Robert Capa makes us look bad.

gb hill said:
Excluding myself, because I know my pictures suck, but I have seen better work from those with voigtlanders & russian cameras than many here with M8s and high dollar Leica film cameras with their several thousand dollar lenses.
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I know, my photos suck big time.

Wait, you neglected the Zeiss lenses. Why the neglect? My Biogon feels offended. :eek:
 
drewbarb said:
Wahtever the truth about this issue, Capa was unquestionably one of the greats.
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There will always be skeptics for anything. Capa's photography was great. Too bad that he tends to be tied, at least in RFF, with discussions of Nikon this, Leica that, Contax this, SLRs that...

Hardly ever about his work only.

I know musicians rave about their instruments, but musical discussions hardly ever degenerate in Yamaha vs. Stradivarius interchanges. More about...the music.
 
CameraQuest said:
how is it possible so many crappy pics are taken today with the latest wonderkin darlings of the latest camera or lens test...
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I started to type a response that went something like this:

"Thank goodness there are so many ordinary pictures taken with the latest gear! If all the pictures taken with the latest equipment were good, there wouldn't be very many of those cameras sold and camera manufacturers like leica would have been out of business years ago. Furthermore those new techologies would never have been developed and filtered down to affordable models most people can afford."

I think this is an argument most people here would have heard before, but I'm not sure how true it is.

I got thinking, if that really was the case, and only pro's bought pro gear, would there really be no investment in new technologies for consumer/affordable cameras? Somehow I doubt it. Surely the sales in consumer models for (the larger companies at least) like canon and nikon are substantial enough to warrant investment in improvements in features. But then again, I really don't like any of those new technologies! (Ok, so you can pry film scanner from my cold dead hands, but otherwise...)

Just how long have amatures been buying professional equipment???
 
The classic, old adage "f8 and be there" comes to mind. The real message of that is not the f8 part, but the there part. Knowing where there is ... that is the key.
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
I know, my photos suck big time.

Wait, you neglected the Zeiss lenses. Why the neglect? My Biogon feels offended. :eek:
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Sorry Gab... but you have talent and don't realize how much you have. Your one of the ones here who could take a Cannonet and make an outstanding photo. I do understand that there is equipment than one can aquire to help out the process. MOF you will be pleased to read this months article in Popular Photog. by Herbert Keppler on how photographers went crazy with lense test in the 40's & 50's and found that Japaneese Nikkor lenses were sharper than Leica made lenses and equal with Zeiss lenses. Interesting read. If you can afford top equipment then go for it. What kills me are those that because they have a Leica in their hands makes them a photographer and it doesn't. It wasn't on RFF but someone with a Leica asked me one time not long ago....Do you own a leica or do you aspire to have one? I said no, not really....And that person hasn't talked to me since. Those are the ones i'm talking about.
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
There will always be skeptics for anything. Capa's photography was great. Too bad that he tends to be tied, at least in RFF, with discussions of Nikon this, Leica that, Contax this, SLRs that...

Hardly ever about his work only.

I know musicians rave about their instruments, but musical discussions hardly ever degenerate in Yamaha vs. Stradivarius interchanges. More about...the music.
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Not directed at you Gabriel, but just a thought occured to me from your comment:

Capa shot full frame. (Not just 35mm, but 6x6 medium format.)

Don't know why I bring this up, but...
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
There will always be skeptics for anything. Capa's photography was great. Too bad that he tends to be tied, at least in RFF, with discussions of Nikon this, Leica that, Contax this, SLRs that...

Hardly ever about his work only.

I know musicians rave about their instruments, but musical discussions hardly ever degenerate in Yamaha vs. Stradivarius interchanges. More about...the music.
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My thoughts exactally. I bought a Apature book about WeeGee and some of his photos. He carried that big camera with enormus flash. His photos at least to me anyway are awsome and interesting to look at. They might not pass the critics test for exposure and all that, but one thing when you see a WeeGee photo or any photo of that era MOF you can almost 99.9%of the time know who took it.
 
They might not pass the critics test for exposure and all that, but one thing when you see a WeeGee photo or any photo of that era MOF you can almost 99.9%of the time know who took it.
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Or most work done by most of the photographers of that era never survived the test of time.
 
I have photos on my site that were taken with a $60 Canonet, consumer grade lenses and bodies, Canon L professional lenses. I have taken decent and lousy shots with every lens/camera combination I own.

I doubt most people could determine what equipment was used for any particular shot, they probably could not determine the film used, but they can tell me if they like or dislike the images. I have to admit I use mostly newer gear because I don't have the patience for rehabing old non-functional gear. I do believe the gear/format can influence how you shoot so I choose my gear/format with that in mind. I don't collect gear, I put every penny I have for the best gear I can reasonably afford and the rest goes for shooting and collecting photography books. If I had more time and money, I am sure I would expand my gear/format options, but for now I just have what I use so no gear sits on a shelf for too long!

Mael, I enjoyed your portfolio, you look like one collector who knows how to make nice images with the gear he collects!
 
Equipment

Equipment

1. It's the Indian, not the arrow. That's why Capa's better than us.

2. With digital photography now in everyone's hands, is it any wonder that there are so many crappy pixs around? It's basically dumbing down.
 
Comparing today's average to yesterday's exceptional is always going to lead to flawed results. This applies to photographers just as it applies to cameras.
 
LeicaTom said:
While he was killed in Indo-China about the same time the camera was being released, is there anyplace posted online that talks about that "last" photoshoot?

I know the photos from it still survive.....
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The "legend" says, he had a contax and a nikon around his neck that time, the nikon was found further on the field but still protected the film enough. No legends about Leica.
 
Thanks to f2eyelevel for his post. I thought of writing something similar when this thread was started. You can HCB or Doisneau me how much as you want, for me Capa remains the reference. Whatever camera he used, he did the job putting his heart & soul in, and I don't think he spent days discussing the particularities of one or another lens as so many people seem to do here.

Let's admit it once and for all, no matter how much a camera costs, some people are good at taking photos, some have this skill naturally, some learn and improve, and some will simply never get it. Even with $5000 in their hands. It's sad, but it's life.
 
"When a young samurai rode to an archery competitionhe he saw an old samurai sitting on a rock. he joked about the old man's worn bow and continued on his way. On his return he found the rock with several arrows sticking in it. Deeply ashamed the young samurai feel to his knees, humbled by the old man's lesson"

I read that somewhere and I think it fit's.......The strange thing about photography nowadays is that people are perfectly happy with pictures the size of a matchbox label. They rarely enlarge them anymore. But wasn't it the same in the thirties when people were content with contact prints from theri folders?
 
f2eyelevel said:
...When he came back to photojournalism later - and to meet death in Indochina - he used a Contax IIa and a Nikon S. He was hired by a Japanese newspaper to take some photographs of the daily life in postwar Japan - as a deal, he had to use a Japanese camera and so, he used a Nikon S. When in Japan he was contacted by a press agency to cover war in Indochina. He reluctantly accepted. ...
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I have a Japanese autobiography about R. Capa and despite the fact that I can`t read the text it has the most interesting photos about the post-war Japan, I have ever seen. The photos in that book are a wonderful documentation of the daily life and my Japanese friends (who didn`t know about R. Capa before) were very astonished that a "gaijin" (foreigner) can see and photograph Japan in that way. I guess that his talent to point out the essential in his photos no matter in which area of the world and under which circumstances makes him an outstanding photographer, who used his equipment very efficient.
 
CameraQuest said:
This morning I perused the Robert Capa book edited by his brother Cornell. Robert Capa: Photographs (Aperture Monograph)

His first published pics were of Trotsky giving a lecture. Not a bad professional start...

To me the quality of Capa's work is just amazing. The sad part is that he took all those shots with cameras and lenses are very sub part current levels of professional cameras and lenses.

I can't help but wonder what he could have done with some really good equipment...

or maybe I should wonder instead, how is it possible so many crappy pics are taken today with the latest wonderkin darlings of the latest camera or lens test...

hmmm.

Stephen
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I think it is only marginally interesting to see Capa's work just in a technical context. He is interesting in a historical and social behavorial context too. He tried to cover the great historical events, wars, killings and injustices of his time. With, as you say, marginal equipment. What couldn't a photographer of today have done with the flawed Normandie Beach Landing Scenes? Capa had a message to his 'viewers', telling of the injustices of the world. And the world listened/watched. Like my father, who did three landings in the Med during WWII, Robert Capa was shocked and appalled to see the lack of respect of human life shown. From all sides.

Today we have seen the americans and british murder, directly and indirecty a million innocent Iraqis in four years (you asked for it Stephen!), - we get it all in Technicolor and stereo sound. Not to mention the attack on the World Trade Center. Technically far better than the coverage of any spectacular scene of the WWII. But since Robert Capa's day's; we are all exhausted; we don't want to know and we don't want to see. Had he lived, he would have been in Iraq today, Robert Capa. Nor that I think that it would have made any difference. Exept for technically.
 
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