x-ray said:
From looking at some of the average RFF'ers work they would better spend some of that money learning how to use that equipment
Actually, I'd held to the strange view that some of us who take photographs that don't make the cut were hanging around RFF in the very hope of learning some things about how to better use the equipment (to take better photos, say). Or even what equipment to use to help obtain the results we're after. It being difficult to take a photograph without a camera, and all. And if equipment doesn't matter then why RF cameras at all? Why not use an SLR with its kit zoom? That easily covers the focal length range where most RF photography is done, in one simple inexpensive package. Or why not a little digicam, most of which would easily cover the same field-of-view range?
x-ray said:
I guess it's all about having that Leica hanging around their neck and not about the photograph.
I don't think my Hexar RF (my most-used camera) makes the cut as a fashion statement. Perhaps that's why I carry it in the hand rather than around the neck - staying one step ahead of the fashion police. While I do have a Leica as well, I suspect my old DS M3 isn't that fashionable (no red dot! what was I thinking?), and many of my other cameras (yes, I have GAS) are even less so - there are parts of town you could probably get beat up for carrying a ghastly red XA2.
Yet I do use these cameras to take photos, even if they're not especially good ones. Partly just to take photos, because I enjoy doing that and to help me learn to take better ones (trying to get closer to my vague ideas of what I'd like those photos to look like). Partly trying to learn what works for me in a practical sense (the XA or mju-II in my pocket often being more useful than the Hexar RF at home) and partly to learn what produces the photos I'm after - what lenses produce results I like or am trying to achieve, and under what circumstances.
I even talk about some of that on RFF, in gear-related discussions either asking questions (because I don't know the answers) or passing on my opinions on what I've discovered so far.
x-ray said:
Don't get me wrong because there are some very fine photographers that I would call average RFF'ers but above average in skill. If equipment is the thing then that's what it is but I see the final image as the most important and I don't mean the image of me carrying a Leica.
And maybe some of us talk about some of these things because we're trying to figure out how to achieve the final image we're after or trying to get a view of. And maybe some of us also talk about fine mechanical things because we get some enjoyment out of that as well. There's nothing wrong with that either. I'm not even sure there's anything wrong with people using their cameras as a fashion statement, if that floats their boat. (And especially if their servicable cast-offs might be picked up cheaply.)
...Mike
