do you think cameras hang out and ask each other if their owners have soul?

jesse1dog said:
Not quite sure, but often wondered.
Some people have named their cameras, some just call them names. Wonder if it's the cameras that are called names that are the ones that don't to seem to produce the results their owners crave for!
I have enough trouble remembering passwords let alone have names for my cameras. On second thoughts perhaps I have it all the wrong way round - name my cameras and use these names in passwords!
Life gets more complicated, or I get simpler!
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Jesse,

The late BB King named his guitar Lucile after a woman who was fought over. If I remember correctly the fight involved a stabbing where one man died. Also know that Stradivarious gave each instrument that he created a woman's name.

John the moderator generically calls my cameras "Monsters" because I bulk them up with accessories. M6 is Monster-6, and MP is Monster P. Easy to remember.

Know that I favor heavy silver versions of lenses that underneath are brass instead of aluminum. Also all my M's (Monsters) feature Tom Abramson Rapidwinders and Rapidgrips so the closely resemble my F3P mentioned above.

Clearly my cameras have character. LOL.

Cal
 
jsrockit said:
Soul is all in the owner's / user's mind.
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John,

I agree, but I do think that an object can grow to represent and have imparted the essence of the owner's spirit and can live on. Objects can live on while we eventually die.

Tell me a good photograph is not the projection of the photographer's spirit/soul, even though it just captures a moment. The moment and the image can become immortal.

No doubt that I have bonded with objects in my case.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
I agree, but I do think that an object can grow to represent and have imparted the essence of the owner's spirit and can live on. Objects can live on while we eventually die.
Click to expand...

I agree, but there's always a story attached to it. The story is made up by human experience and myth. Look at Garry Winogrand's M4 (https://www.cameraquest.com/LeicaM4G.htm) ... without the story, it's just a worn out M4 that only camera geeks would care about. The average photographer wouldn't.

Tell me a good photograph is not the projection of the photographer's spirit/soul, even though it just captures a moment. The moment and the image can become immortal.
Click to expand...

I think this is something different than a camera. Photography is a language of sorts that speaks to all people (in some way or another). Cameras are not.

No doubt that I have bonded with objects in my case.
Click to expand...

Oh we all have... but the bond is through experience and appreciation rather than soul in my opinion.
 
jsrockit said:
I think this is something different than a camera. Photography is a language of sorts that speaks to all people (in some way or another). Cameras are not.
Click to expand...

John,

You make a good point. Cameras are not close to a universal language like a photograph, but here in this forum many speak the language of cameras.

Even photographs are not totally universal. When an aborigine was shown a photograph of his mother he did not recognize her. In this case the representation of a three dimensional person did not translate into a two dimensional flat image.

Also know that I'm not so sure that I would not get a vibe from Winogrand's M4. Some guitars are special and stand out. I'm sure that also holds true for cameras.

Remember the M6 HM with 0.85 VF'er that I owned. Basically a lemon that also had bad luck. Glad I traded it away. In other words some cameras suck (not all M6 HM, just this one).

Cal
 
New digital cameras can talk to WiFi networks. Maybe they have their own forums, where they talk about different kinds of photographers they like or hate? They argue with each other about how some photographers are obsolete (or have obsolescence built into them), or are strictly vanity hires (all about status), or are way too expensive for the kind of quality they provide. Other photographers are a dream to work with, and some have excellent bokeh (a Japanese term for how well they perform when they are not focused.) I'm afraid my Retina could not join -- it would be too busy yelling at the neighbor kids to get off our lawn.
 
kuuan said:
they don't talk but read you and act! They may fail on you, refuse to work, drop and get broken or not, get away by means of being stolen or forgotten.. or happily serve you.
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I've never dropped a camera. They have jumped out of my hands in a suicidal fit over the lousy picture I was trying to make.
 
My M7 is jealous when I use the FM2T.
But the Fm2T gets angry when I use the old Rollei 35T.
The Rollei 35T is very nervous when I go out with the small Leica x1 in my bag.
And I do not tell you what happen when I photograph with one of my Polaoroids...

robert
 
Calzone said:
Remember the M6 HM with 0.85 VF'er that I owned. Basically a lemon that also had bad luck. Glad I traded it away. In other words some cameras suck (not all M6 HM, just this one).
Click to expand...

Well, you did have some bad luck with that one. It happens. As much as I'm not a big fan of the word "soul" ... you do know that I'm picky when it comes to sticking with a camera.
 
A lot of mental energy goes into producing a camera... the hopes and dreams of the designers and engineers, and all the other people who contribute to the chain of production, even back to those who dug the ore to make the metal, and drilled for the oil to make the plastic parts. But as a former mechanical engineer, I mostly think of the engineers who came up with ideas and solutions with the goal of producing something we would like to use. Does the product then bear some of the "soul" that went into the making?
 
Doug said:
A lot of mental energy goes into producing a camera... the hopes and dreams of the designers and engineers, and all the other people who contribute to the chain of production, even back to those who dug the ore to make the metal, and drilled for the oil to make the plastic parts. But as a former mechanical engineer, I mostly think of the engineers who came up with ideas and solutions with the goal of producing something we would like to use. Does the product then bear some of the "soul" that went into the making?
Click to expand...

Doug,

I think what you suggest is true. The product does bear some of the "soul" that went into the making.

Sending a man to the moon is a great example of a chain of endeavors that extend beyond an idea, a concept involving hopes and dreams. In an abstract way the soul of the Apollo Program got extended to live in cell phones and home computers that we enjoy today that were the result of the Apollo Program that some argued was a waste of money.

Also consider Apollo 13 and the rescue of three astronauts where the Lunar Module was used as a life raft.

Cal
 
do you think cameras hang out and ask each other if their owners have soul?

...I've forwarded your question to the 'photographing chimp'.
 
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