What's in a Name?

[bob cole]

This story is not exactly new but when Polaroid was a relatively new company and looking for a dramatic way to demonstrate that you could take great pictures with a Polaroid, it hired Ansel Adams to take the photos...A good photographer can take good pictures with almost any camera and a great photograph can take great pictures with almost any camera...regards, bob

 

[principe azul]

I shoot with an M4 because I prefer it to the Bessas. It was a close call, though, and I nearly did buy an R2. But I don't have Leica glass and am more than happy with the Voigtlander. I do read lens reviews, but more the user comments and people like Bjorn Rorslett for Nikkor lenses - people who say what a lens is like to shoot with. Basically, what I want to know is is it a good lens for the price, and will it do what I want it to, which is usually shooting fine enough wide open and avoiding flare.

The only person who gushed over my Leica but dissed the VC was an assistant in a posh brand clothes shop who admitted he'd never used either. All the guys I know with Leicas say how good the VCs are.

I've never understood why Leicas are supposed to be so quiet. Self-timer and 1s makes an awful racket....

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Reputation builds a name. Not the other way around.

 

[drmatthes]

Reputation builds a name. Not the other way around.

... and once a name is built everyone goes for the name.

Imagine a beautiful rangefinder with a label "Cosina" or "Kobayashi's Latest" on it.

And then... imagine the new "Zeiss Ikon".

THAT's in a name.

 

[FrankS]

A rose, by any other name, would still smell as sweet.

I'd like to take credit for that but it belongs to W.S.

It's not just the name.

 

[drmatthes]

Walter Scott or Willie Shakespeare, Frank?

 

[FrankS]

That would be William, I believe. 🙂

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare's lyrical tale of "star-cross'd" lovers. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families. Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks, to "deny (his) father" and instead be "new baptized" as Juliet's lover. This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of the play, and the issue of whether photographers choose Leica for the name or for the camera itself.

 

[Kyle]

Fred, you are correct, but I believe there is more to it...

Its simply natural to want to own the best thing you can afford, and I don't believe there's anything wrong with that. Cameras are my hobby, so I appreciate and enjoy using a well made camera, thats why I sold my Bessa R and bought an M2 (and then later bought a ZI). Its not much different than my buddy who recently bought a $2000 bass guitar. He'd still be able to play with his older, cheaper guitar, but he wanted to treat himself. The guitar isn't going to make him a rock star, but that's not why he bought it; it simply offered him certain qualities that he could not get with his other guitar.

 

[ErnestoJL]

What´s bad in buying the best camera anyone can afford?
Just nothing, but the best camera will bring something others low priced wouldn´t.
Of course there is a limit for all this but is in our wallets, and after buying it, the limit is in our hands, brain and eyes. The camera itself ceased to be the limiting factor.

Many years ago in a Popular Photography 1969 issue there was an article titled: Are you as good as this box camera?

It showed clearly that a good photographer can produce miracles (almost) with a simple camera.
Anyway, a good camera/lens combination helps.

Ernesto

 

[Oldprof]

Fred, you are correct, but I believe there is more to it...

Its simply natural to want to own the best thing you can afford ...

That may be your preference and opinion, but there is nothing inherently "natural" about it (i.e., it is not a universal trait of human nature). Many people base buying decisions on cost/benefit analyses rather than absolute quality. For example, many would say Lexus and Mercedes Benzes are better cars than Toyotas and Hondas. But given these choices I would always select a Toyota or Honda even though I could pay for a Lexus or Mercedes if I really wanted one. For me, Toyotas and Hondas offer better than adequate quality at more reasonable prices. I prefer spending my resources wisely rather than having the "absolute best."

One could argue that Leicas and Leitz lenses produce slightly better pictures than other 35mm cameras and lenses (which I personally doubt), but the price you pay to gain this marginal (and perhaps nonexistent) increment in picture quality is very high - beyond what most consumers are willing to pay.

However, I would never say people shouldn't buy "the best" if that's what makes them happy.

 

[Kyle]

That may be your preference and opinion, but there is nothing inherently "natural" about it (i.e., it is not a universal trait of human nature). Many people base buying decisions on cost/benefit analyses rather than absolute quality. For example, many would say Lexus and Mercedes Benzes are better cars than Toyotas and Hondas. But given these choices I would always select a Toyota or Honda even though I could pay for a Lexus or Mercedes if I really wanted one. For me, Toyotas and Hondas offer better than adequate quality at more reasonable prices. I prefer spending my resources wisely rather than having the "absolute best."

One could argue that Leicas and Leitz lenses produce slightly better pictures than other 35mm cameras and lenses (which I personally doubt), but the price you pay to gain this marginal (and perhaps nonexistent) increment in picture quality is very high - beyond what most consumers are willing to pay.

However, I would never say people shouldn't buy "the best" if that's what makes them happy.

Sorry I did not clarify. What I meant was many people have a hobby or interest that they especially enjoy, and usually those people lust after the expensive things in that hobby. For example, one of my friends is a big paintball buff, so he owns a paintball gun that costs well over $1500. I would never pay that much for something like that. Just like he would never pay as much as I do for camera gear. Unless one is completely 'made of money', people take the cost/benefit factors into consideration, but there is usually one thing that people will (or would like to) pay top dollar for. For me, thats a nice camera. For others its a motorcycle, car, tobacco pipe, paintball gun, guitar, or RC airplane.

 

[drmatthes]

Thanx Frank, never had anybody sum up R&J as clearly as that. I admire the film (the old one by Zefirelli with Michael York, not the Leopard-in-Cabrio stuff, or what was his name?).

There is a word by Nietzsche (1868 in a letter to Paul Deussen) that seems like a comment:

"Somebody who doesn't smell the scent of a rose should not want to criticize about it: and if he does - à la bonne heure! Then he will loose the desire to criticize."

This also holds true for a good RF.

Nice comparison anyway, rose and rangefinder. Poetic. Pathetic?

Let's keep it like that, Frank!