Bad Rangefinder Videos by RF Wanabees

CameraQuest

CameraQuest

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Is anyone else appalled by rangefinder videos by wannabee rangefinder experts who don't really know rangefinders?

the sad thing is that their audience knows even less about rangefinders
than the wannabees, so they get taken in by
"experts" who don't know enough to realize how little
they do know about rangefinders.
 
Good video about cameras are not so easy to make. Not only for RF cameras. I'm giving them all one big credit to have courage to talk about it. Even Winogrand was unable to give clear explanation then he was asked why RF.

Best explanation why RF was giving by Meyerowitz so far (to me). It is so natural. It is why I'm RF and not SLR person.
https://youtu.be/Xumo7_JUeMo
And it is genius not just on RF, but what is best in photography (to me).
So after I watched this video, those guys who could barely hold it and unable to take interesting picture with it, are ... nice guys who are at least trying it. They are also doing some write ups about Leica. Like this one. :)
 
I believe that some of those new "reviewers" of Leica rangefinders desire to be discovered by Leica, so that they may get "free stuff" for their reviews.

Recently I stumbled across a video review of the Summilux 35mm asph FLE, which in its entire length said absolutely nothing about the lens, but was a mere presentation of the photographer presenting it. I could not stop watching it though, as the slow motion sequences of the photographer drawing the camera from his bag and snapping uneventful scenes in the metro were somehow mesmerizing.
 
I don't know how much worth people get out of watching a video review anyway. If I've ever wanted to find out about a camera or lens I've either bought it and used it myself or I've asked on here.
I don't know which video reviews you are talking about but the only ones I've ever watched are done by Kai on digitalrev tv. I don't watch for information but rather for a laugh every now and then.
 
I've seen one promotion video authorized by / associated with Leica. The photog in the videos claims that "you get what you see from the viewfinder" or things like this. As you can imagine the booing in the comment section..
Even sadder the example shots shown in the video are not even good (I know it is subjective, but they are not even mainstream-ly good, so..)
 
Well, that's how it goes these days. Everyone can become an expert. Even worse, there will be at least one naive to follow these "experts".
 
CameraQuest said:
Is anyone else appalled by rangefinder videos by wannabee rangefinder experts who don't really know rangefinders?

the sad thing is that their audience knows even less about rangefinders
than the wannabees, so they get taken in by
"experts" who don't know enough to realize how little
they do know about rangefinders.
Click to expand...

It's the phenomenon, that Dunning and Kruger got the Nobel prize for.
It happens all over the place :)
Regards,
Frank
 
nobbylon said:
I don't know how much worth people get out of watching a video review anyway. If I've ever wanted to find out about a camera or lens I've either bought it and used it myself or I've asked on here.
I don't know which video reviews you are talking about but the only ones I've ever watched are done by Kai on digitalrev tv. I don't watch for information but rather for a laugh every now and then.
Click to expand...

Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH1a4dwSu0Y
 
CameraQuest said:
Is anyone else appalled by rangefinder videos by wannabee rangefinder experts who don't really know rangefinders?

the sad thing is that their audience knows even less about rangefinders
than the wannabees, so they get taken in by
"experts" who don't know enough to realize how little
they do know about rangefinders.
Click to expand...
Stephen, I know you know great camera equipment; but I realize now your also a great fisherman too.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
Good video about cameras are not so easy to make. Not only for RF cameras. I'm giving them all one big credit to have courage to talk about it. Even Winogrand was unable to give clear explanation then he was asked why RF.

Best explanation why RF was giving by Meyerowitz so far (to me). It is so natural. It is why I'm RF and not SLR person.
https://youtu.be/Xumo7_JUeMo
And it is genius not just on RF, but what is best in photography (to me).
So after I watched this video, those guys who could barely hold it and unable to take interesting picture with it, are ... nice guys who are at least trying it. They are also doing some write ups about Leica. Like this one. :)
Click to expand...

I guess it is a mindset or early experience prejudice. I started out with cameras that only had a viewfinder, no prism or RF. Then I got a SLR. It was a camera, but interesting in that I could change lenses if I had any others, and I got on film pretty much what I saw in the viewfinder.

Then based on some magazine articles, I decided I must have a fixed lens RF. I got one. By then I did have some other lenses for my SLR, and the RF didn't reach out and grab me. Next I got a Super Press 23. Before I got it, it hadn't dawned on me it was RF. But whatever it took to get those (to me) big negatives. But it was big and heavy.

To this day I don't prefer RF over SLR, even though I use them for whatever reason strikes me to do so. I don't have time to look at the whole youtube video, but I got a lot less interested when he talked about how one can see outside the frame lines. I usually do that before I bring the camera to my eye. That comment alone made it really easy to stop watching.

Nor for me, is there usually any big difference in focusing. I have taken a lot of photos in very dim light. With SLR I learned to go in and out of focus outside the center focusing aid. Or I learned to estimate the distance and set my lens to it, or look for something else that seemed to be the same distance to focus on it. To me, in really dim areas, the RF was only helpful if there was something sufficiently bright to use at the plane I wanted to be focused on. If there wasn't, I was better off with an SLR.

That is what works for me. I had to learn that to get the photos I wanted. It worked for me. But everyone has to find there own way or miss the photo. And sometimes, no matter how I tried, I missed a photo as well.


oltimer said:
Stephen, I know you know great camera equipment; but I realize now your also a great fisherman too.
Click to expand...

Funny.

I don't spend much time on youtube period, or any other video source either. I either get books or as someone already mentioned, I ask here if I haven't already read it here.

But I think Stephen is simply voicing frustration at the amount of mis-information on the web, about a subject he obviously both knows a lot about, and cares a lot about. I am so surprised to see everyone jump in to defend the defenseless.

I have yet to see of those who have done so have their own videos. :p :D
 
What about the frustration of people claiming Fuji Xpro is a Rangefinder...

Compound that with "why would you pay 6k$ when you can get a Fuji instead..."

I'm not sure why it's difficult, if it doesn't have a Rangefinder, it's not a Rangefinder...

It is not even a faithful way to describe a cameras exterior, it's lazy! Even PopPhoto lays this garbage on their reviews.
 
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