steel sink, plus a spare sink. We use Ilford DD-X for film, Paterson tanks for development, and bulk chemistry from various vendors.

Plus I get to develop my own film for free, and print enlargements. I have a long-term photo project I'm working on, so this will help me out tremendously as my home darkroom space is extremely limited. If my boss likes my work, he will hang my prints on the campus somewhere. I'm also glad that film photography is not dead.

At any rate, he teaches five classes from basic B&W to advanced digital, so he keeps me busy with small projects that he doesn't have time for, such as shooting contest entries for various potters in the adjacent Ceramics Lab. He loans me his digital Canon gear and turns me loose with a lighting tent. So far I have also given several short overhead/computer presentations for his classes when he is out of town in order to give students their next assignments. (No matter the technology, the basic principles of seeing photographically still apply, I think.) Fun!

Long story short, I am learning to shoot digital gear after decades of Leica rangefinder and film SLR shooting. I get to sit in on his studio digital classes, and am learning tons about lighting.

So I bought a used Nikon D5600 DSLR with a cheap zoom lens and am learning to use the little beast. At some point I may go with a Fuji or Sony RF to use with my Leica glass, but in the meantime I am having fun. I see the Nikon as a learning tool - I'm not committed to Nikon's DSLR system or anything. Like I said, I could go DSLR or RF as I shoot more digital images.

It IS a challenge to learn new things, but that's how we grow, I believe. I'm 64 and I learn new things every day. =)

Back to technology, I am NOT a person who HAS to have the latest gear. That chase can be expensive and frustrating, especially when technology keeps barreling forward. I try to keep up with gear announcements but it can be confusing, at least for me.

But it's still a lens and a light-tight box, IMO.