Older version is preferred

[daveleo]

For me, it's a mixed love of new and old stuff .

Someone above mentioned that it takes a lifetime to sort out the good stuff from the junk, and that's true.

 

[aad]

Older isn't better, just older. I prefer older motorcycles, but only specific ones-most are a bunch of crap compared to anything in he last 20 years.

Old cars are beautiful, but unless you are talking about something very special, they are a lot of old nails. Usually rusty nails.

Much of the "cheaping down" complaints come from an unhappiness with the effects of modern manufacturing that have allowed access to items that would otherwise be beyond economical reach.

 

[Gid]

I'm content to be able to choose from a much wider range of "stuff" than I used to be able to. I use old and new(er) cameras, both film and digital, depending upon my mood. I do like well made tools / objects, but that does not necessarily mean hand made from years ago. I certainly would not want to see the vast majority of the cars made in the 60s and 70s (at least in the UK) make a return - drum brakes, crossply tyres and paper thin metal - no thanks. However, what I'm not so fond of is the do everything gadget (eg smartphone) - I know multi purpose has been around for a long time, but it does seem to be much more prevalent now, or maybe I'm just an old git.

 

[jsrockit]

Nostalgia's a bitch.

 

[Photo_Smith]

Like most people I think its a mix of old and new. Most certainly not every new version of something is better than the last.
I see this in all sorts of areas like the software Final Cut Pro which has many features cut out of the newer version and is certainly a lesser product.
Computer Keyboards are another who thinks the current 'chicklet' style is better than the old IBM 'clickety' ones for actually typing?
Is Windows 8 better than Windows 7? (harder to prove)

I think some older cameras were better than the products that replaced them, M3 to M4P would be one some here might understand older film emulsions although technically inferior to newer offerings had valued properties i.e Kodak's decision not to stop making Tri-x when Tmax was launched.

In the early 1980's Agfa reformulated Portriga paper not to make it better but to conform to EC regulations; later versions never reached the quality of the earlier ones.

It's not about being older but about perspective and experience IMO and sometimes you can see a product that's been put out not as an improvement but as a cost saving exercise.

So it's nothing to do with nostalgia really, I'm sure almost everyone can think of a product that has worsened over the years.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Older isn't better, just older. I prefer older motorcycles, but only specific ones-most are a bunch of crap compared to anything in he last 20 years.

Old cars are beautiful, but unless you are talking about something very special, they are a lot of old nails. Usually rusty nails.

Much of the "cheaping down" complaints come from an unhappiness with the effects of modern manufacturing that have allowed access to items that would otherwise be beyond economical reach.

Disputable. My most recent column in Land Rover World addresses exactly this, with the following example: My old Rabone Chesterman Silverline two-metre pocket steel tape is of a quality you can't find nowadays at any price. It would probably cost $25 or so if it were new -- but people COULD afford that $25 or so when it was new, 30+ years ago.

We could live better today, with better quality stuff, and more of it, than we had (say) 30 years ago. Instead, many people choose to live with LOTS more stuff, but of grossly inferior quality. They substitute quantity for quality.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Let me add watches to this I prefer the past. Current watches are too large, catch on your clothes. They have chronographs (?) that you can't read because they are too small.

 

[Jack Conrad]

I like old Mods. Preferably those made in the 50's. Older versions can be
ok, but they're getting a bit long in the tooth. Pre-war Mods more often than not are un-coated, with sagging bellows and light leaks.
Except for an occasional curmudgeon, they're often quaint and fun to use.

60's and 70's Mods are lazy and unreliable, plagued with rotting seals and mullet hair cuts.

Newer Mods seem to have issues with wacky circuits and/or capacitors.
I believe they're only intended to last a short time before they break.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I like old Mods. Preferably those made in the 50's. Older versions can be
ok, but they're getting a bit long in the tooth. Pre-war Mods more often than not are un-coated, with sagging bellows and light leaks.
Except for an occasional curmudgeon, they're often quaint and fun to use.

60's and 70's Mods are lazy and unreliable, plagued with rotting seals and mullet hair cuts.

Newer Mods seem to have issues with wacky circuits and/or capacitors.
I believe they're only intended to last a short time before they break.

Dear Jack,

Whereas proper greasers were/are mostly pretty tough and reliable, and are STILL riding proper motorcycles instead of hairdryers, UJMs and appliances. They seem to vary mainly in the colour of their beards and the size of their pot bellies. Remember the old slogan: FLY THE FLAG -- HANG A MOD.

(Mod birds were OK though).('Specially when they found out about real men.) (Sorry, couldn't resist. Amazing how the prejudices of 40+ years ago can still surface, though, innit?).

Cheers,

R.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Weird that I and some others as well, prefer earlier versions of things, over the newer updated improved versions. It could be human nature to think back on and idolize the good old days.

For me this applies to film/digital photography, film stock, cameras, music, motorcycles, stereo systems, cars. All of them from the era of my adolescenthood (and earlier).

I won't believe you until you post a photo of the mimeographs you've tacked on to your town hall's bulletin board. And it better be pinhole.

 

[FrankS]

SOME older things are preferable. Not all. I included a list.

 

[paulfish4570]

i like some old stuff. i like some new stuff. i like some stuff in between.
some old stuff still is made as it was 50-100 years ago, such as single-shot, break-action h&r shotguns and rifles, at a price point the same as it was back then, figuring inflation.
most of all, i like simple, efficient stuff that always works, old, new, or in-between ...

 

[FrankS]

Many things today just aren't built as well as they were. Some things are built better, but generally consumer pressure for inexpensive cheap items trumps the value of a quality item.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

What always amazes me is the number of things (mostly hand tools) whose design hasn't changed in thousands of years.

Regards, David

 

[paulfish4570]

probably because they were designed by people who used them generation after generation, not computers ... 🙂

knives and axes are good examples. this is the golden age of blade-making, i think, even though the basic forms still live ...

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . .I loved my 1952 MG, but let's face it, the car was a safety disaster, made of thin sheet metal nailed over a wood frame, brakes which just vaguely suggesting slowing down, and dangerous objects all around the driver and passengers (not to even mention a live oil gauge on the dash). . . .

Depends on whether you drive into things (new model) or around things (old model).

As a motorcyclist I've always preferred the old model. As for MGs, the TA was the purists' model. Well, among the Ts, anyway.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . What always amazes me is the number of things (mostly hand tools) whose design hasn't changed in thousands of years. . .

Dear David,

Probably has, in most cases. I have quite a few 19th century tools that would be hard to replicate nowadays. Then again, some of them (blacksmiths' tools, for example) were made by the craftsmen themselves.

In fact, without wishing to be too aggressive, I'd challenge you to name (say) ten tools that hadn't actually changed much in even 500 years (1513), let alone 'thousands'. This is still more true if 'change' includes 'manufacturing technique'.

Even mattocks have improved.

Cheers,

R.

 

[daveleo]

I also prefer the way that people were way back when. I've been told by friends that's a perception fault on my part, but I don't think so. I think products have changed over to the "throw away" design concept because people have changed as to what they expect from each other.

Kind of too philosophical, I know, but that's what popped into my head.

 

[dave lackey]

Indeed, with motorcycles it is preferable to not run into things. Like deer.

I recently retired from riding my 2004 BMW K1200LT after running over a deer in the dark, going airborne for a loooong time and riding out a tank-slapper for a half mile. Seems the new generation Beemer saved me but if the headlight were better, I might have actually seen and avoided the freshly hit deer that was deposited in the road in front of me.😱

I don't think the HD would have been as kind to me. That motorcycle bit me more times than I like to remember...in broad daylight!😛

Like small British sportscars that rely on generally competent drivers and active safety rather than passive safety with electronics, airbags and such...motorcycles are inherently dangerous but they are so much fun.

A side note...I have avoided many obstacles and drivers pulling out in front of me in the 1951 MGTD, so I can attest to the active safety part with that wonderful tinkertoy of a car. It works! But, I would not necessarily like to hit something with that spear of a steering column pointed at my chest. I miss that car. Not so much the long list of Japanese cars we have owned (Toyotas).

 

[dave lackey]

I also prefer the way that people were way back when. I've been told by friends that's a perception fault on my part, but I don't think so. I think products have changed over to the "throw away" design concept because people have changed as to what they expect from each other.

Kind of too philosophical, I know, but that's what popped into my head.

Actually, there is much truth in your "perception".😉