RF cool factor?

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kzim56

Karl Zimmerman
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Feb 15, 2005
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Since last summer, my teenaged daughter has become interested in photography. I must say, she has a very good eye and I try to encourage her to cultivate her talent. She uses a Nikon 995 digital camera, but she also likes to shoot film. She shoots a lot of natural light stuff using a Konica Autoreflex TC SLR. The results are often disappointing because she shoots mostly hand-held. She rarely gets a really sharp picture.

I’ve been trying to convince her to try my Yashica GSN or Konica Auto S2. I think she could get much better results. I’ve explained how there’s no mirror banging around so it’s possible to hand hold at slower speeds. She continues to resist and I think it’s a cool factor thing. She doesn’t perceive RFs as cool.

I've shown her examples of great photos taken with rangefinders. Eisenstadt, Cartier-Bresson, et al. Still not much interest.

Rangefinders are wonderful photographic tools...and as we know, they are very very cool. How can I make her understand? Once that's done we'll discuss "your friend the tripod."

Thanks,
Karl
 
Dude, you're showing her OLD pictures taken by OLD guys!

Find some examples of edgier photos made by younger, hipper RF users. The Leica magazine usually has some good specimens.

Sooner or later she'll see the difference in pictures taken with a camera you look through rather than one you look into...
 
Uhm...show her Salgado, show her strong reportgage shots in dark suburbs or alleys, show her how rangefinders enter life without raping atmosphere but painting it.

Try at least :D
 
Sounds like good advice. Although most of the boys she knows wouldn't know an RF from a camera phone. I'll show her some more contemporary work. I knew I could count no you folks.
 
show her nan goldin, cindy sherman, donna ferrato...who else...all women, too! anyhow, rangefinders are uber cool.
 
Julia Roberts in one of her latest is playing a photog and is using Leica there....
 
Yes, Frank is the smart one here. Forbid her to use a rf, but leave a copy of the Julia Roberts movie lying around for her to "Find".
 
FrankS said:
Just tell her she's not allowed to use a RF.
Click to expand...


ROTFL


ah...and maybe add something like: "You cannot use it, you might end up dead on a mine in Vietnam! And that must not happen to my lovely daughter" ;)
 
How old is she?
Maybe, get a weird rf like a Fed or a Kiev, with a funky coloured new leather on it, and just leave it around the house, don't say anything. I bet she'll pick it up and start asking.

Otherwise, i'd agree with Huck.
 
I'd say, show her my work and my M2! :p

Oh, my work ain't hip, and Japanesque Gold is definitely not cool....

I'm glad mine is still only 7 years old and can "dig" my gold M2. :)
 
Dig out the old Bob Dylan album with the SP on the cover (and the hood on the lens...)

Sadly, she'd then probably want an SP.
 
It's good to be back, Frank! :)

Oh, I have a ton of new photos from Mongolia but... most are taken with my new digital Canon Eos 300D!
I'll post some of the analog shots here on RFF; the rest I'll post on DSLReXchange.

Shooting digital is addictive, thought the 300D makes the addiction a little less compulsive. I just despise the size and weight of the camera and the 50/1.8 I use with it. But damn, digital offers some reaaaally interesting benefits (switching iso setting, setting white balance, no more films to develop, no more tedious scanning, and the 300D has a really low-noise shutter).

Anyway, good to be back!
 
kzim56 said:
She continues to resist and I think it’s a cool factor thing. She doesn’t perceive RFs as cool.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, I think I know exactly where she's coming from. If I may infer a few things from back when I was in my teens and just getting into serious photography.

First, she probably wants to learn and develop her style on her own. When I got my first "real" camera (yes, a rangefinder Mamiya) I ignored as much advice from my dad that I could, such as "shoot with the sun behind you" and "be sure your subject is still" and such. I would intentionally shoot right into the sun and tried like heck to pan moving things and all that. I would suggest that you keep encouraging her, but let her make her own decision as to the tool to use. It took me >>30 YEARS<< to realize that my old rangefinder was a better tool for some low-light indoor shooting.

Second, I think there may be some "cool factor" in there. Digitals are cool now. Just be thankful that she doesn't think a cell phone camera is the be-all and end-all. :) :)

Back when I was in my teens, any 35mm camera was definitely cool, at least among those who took up photography. We tended to reject such things as the older folding 120 cameras and those one-time lightbulb-size flashbulbs that always scared the cat. :) :) I saw my dad's folding Kodak as yesterday's news, and really didn't want to use it. Yes, it was un-cool to a degree. Your daughter might feel the same way about using a 35mm rangefinder.

Oh well, that's my $.02 anyway. :)
 
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