Suggestion for a new Coffee With the Mentors Mentor

Archiver said:
I'm wondering what that will entail, as at least two mentors have passed away, one isn't in good health, and two have not been on RFF for a year or more.
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I just looked and it seems that Jason, Helen, and I are the only ones left! Roger and Tom have died, Simon and Bill have stopped posting, Joe is in bad health, and Brian seems to have quit the forum altogether...his posts all says "Former Member" instead of his name. I haven't been on here enough, it seems; I didn't know that he had left. Helen hasn't posted in a few weeks; I hope she is ok.

I've been in bad health myself for the last couple years. I'm starting to get back into photographing again, and I need to start writing some more tutorials. I just hadn't felt up to doing much the last couple years.
 
I do not really have a strong opinion either way on Mr. Overgaard.

I watch his videos from time to time when they come up - some I enjoy and find informative, others less so. This should certainly not be read by others as me "damning him with faint praise" as the saying goes - I simply mean it when I say that I do not have a negative view of him or his videos. All of this leaves me a bit flummoxed at the strident negativity directed towards him by some here - after all he always struck me as earnest, well-meaning and fairly knowledgeable within the boundaries of his chosen profession and equipment preferences, if a little bit "vanilla -flavored" and bland in his presentation if you take my meaning - i.e. he does not strike me as a flamboyant showman type.

My view in all matters is that almost all people I have come across have both strengths and weaknesses and we must learn which are which with each such person. Bearing in mind too that some particular person's perceived weaknesses may only be perceived as weaknesses by another person because we too each have weaknesses, predilections and even prejudices and these very things may be what are leading us astray in our judgment! Just a point to consider.
 
Helen still posts here on occasions...rare occasions these days. Her Flickr posts have pretty much dried up. That concerns me. Hope things are okay with her. I'm really shocked about Brian. I hope he is well. I enjoy his shared knowledge. The man is an encyclopedia of optics, especially Sonnars.
 
Archiver said:
Oddly, I wouldn't put Ken into that category. While I don't agree with all of his strong opinions about photography, I often refer to his very comprehensive lens library if I want details about when certain Leica lenses were made, which version came when, etc. I feel his website is a comprehensive catalogue of gear from Leica and Nikon, and useful as a reference for further exploration.

Thorsten has a lot of information about Leica in general, but his self-marketing is off putting to people who have moved past beginner/early intermediate level. I do not think he ranks as mentor status in the RFF community, given the level of folks here like SimonSawSunlight, who unfortunately has not been around since 2024.

Eric Kim is a class of his own. He did a lot to popularize street photography in online communities, but his work is mediocre and uninspiring at best, even compared with his contemporaries. His articles are full of ill conceived rambling, and during the pandemic he went completely off the deep end into garbage philosophical rambling and self aggrandizement, raving about the virtues of eating meat and lifting weights, and why a person shouldn't associate with their betters!
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Dear Archiver,

I'm with you on Ken Rockwell for a slightly different reason. He has a rather extension archive of camera and lens reviews dating back decades. As primarily a used buyer I refer to his website often for details on potential purchases. I recently bought a Canon L lens based on Ken saying pretty much the same things about it as The Digital Picture.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 😉
 
Tim Murphy said:
Dear Archiver,

I'm with you on Ken Rockwell for a slightly different reason......
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My personal observation is I found KRs site sickly, a pushy 90s themed affiliate site and find my main related info [Nikon/Olympus] from other sites without the constant ads and what feels like rinse and repeat comments but now we are OT so I'll move on....☕
 
To bring this back on topic and a bit more positive: the best candidate I could think of would be Mike Johnston of the former Online Photographer blog. Personable, well-written, and definitely a broad range of experience. I miss his blog popping up in my RSS feeds since Typepad shut it down about a week ago. I just hope his transfer to a self-hosted Wordpress site goes well.
 
Mike Johnston is a photographer and writer with much photography related knowledge. Rangefinders have not been an important topic in his equipment related comments and observations, over the years.

He has a pleasant style of communicating however some thorough editing is often lacking: for instance 10 words are written where 1 would suffice.

I look forward to successful rebirth of his T.O.P. blog , but I'm not convinced that he is a good fit for the rangefinderforum.
 
Mr Sonnar has left the forums? Really sad, this man knows things and is a fine character. I hope he manages to re-join. Didn‘t it already happen once?

Brian, if you read this, wish you all the best and if possible, come back as soon as possible!
 
Following The Camera Collector too closely can be hazardous to one's decluttering efforts. 😆 But lest it be forgotten, back in the days of print, you'd be lucky to get one installment per month, and it'd cost you.

IIRC, Bill Pierce posted awhile back about never being comfy with the notion of being the conversation-starter.
 
Coldkennels said:
To bring this back on topic and a bit more positive: the best candidate I could think of would be Mike Johnston of the former Online Photographer blog. Personable, well-written, and definitely a broad range of experience. I miss his blog popping up in my RSS feeds since Typepad shut it down about a week ago. I just hope his transfer to a self-hosted Wordpress site goes well.
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Mike is still posting TOP using Patreon. I'm not sure of the setup but I think you can access TOP without being a Patreon member. I am a member so I can access it but I haven't gotten comfortable with the new format yet. I also don't like how it posts comments with my real name instead of my nom-de-web. Don't like too much personal info floating around everywhere. Like anything. Anyway, the old TOP was like a comfortable pair of slippers. The new one might look and smell better but it's taking some time to break it in.






......................................
 
pyeh said:
I noticed 'former member' a few days ago and deduced it must be Brian Sweeney. I hope he cones back. He is so knowledgeable and helpful.
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Totally agree, RFF without Brian means a lot of the technical discussions that some of us like just won’t happen. I mean, taking good picture is nice but we don’t want to be out doing it all the time. Some of us have better things to do (involving screwdrivers, spanners, grease and little circles of paper, string, aluminium foil or anything else that comes to hand for making shims). I hope he comes back as « Brian king of shims »
 
Archiver said:
Oddly, I wouldn't put Ken into that category. While I don't agree with all of his strong opinions about photography, I often refer to his very comprehensive lens library if I want details about when certain Leica lenses were made, which version came when, etc. I feel his website is a comprehensive catalogue of gear from Leica and Nikon, and useful as a reference for further exploration.

Thorsten has a lot of information about Leica in general, but his self-marketing is off putting to people who have moved past beginner/early intermediate level. I do not think he ranks as mentor status in the RFF community, given the level of folks here like SimonSawSunlight, who unfortunately has not been around since 2024.

Eric Kim is a class of his own. He did a lot to popularize street photography in online communities, but his work is mediocre and uninspiring at best, even compared with his contemporaries. His articles are full of ill conceived rambling, and during the pandemic he went completely off the deep end into garbage philosophical rambling and self aggrandizement, raving about the virtues of eating meat and lifting weights, and why a person shouldn't associate with their betters!
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's true about Ken... he did veer into some over-the-top stuff, and he is a fanboy, but he has good information, especially on Nikon gear from a certain era.
 
Ken has useful info on various specs on lenses. I can ignore his ego to get to what is useful.

Thorsten had an extremely helpful long form posting on the M 240 when I first bought mine. Almost nothing useful since.

Mike is an excellent writer and blogger; his material is very "tasty" but it doesn't really fit here unfortunately.

As for Brian, that's a very hard loss and will lead to me participating here far far less in the future.
 
Rob-F said:
Outside of being shocked at his scathing remarks concerning the CV 40mm/1.4 (which I happen to like), I'm rarely disappointed in Ken's reviews.
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I don’t read him much now, but sometimes I get the feeling that he doesn’t take himself as seriously as people think he does.
 
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