Cheap 35mm rangfinder

Wow—point-n-shoot digital in a photo class. What is the world coming to. In my day, you signed up for yearbook and were issued a K1000, a copy of Upton and Upton, and a brick of TriX. You mixed D76 in an unventalated room and printed with Dektol while your lab instructor smoked PalMals in the chemical storage room.

That aside—I'd go with something other than the GSN. I have one and love it, but for a photo class, I'd pick on with fully manual settings. But it sounds like you are already beyond the basics of exposure. If you don't mind the aperture priority approach, go with the GSN. It's fast, accurate, and the lens lends a nice quality to color photos in even the nastiest lighting situations.

Good luck,
Jonathan
 
dmr said:
I never took photography in HS. However, some friends of mine who went to another school took a course in photography and the one rule was that all assignments had to be taken with a specific kind of very cheap box camera.

Why? Because the instructor wanted them to concentrate on composition and such, as opposed to how to use the features on a fancy camera, plus, it leveled the playing field, those who were better off did not have the advangage of nicer equipment.

I assume this is for the same reason, the box camera was the P&S of the era.

Oh, and back on topic, I further recomend the QL17 GIII. It's not P&S, but a very good camera and you can find them quite easily.

This is a very good idea for a creative photography class. It's why I think that it would be interesting to give a certain group of high school photo buffs a LCA or a Holga and let them go to work with either some cheapo color or black and white film.

It would be a supplemental class to another more technical one, though. Composition is the most important thing in photography, but learning the basics of how aperture affects shutter speed and the reverse is also important.
 
The only other suggestion I have would be forwarding this thread to your teacher. If you have the means to use a better camera, by all means use it. What does you father have to say?
 
I dont think that leveling the playing field this is what hes going for because he encourages the use of our own camera or the 2 slrs the school has. i definatly agree that while no one in the class would benifit from lecures explaining the zone system, basic exposure and aperture lessons should be taught.
i guess photo classes just arnt what they used to be, after tell this all to my old man he told me stories of how he took a class from garry winogrand and he never saw him without a cigarette in his mouth.
I also just learned that you can obtain a degree in photojournalism at the university of missouri school of journalism without ever using a film camera or making a wet darkroom print.
What is this world coming too
 
RML said:
Good heavens! The horror! I hope you don't have to pay for that course. 🙂

My choice? A real P&S, the Oly Mju. Cheap and wonderful, with great fixed lens. You could do worse than that. 🙂 😛


In the US, the Olympus Mju is known as the Epic. The basic, non-zoom with a 35mm lens goes for about $80 new. It meets your instructor's directive for a "point & shoot" but its a good camera. I keep mine in the glove compartment of my car & throw it into my carry on for traveling (when I don't want to haul my other stuff with me). Can't go wrong with this one.
 
There's also the Olympus XA--if you're gonna go small, go small camera too 🙂

I'd advise not to waste your time in the class. What I mean is, find something you can learn from the teacher and explore that. Or, move on now and take something else, something you'll get more out of.
 
Zack said:
today he dropped the bomb that half of what we shoot MUST be digital and morphed in photoshop. he said might consider letting me scan print or negs instead of used a digital camera but he would prefer if i didnt. oh and when he says morphed he doesnt just mean burning the sky or something he means like take a bald eagle and photoshop it into the desert.

At this point, I would begin to wonder whether or not this is really a photography class. After all, how many jobs for photographers would look kindly on Photoshop skills?😀 Good luck on the class, I feel for you.

Drew
 
I think my new plan is to recreate a carier-bresson picture infront of the school, with the school sign showing and say that its for the features part of my "portfolio". iwould be really surious to see if he says anything about it.
as far as getting out of the class, thats close to impossible, the schedules are pretty much locked in so im stuck. im sure i can find ways to occupy my time
 
Rob said:
Your instructor sounds like an idiot to me. Bet the work out of that class will be pretty ugly in most cases. Go for the S2, great lens. It will weigh over a pound for shipping, at least 2 lbs. Blow him away with good pictures, then hit him in the head with the s2.
Rob: This dude wouldn't know good photo from his arse.
 
Just for a quick update, the teacher pretty much informed us that he was done teaching today (the 4th day of class) and now we just have to take pictures at school. the only catch is that hallways are "closed" meaning very little traffic and very little interesting things.

On a side note does anyone know if the konica s2 uses a mercury battery?
 
Zack,

I am willing to send you a Canonet 28, this camera has been CLA'd by greyhoundman, and he has tweaked it so it no longer needs mercury batteries.

your job is to pass the class [this may be harder than we think, if you show the instructor you know more than he does....] and send it back to me.

PM me with your address if you are interested
 
Zack said:
I think my new plan is to recreate a carier-bresson picture infront of the school, with the school sign showing and say that its for the features part of my "portfolio". iwould be really surious to see if he says anything about it.
as far as getting out of the class, thats close to impossible, the schedules are pretty much locked in so im stuck. im sure i can find ways to occupy my time

I like this idea. Go for it!!! 😀

But, does the instructor know who HCB is? I would really like to see some of the work produced by your instructor.
 
Zack said:
Just for a quick update, the teacher pretty much informed us that he was done teaching today (the 4th day of class) and now we just have to take pictures at school. the only catch is that hallways are "closed" meaning very little traffic and very little interesting things.

Major lazy a**ed dork. Has he shown the class any prints of his own - digital or wet - to at least give you the illusion that _HE_ has any grasp of the fundementals? Can you drop that POS class?

If I were in your shoes I'd blatently bring my Speed Graphic (w/ RF coupled 127/4.5), a graphmatic loaded with Tri-X 320, and contact print the negs on Chicago Alubumen Works POP. All shots for class would be taken out of school, I might add. The digitial requirement would definately get me into major rebellion mode. Hell, I'd probably break out the light saber flash and my last handfull of GE #5's just because of that...

I had a chem teacher in HS who had previously been a Chemical Engineer in industry so everyone presumed he had to know what he was talking about. I think he got fired for incompetence as he couldn't teach his way out of a paper bag. I intentionally blew the year end final; I think I accidently put down the correct answer to two questions (this was 24 years ago this spring, so it's a little fuzzy around the edges.) But I also knew that the school district had a chem exam after the final where they compared all the students in the city. I had the highest grade in the city on that exam... 🙂 An F student aceing the hardest test of the year :angel:

That caused a very big stink that the school administration had a very difficult time with once the school board learned of that discrepency. Were I in your place today, I would work very hard to create the same kind of situation. Now, I am _not_ advising you to do so. In this current political climate that punishes dissent severly, it wouldn't be a good idea if you want to have a profitable future. But I'd still do it if I were in that situation today.

To help your current situation be a wee bit better, I will happily loan you my Kiev 4a and my prewar (as in pre-WWII) uncoated collapsible CZJ 50/2 Sonnar. It's a delightful lens to use, especially the way uncoated lenses handle modern color emulsions. If you're interested, PM me your address.

Free advice and worth even less than you paid for it... :bang:

William
 
Thanks for all the offers on the cameras, but that konica s2 is already on the way. As far as the teacher he never actually studied photography. he wanted to be a journalist but that never really panned out i guess so teaching was he back up plan. so he doesnt have a protfolio or anything, i guess they just let him teach because they figure he knows slightly more than the kids in the class, which was a good plan untill i walked in. so i would guess that he has no idea who HCB is. i think ive found away out of the digital though, in the far corner of the classroom i noticed a nikon coolpix film scanner, like top of the line stuff and i asked him if we could use it. he said yes but he didnt know how to use it so i had to teach myself. i said thats fine and then left to go "take pictures". ill just buy a bunch of ektachrome and scan it in, then do all the morphing thats necessary in photoshop. at least then i dont have to use a digital.
 
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Zack said:
As far as the teacher he never actually studied photography. he wanted to be a journalist but that never really panned out i guess so teaching was he back up plan. so he doesnt have a protfolio or anything, i guess they just let him teach because they figure he knows slightly more than the kids in the class, which was a good plan untill i walked in. so i would guess that he has no idea who HCB is.
The more you tell about this guy, the more it begins to make sense 😀. I mean, if he had a degree in something that even slightly related to photography, I might respect him. But I guess this is not the case.

I guess his ignorance would even extend to W. Eugene Smith. Too bad.

Oh, and before I forget, when you do your PS'ing, use all your less than perfect photos. It is more fun to use those than to ruin an already good one.

Drew
 
Yeah, i believe his degree is in journalism so i guess the school just thought journalism = Photojournalism. Yeah im really unenthusiastic about the whole photoshop thing. Im really pissed because the school has an entire course dedicated to digital photography/ photoshop. I guess ill just make the best of it and try to work around the digital the best i can. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated as far as funny quotes or something.
 
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