Does quality beget snobbery?

[RJBender]

Hmmm nice try but it's not a range finder...... ;- )

Jan, see those 2 circles on the left side of the Speed Graphic. That's a Kalart rangefinder.


R.J.

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Hmmm nice try but it's not a range finder...... ;- )

??????????? I always thought they were, mine has a rangefinder on it.

wayne

 

[Iskra 2]

Hmmm nice try but it's not a range finder...... ;- )

Don't know about doubs43's 4x5 but 'King Kong' has a side mounted Kalart rangefinder which can be adjusted to match many lenses. 'Kong' has a Schneider 210 Xenar w/o a shutter so it closes into the camera body when the door is closed and the rangefinder matches the lens. I can pull 'Kong' from the truck and fire a shot (using a Grafmatic) in a few seconds. Doesn't that qualify as a rangefinder? 🙂 Regards. :angel:

Besides, 'Kong' thinks he's a rangefinder and I'm not about to argue. 😀

 

[fitzihardwurshd]

Several threads lately have led me to this question, does the choice to use the best quality equipment make you a snob?

Interested in your comments, snobs and non-snobs alike 🙂

Todd

There is no simple YES or NO answer I think, but:

Yes, if you buy gear primarily to talk about it and please the forums with the terrible scans of your "test shots".

Yes, if you think you need a maximum of optical performance available to unchain your creative power.

Yes, if you keep the most expensive gear as the the best gear in general.

Yes, if you need the camera solely to shoot your cats and dogs and horses and canaries because you have no vision and your pics look as if you were not able to handle a disposable camera properly.

Yes, if you think the best gear makes you belong to an exclusive club.

Yes, if you think you look professional or at least more serious with what others, who have no clue either,
consider to be best.

For all the others, who understand "best" as beeing always related to the job they want to do, to their abilities and preferences and to their wallet too , I'd say a clear NO !

Regards,

Fitzi

 

[John Robertson]

Yes, if you need the camera solely to shoot your cats and dogs and horses and canaries because you have no vision and your pics look as if you were not able to handle a disposable camera properly.


Fitzi[/QUOTE]

I wonder who this is a description of??? 😱

 

[Dougg]

Among the most annoying snobs are those who are "Yes" to all of Fitzi's points but indeed are excellent photographers with an impressive portfolio to back it up... and then sneer at those who use lesser gear.

And then just as bad are those counter-snobs using cheap gear who are excellent photographers with an impressive portfolio to back it up... and then sneer at those who use expensive gear. It may all be in the sneering...

 

[fitzihardwurshd]

Among the most annoying snobs are those who are "Yes" to all of Fitzi's points but indeed are excellent photographers

Doug,
how can somebody be an excellent photog without any vision ? 😕

BTW I love your little pussy cat avatar, I have no probs with animal photos at all.
Nobody who likes to shoot pets should feel offended.
I rather meant this certain kind of helpless monomania we can observe in web galleries. 😉

The ten commandments

Sounds rude, but there is a lot of truth in it.

Regards,

Fitzi

 

[fitzihardwurshd]

Yes, if you need the camera solely to shoot your cats and dogs and horses and canaries because you have no vision and your pics look as if you were not able to handle a disposable camera properly.


Fitzi

I wonder who this is a description of??? 😱[/QUOTE]

Haha, no way John, am I nuts ? 😛 BTW had been in the Edinburgh area some months ago, simply forgot to tell you, we could have met for a beer and a , let us say , 15yo Edradour there ?? 😀 Yes, ladies drink whisky too in Germany !! Next time I'll call you before I fly.!

best

Fitzi

 

[kmack]

I rather meant this certain kind of helpless monomania we can observe in web galleries. 😉

The ten commandments

Sounds rude, but there is a lot of truth in it.

Regards,

Fitzi

I keep a copy of "The Ten Commandments" link in my bookmarks as a warning against pretentiousness. The real truth is if you follow those commandments you will never shoot anything.

Yes, if you need the camera solely to shoot your cats and dogs and horses and canaries because you have no vision and your pics look as if you were not able to handle a disposable camera properly.i

I take it you are not a fan of William Wegman 🙂

 

[John Robertson]

When I worked part-time in a friends camera shop in Perth, we had a customer we called "Pinsharp" I remember he used to spend a fortune on cameras, especially, but not only, Leicas. The only photos he ever seemed to take were of a brick wall in his back garden, he constantly handed in films for processing, and this is all they ever showed. He took great pride in the number of bricks that were "pinsharp" and how straight the edges were.
Hence his nickname.
We once asked him to let us see his photos of other subjects, he looked horrified, and said he couldn't evaluate the lenses with them. Sad, but I suppose it kept him happy, and out of his wifes hair!!!

 

[John Robertson]

I keep a copy of "The Ten Commandments" link in my bookmarks as a warning against pretentiousness. The real truth is if you follow those commandments you will never shoot anything.


I take it you are not a fan of William Wegman 🙂

There is a photo book about a New York cat called "ERNIE" I forget the name of the photographer, but it made me laugh so I bought it, My eldest granddaughter has taken posession of it 🙁

 

[kmack]

There is a photo book about a New York cat called "ERNIE" I forget the name of the photographer, but it made me laugh so I bought it, My eldest granddaughter has taken posession of it 🙁

I think it is: Tony Mendoza's Ernie: A Photographer's Memoir. It looks like a fun book, I may have to pick up a copy.

 

[Dougg]

Fitzi, no criticism intended; I was just observing that snobs who actually ARE superior are more annoying than those whom we can look down upon. 😀

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

I shoot buildings. A lot.

Maybe I am pretentious. 🙂

Wow, I've arrived.

Oh sheesh, I've got my pet cat in my avatar and it's taken with a digicam.

Ban me quick.

 

[RJBender]

There is no simple YES or NO answer I think, but:

Yes, if you buy gear primarily to talk about it and please the forums with the terrible scans of your "test shots".

Yes, if you think you need a maximum of optical performance available to unchain your creative power.

Yes, if you keep the most expensive gear as the the best gear in general.

Yes, if you need the camera solely to shoot your cats and dogs and horses and canaries because you have no vision and your pics look as if you were not able to handle a disposable camera properly.

Yes, if you think the best gear makes you belong to an exclusive club.

Yes, if you think you look professional or at least more serious with what others, who have no clue either,
consider to be best.

For all the others, who understand "best" as beeing always related to the job they want to do, to their abilities and preferences and to their wallet too , I'd say a clear NO !

Regards,

Fitzi

Die wahrheit hurts.

R.J.

 

[John Robertson]

I think it is: Tony Mendoza's Ernie: A Photographer's Memoir. It looks like a fun book, I may have to pick up a copy.

Thats the one!!! We have a moggie who adopted us, came in from the cold one night, and has never left!! I'm not a cat person, but Oskar has me in fits of laughter with some of the things he does. He's the only cat I've met who likes Heinz Tomato Ketchup on his cat food!!!! 🙄

OT, I think the Ten Photography Commandments are absolutely bang on!!! 😀

 

[fitzihardwurshd]

I was just observing that snobs who actually ARE superior are more annoying than those whom we can look down upon. 😀

Agreed. The snobism of those who ARE superior actually devalues somehow their proven superiority. Snobism is embarrassing, always, basta.

Too often it happens tho that if you criticise snobism you get called a snob yourself. Just a popular but moldy old trick of those who feel adressed. And it does not work, because you cannot relativize all ad infinitum. 😉

Regards,
Fitzi

 

[fitzihardwurshd]

I keep a copy of "The Ten Commandments" link in my bookmarks as a warning against pretentiousness.

I am shooting buildings too sometimes with my RF camera and do not feel as a sinner therefore.
Nonetheless these ten commandments are all pointing on the amateur photog reality and what kinda nonsense is going on there.
Maybe this is all oversharpened and spiced with more ironic humor than some are willing to invest for a self critical consideration, pretentious it is surely not.

Regards

Fitzi

 

[ruben]

Doug,
how can somebody be an excellent photog without any vision ? ..........The ten commandments

Sounds rude, but there is a lot of truth in it.

Regards,

Fitzi

I don't agree at all. Photography among others is not only Art, but a mirror of mankind, and humans are very complex animals. There is no inner connection between quality and snobism, therefore in this context, the question with which Todd opened the thread is in my opinion quite off.

Furthermore, you can be a great artist and great snob alltogether. Gear has nothing to do with snobism, nor snobism should be held a capital punnishable quality. But if Todd is looking for his truth about himself, I don't think building RFF public concensus starting from a twisted question can be the best excomulgation. Nevertheless a personal trend to look inside for traces of snobism, is a great quality.

Back to the complexities of humans and Photography, one of the most influencing images of the twentieth century is to my opinion totally devoid of deep photographic "aesthetics". And I mean that one of the Vetnameese girl runing on the road, naked, burnt by napalm. This is a fact.

As for the "commandments" abovequoted, I stopped to read them by the fifth, as I see them no more than a joke, and a bad one.

You can own a Kingdom and be a humble man, and you can live in a tent and behave as a playboy. Life is like an endless supermarket to which we are all thrown from birth with different sized baskets. It is not about the size of the basket but about what we choose to fill in it. Within this context, Todd's question, per se, is a good one.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[Oldprof]

... I don't think building RFF public concensus starting from a twisted question can be the best excomulgation ...

Excomulgation? Sounds like a word a snob would use. 😀