Rant - noobs, snobs and gear recommendations

In the early-to-mid 70s, when I switched from Pentax to Nikon, Canon wasn't a serious option. I switched for more durable cameras with a wider range of accessories and, yes, a bigger choice of lenses.

I'd just started working professionally, and if you wanted to hire lenses or (better still) borrow them from friends, it had to be Nikon. I'd say that the second commonest camera was Leica: rarely used professionally, but very popular for personal work.

Which is why I use Nikon to this day, and still have the two Fs I bought in about '74. The only digi SLR I own is a Nikon D70, and what surorised me is the quality it can deliver when you put a decent, current Zeiss prime on the front.

Cheers,

Roger
 
Back in the late '80's I ran into a fashion photographer in Florence, Italy. He had been using a couple of Pentax Spotmatics that he'd gotten 20 years prior. He said he couldn't kill them off. I asked him why he didn't use Nikon and he was very quick to say that it's not the machine, it's the operator that takes the great pictures. I believed him then and I believe him now.
 
Who wants well-made 1.2 megapixel cameras cluttering up the landscape? Send 'em off to bedlam.
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Which is exactly what happens to them.

The detritus of the 1st world ends up in the 3rd world, far from the eyes of any regulatory agency that might minimize the environmental impact. But who cares about that when there's a brand new i-phone to play with!?

Evidently, nobody's mom is teaching us to clean up our own messes anymore.
 
bmattock said:
. . . gear DOES matter in some circumstances . . .
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Dear Bill,

Eminently and indisputably true. But the magic word is 'some'.

I was stunned recently by the pics that the wife of my oldest friend shot with her digi-compact when they were staying with us. She's a brilliant photographer and can do more with a digi-compact than many can do with $10,000 worth of gear.

Cheers,

R.
 
kevin m said:
Evidently, nobody's mom is teaching us to clean up our own messes anymore.
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Dear Kevin,

I'll drink to that.

Then I'll take the empty bottle to the recycling, because my mother always taught me that the basis of manners and ultimately of sustainable civilization is consideration for others.

I find it hard to believe when (for example) I see someone throw an empty KFC container out of their car window -- but a while back, I had a lovely revenge.

Someone did just that. So I threw it back through the driver's window. He threw it out again, so I tucked it under the windshield wiper.

He got out to offer violence, and realized that I was wearing motorcycle boots and gloves, a crash helmet and a Swedish Police-issue leather coat (3/4 length, thick black leather).

He drove off. With the KFC container under his wiper...

Cheers,

R.
 
bmattock said:
But even she could not take close ups of a plane in flight at an air show - her ability could not turn her point-n-shoot into a 500mm lens.
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Dear Bill,

Very true; I would not say otherwise.

Then again, I've seem more great pics taken with 'standard' lenses than with 500mm at air shows. And, of course, some great 500mm shots.

I've been thinking a lot recently about the difference between art and illustration. Maybe I'll start a thread on that in my forum: thanks for the prompt.

Cheers,

R.
 
hans voralberg said:
Quick OT curious question: What's so special about an extension tube ?? I've never use one, so pure curiosity here
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Well, I shoot a lot of closeups ilke these with my SLR system. And the PN-11 is the only extension tube I know of that comes with a built in tripod collar. So you can put a 105mm macro on one and and an F3 or D200 on the other and have a really stable and solid macro system. Far better than the other tube systems I have used which result in a long, vibration prone attachment hanging off the front of the camera.

The setup below with an el-Nikkor 50/2.8 enlarging lens lets me get to 3x life size and is very very stable.
070100_03_240.jpg
 
kevin m said:
We should be so lucky.

Your noxious views seem to leak into every thread you join. Would that your views, and not your garbage, could be shipped off to "bedlam."
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Dear Kevin,

I always find it curiously appropriate that the Bethlehem Royal Hospital for the insane, better known by the corruption 'Bedlam', is now the Imperial War Museum. As far as I am aware, the original lunatics (to use a term that was still in use surprisingly recently) occupied the site until 1930.

To quote Private Eye magazine,"Are they by any chance related? I think we should be told!"

Cheers,

Roger
 
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