RF gearhead = gearhead generally?

ClaremontPhoto said:
I have an old pig castrator tool which comes in handy when it's needed.
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Dear Jon,

I'm told that it's much safer to castrate young pigs than old ones, though. Presumably an old pig castrator tool is bigger than a young pig castrator tool?

I have to confess (with some misgivings, as I'm not sure I want to know) that I don't know what a pig castrator looks like. How did you come by it? I have a lovely idea of someone hailing you: "What-ho, Jon, how are you off for pig castrators?"

Probably another job that it's safer to leave to an employee. Preferably not the foie gras slicer, though, unless he washes his hands first.

Cheers,

R.
 
yeah - cameras, vintage hi-fi (tubes), trumpets/cornets, pipes (tobacco)

BUT - I tend to be a cheapskate, always searching for the overlooked gem, best bang for the buck, can be repaired/improved, etc. I'm a user, not a collector
 
Roger of Aquitaine:

Land Rovers up to the Series III (ended 1984) all had a pig castrator mounted alongside the morse code transmitter. Just a little below and to the right.

A friend of mine collects them (only the tools) and says that the later ASPH cutters are much better than the earlier models.
 
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ClaremontPhoto said:
Roger of Aquitaine:

Land Rovers up to the Series III (ended 1984) all had a pig castrator mounted alongside the morse code transmitter. Just a little below and to the right.

A friend of mine collects them (only the tools) and says that the later ASPH cutters are much better than the earlier models.
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Dear Jon of Alentejo,

Oh, dear. I'll have to be more careful when I get in (mine's a '72).

Cheers,

R.
 
I don't consider myself a total gearhead...I buy and sell a lot of stuff for a while then hunker down when I've found what I really need.
I was constantly flipping guitars until I ended up with what I really wanted and now have 3 guitars and two amps and no interest in buying anything.
I'm getting there with my camera gear. Still more stuff then I need but im nailling it down.
 
I have a whole range of specialty tools for VW TDIs (along with a couple of cars to use them on), as well as a fairly gear-headed collection of other automotive tools. Apart from the computer-controlled TDIs, though, I like my cars old and simple. Also in my garage: a 1980 Mercedes CD and a 1967 Karmann Ghia (albeit without an interior to speak of).
 
RF gearhead... only. I bought, used and have sold lots of cameras in the last year but despite that nothing else. I like to go out and take photos, use the cameras and be happy when I got a reasonable photo. Except for cameras, I hate to collect stuff. When moving to another place (which I did a lot), it is always the decision what to keep and what to sell or - worst case - throw away. Having only few things to take care of means more freedom, IMHO.
 
I know I suffer from something. I am obsessed with the world coming to an end, so I collect gold and silver non collectible coins that I buy with cash, no receipts. I store tons of non perishable food. I have a place to hide in the woods if necessary. I must always have a 100% mechanical camera near me. I have been like this for almost 40 years.
No you may not have my address.
 
Getting back from pork to gears
It can be seen as a kind of general attraction, not to the object in itself, but to its being something smart looking and understandable (can you understand anything to a modern engine?? It's just a piece of metal inside another piece of plastic with "..." - name it - written on the top!) sporting an interesting design.

Aha! Here's the word! Design! I do not pretend there isn't a design in today's objects, but it's now so common.
Do you find an Ipod beautiful? Cute, perhaps, but certainly not beautiful. When you think "laptop" you don't think about the Ford Focus, the Peugeot 206, the Nokia... but when you see a Spotmatic, comes to your mind a 230SL, a bakelite Ericson phone, the Omega Seamaster...

The choice of the material is important too. Do you find magnesium attractive? And what about... brass and steel?

We like our fountain pens, our watches... because they're part of a remote way of life where refinement and class was the rule, a world that had known the Bauhaus and was thinking, let's make art and technic work together.
 
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Its quite simple. When you purchase gear from the search to the find and finally to opening the package, all those are a thrill and it makes life exciting. Life feels better at least for a few days and then its all back to normal and it becomes necessary to go through the same excitement once again so unconsciously the search for another 'gear' starts and the whole cycle is repeated.

This also plays with the hunting instincts in men where the search the find and finally the trophy are primordial instincts for survival. There is a good reason why there are very few gear-head women.


At least this is the reasoning I use and It has helped me a lot.
 
I think that's it.

I think that's it.

rolleistef said:
Aha! Here's the word! Design! I do not pretend there isn't a design in today's objects, but it's now so common.
Do you find an Ipod beautiful? Cute, perhaps, but certainly not beautiful. When you think "laptop" you don't think about the Ford Focus, the Peugeot 206, the Nokia... but when you see a Spotmatic, comes to your mind a 230SL, a bakelite Ericson phone, the Omega Seamaster...
design.
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Yup. I think you have hit on it there. For instance, there is an elegant simplicity to Japanese woodworking tools -- tools that I have no idea how to use -- that makes them appealing.

An M3 or a Contax RF or a Rolleiflex -- those I do know how to use, and that makes their functional appeal all the more powerful. And for all the appeal of say, a Retina IIIC, the simplicity of an M3 gives that camera a design and functional edge, in my view.

I was at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC last weekend with my son. He is at an age where the Arms & Armor collection is more appealing than the old master paintings. They have thousand year old Viking swords and European swords of various vintages behind glass. But the Japanese katana blades (!) - have a refinement that is almost scary given their deadly purpose. The blades are displayed without the handle or guard -- and they are simply elemental.

Ben
 
Roger Hicks said:
Dear Fred,

A good deal smarter, I'd say, and your point about karma is well taken.

I draw the line at battery pigs, but eat those reared in the open air.

As someone once said of (humane) farming, "It's better that life in the wild, where most are eaten alive as babies." After all, 'freedom' is (as far as we know) a uniquely human concept.

Cheers,

Roger
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Free range pigs? "Humane" farming?

Have you ever seen geese being mechanically force-fed to make your breakfast foie gras?
 
From pigs, guitars, to RF and bi-polarism. What a thread, best in a while 😉

I'm not only an RF/SLR/MF/LF-head, I also like classic cars, can't begin to imagine to afford owning one, so I take pictures of them whenever I can:

2981976200_723ef1d632.jpg


😀
 
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