OT: NY Times "Younger people...have never had a viewfinder experience."

[Al Patterson]

Some of us can, unfortunately...

Some of us can, unfortunately...

It's not that we oldsters don't *want* to use our thumbs for more than just gripping as opposable digits are wont to do. It's actually that we *can't.* We didn't grow up doing it, and now we're not wired that way.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

As someone who has spent 15 years on-call using two-way pagers, I'm 50 and can do the thumb thing...

It's an IT thing. But, I doubt I could start now if I wasn't already fairly programmed to type using my thumbs at odd hours in the middle of the night.

 

[bmattock]

This is such a coincidence. I was flipping through the latest issue of Pop photo while buying motorcycle magazines at Barnes and Nobles and saw a test for an add on viewfinder for film cameras.

Apparently it is a digital camera that hooks onto your viewfinder and allows old cameras to become chimp friendly 😛

Richie

Yes, I noticed that too. I doubt you could use it to focus a MF SLR, though - so you're still reduced to focusing in the 'old-fashioned' way and then clipping on the LCD to adjust FOV and so on. Not sure, but it seems to be a hi-tech replacement for the old 90 degree viewer for the well-heeled - and somewhat less than that as well. Nice 'gee-whiz' factor, though.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

As someone who has spent 15 years on-call using two-way pagers, I'm 50 and can do the thumb thing...

It's an IT thing. But, I doubt I could start now if I wasn't already fairly programmed to type using my thumbs at odd hours in the middle of the night.

Beg pardon, I'm 46 (in less than a month) and I'm in IT as well. Learned to type on manual typewriters, no less. I can't do the thumb thing, and I haven't seen many my age who could. Oh, they can after a fashion. But not like the kids who do it without thought and as natural as can be, bending their thumbs in directions and with a speed that make me hurt to look at.

Now, I will admit that I never played any of the TV-based computer games when they came out, nor have I ever played any computer software games at all - I just don't like them. So that may have something to do with my perceptions.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Andy K]

What goes around comes around. The earliest photographers did not use a viewfinder either. They looked at the ground glass, set up their shot, then inserted the film holder and fired the shutter.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The early shooters didn't have The Jimmy Hendrix Experience, and the younger ones have only heard of it, and with these iPods that guitar feedback is rather flat. We always gain some, and always lose some.

I thoroughly enjoy using a ground glass a lot more than a viewfinder, though, but the pace of life doesn't allow it much. I'm waiting for this to "come full circle"; will a digital/film Toyo or Horseman hybrid arrive within the next decade? SUV makers are already marketing such frankensteins...

 

[amateriat]

What goes around comes around. The earliest photographers did not use a viewfinder either. They looked at the ground glass, set up their shot, then inserted the film holder and fired the shutter.

After a fashion, perhaps. Their VFs were one hell of a lot bigger, and not nearly as far from their noses. They took a bit more time to set up the shot, too.


- Barrett