Back in the Fold

[Bike Tourist]

After deciding that I would stop shooting for fun and just give in to the lure of the glamorous internet stock business I sold all my RF and other film equipment. I was left with a Nikon D300 and many lenses therefor. What a great camera. But the combination of a great camera with no real flaws and boring stock subjects, always front lit, with never a hint of creativity, is not the thing of inspiration.

There are millions of new stock images being added all the time, at lower and lower prices. Guess what this tends to do to your sales? That's right . . . trending downward. Unless you're willing to feed the beast with new images constantly you won't make much money.

Meanwhile, I remembered the great images posted here on RFF, the intelligent conversation, the nostalgia of an all-but-forgotten imaging system and the way a Leica felt to work with.

Leica? My wife says no trading of the Nikon stuff will be allowed, so what RF camera could I obtain on my limited budget?

Why, a Voigtlander T Heliar 101 set, of course! I don't hear much about them anymore but I've had one before and I'm looking forward to getting it next week. I'm hoping the shutter is flawless, the winding mechanism perfect, the electronics and meter right on and that the price of film goes down.

It could happen!

 

[robin a]

Welcome Home.................

 

[pesphoto]

welcome back! Show us your new camera when it arrives.

 

[photogdave]

Glad to have you back! Don't let your wife boss you around - if you feel you need Leicas at some point then get some. Bessas are great cameras too.

 

[Bingley]

Welcome back! While you've been away, Leica prices have dropped... 😀

 

[Fred Burton]

Sounds like a smart wife that knows you well. 🙂

 

[amateriat]

Back in the high life again! Glad to see you back. I'd thought about shooting stock some years back, but it was already a race to the bottom then, and it's only gotten worse. While it's possible to make a buck, you soon feel like you're doing the photographic equivalent of data entry...yechh!


- Barrett

 

[charjohncarter]

Glad you are back I wondered what you were up to. Burn some film and let us see them.

 

[Tuolumne]

The Bessa T is a nice camera. Great for street shooting because the diodes are visible no matter where you hold the camera. Welcome back.

/T

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Welcome back. As far as a camera goes a simple non-functioning fixed lens rangefinder will qualify.

 

[gb hill]

Nice to see your back. Glad all is well & your back just in time to get some of the new Kodak Ektar 100. I think you will love it.

 

[Bike Tourist]

Good to hear from you all. See? Those are the kind of commernts, serious or humorous, that you just can't find anywhere else!

 

[P. Lynn Miller]

I recently acquired a Bessa T along with the Collapsible Heliar 50mm f3.5, while the lens is outstanding, the camera is still waiting for me to fall in love with it. The Bessa's are great little cameras, but I would agree, if I was really pressed for money, I could be just as happy with a Minolta or Yashica fixed lens rangefinder.

 

[Roger Hicks]

After deciding that I would stop shooting for fun and just give in to the lure of the glamorous internet stock business . . .!

To rephrase an old but well-known English saying,

Stock that for a game of soldiers!

(If it is not known in American, the first word still ends in 'ck'.)

Cheers,

R.

 

[Bike Tourist]

To rephrase an old but well-known English saying,

Stock that for a game of soldiers!

(If it is not known in American, the first word still ends in 'ck'.)

Cheers,

R.

Ha, ha, ha!

 

[tedwhite]

Welcome back, Dick! We missed your fine images, plus you and I have a similar dark past (Bakersfield). Oh, the folly...

The 'T' is not a bad choice. Big advantage over the 'R' is its bayonet mount, so you don't have to fork out extra moolah for adapters. Slight disadvantage for most people is the rangefinder window/viewfinder window a la pre-M Leicas.

It feels sort of cheap, compared to a screwmount Leica, but the optics are great and the meter is, like all Bessas I've used, one of the best in the business. But it keeps on working. My 'R' has God knows how many rolls through it and still works like it did when it was new.

As for film? Just buy a few 100 ft. rolls of b/w and relax.