What old ideas would you like to see reintroduced in the photography world ?

At the dawn of photography, there was a common idea that the photographer was some sort of necromancer who captured his subject's soul on the photographic plate. I like that! Let's bring it back and reclaim some of the respect we deserve!
 
A good film scanner with factory support.
A professional school for camera techs.

I'd like the idea that a film camera is a tool, not jewelry or a conversation piece/accessory, to really take hold. Just because I'm shooting a camera that uses film does not mean that I want to talk with anyone. Same goes for my car; I don't drive it for attention, I drive it because it's reliable and I can fix it myself. I guess it's a good thing I'm hard of hearing and progressively losing more, so I don't have to interact.

Phil Forrest
 
A digital to optical enlarger - a higher resolution and consumer priced version of the De Vere 504DS, that allows traditional darkroom workflow printing of digital files.
 
I have about 18 boxes of Fuji pack film for my 100-series Polaroid cameras. I really love using pack film - the whole process of using it, as well as the results. Kicking myself for not discovering it 40 years ago.

Retro-Grouch said:
At the dawn of photography, there was a common idea that the photographer was some sort of necromancer who captured his subject's soul on the photographic plate. I like that! Let's bring it back and reclaim some of the respect we deserve!
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LOL! But how can you be sure it doesn’t really capture the soul? Ha-ha! Well, at least artistically, a good photo might do that. There’s an urban legend (?) about a photographer found dead on the trail somewhere deep in Africa, his Leica gently placed on his chest.

Sadly, I don’t think past products or even past attitudes towards photography can come back. It is up to us to preserve what we can.
 
JeffS7444 said:
Ilford once offered 72-exposure rolls of 35 mm film using thinner film base: That's an neat idea if you got a camera that's gentle on the film.
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I don't know if you can still get it, but for a while I was buying up Ilford's Surveillance film - the P3 - in bulk. 150ft rolls instead of the usual 100ft of HP5+/FP4 etc. in the same size pack. Really thin base. It crinkled up super easy if you didn't have clean reels in your development tank, but damn, that was really nice film to use. I'd push process it from 400 to 1600 in Rodinal - of all things! - and still get great results:


Kevin Devine, The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, 10th June 2012 by Tony Gale, on Flickr

I'd love to bring that stuff back.

As far as ideas I'd like to see come back... I'd go for collapsible lenses. Not enough of those these days. I like the X-Pro 2 and the 35/2... but I'd like it more if it sank back into the body like a collapsible 'Cron.
 
DOF (depth of field) scales on lens barrels, especially for wide angle lenses. In fact, I would like manual-focus wide angle lenses with a long focusing arc to make the DOF scale that much more useful.

With wide angle lenses (28mm/equivalent and wider), I don't tend to focus on a subject like I do with longer focal lengths. I focus on a zone, almost exclusively focusing with the DOF scale. For this reason, auto-focus with a wide angle lens is an impediment for me.

Not many modern auto-focus lenses even have distance scales anymore, and with the short focusing arc normal to AF lenses it's not really possible to provide a decent DOF scale.

- Murray
 
Jsrockit
+1
I bought a brand new Shen Hao with a Schneider lens and accessories paying a fortune with the idea to start practicing with polaroid film just in time to see them discontinued.
I still ave ti use the camera and i have been hoping ever since that they be reintroduced by sombody
 
It used to be said that the difference between professional and amateur photographers was that professionals had large wastebaskets.

Zuiko, the version I heard way back when is that professionals take bad photos, too.
They just don't show them to anybody. :)
 
Nice ideas here. I'll add one: Feeling honored to be photographed, taking it easy and striking a fun pose, giving the photographer the benefit of doubt etc. rather than instantly assuming he has nefarious intentions. I blame trash TV and other media that blow up the frequency of violent crime against strangers way beyond reality.
 
Particularly with regard to Cosina-Voigtlander:



1) The idea that new screwmount lenses are viable, useful, and universal (and would not be a deal-breaker for M-mount users);


2) and that quality auxiliary brightline finders are very much in demand and there is a solid market for them beyond Barnack shooters
 
These are some fantastic ideas, group wisdom. Now then, can we have a poll on age? I have a feeling a lot of us are 60+ (I’m 72). But, of course the OP did ask what to bring back. A 20’ something who has just discovered film photography after 10 years of digital would not know what things have been lost and gone, perhaps even
before they were born.
Edit ; Not meant as accusation, just observation.
 
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