When Did It All Go Wrong?

[Spider67]

"I'll show you an old SLR I have at home" and what did he bring? One of those plastic Canons ...YUKKKK!!!

 

[Leighgion]

It was all over once glass got involved with photography. REAL photography uses a box with a tiny hole poked in it. Weaklings with their "lenses" and "viewfinders ruined it all. I won't even get started on the heresy of roll film and including mechanical parts in a camera!

Seriously, nothing went wrong. I bought an Olympus XA because it's tiny, quiet and still has a good lens. That's all. It's a charming camera, but I have no propaganda to spout about how the current camera market has lost its way. Sure, designs could be better than they are and many points are driven purely my economy, but I for one do not consider it better for camera manufacture and by extension photography to be an elite art only in the hands of the few. Without chaff there's no wheat.

 

[peterc]

The only thing I think has gone "wrong" with cameras is proprietary batteries (not a problem for meterless, fully-manual cameras). One of the first things I check when looking at a camera is how it's powered. You can find AA or LR44 cells just about anywhere ... a Nikon EN-EL8 or a L-Ion for an M8 is a little harder to replace.

 

[amateriat]

I'll put in a good word for CR2 batteries (which all but one of my cameras use, including both my Hexar RFs, Ricoh GR-1 and Konica Lexio 70), among the last of the semi-ubiquitous batteries for camera use. Once things went digital and rechargeable, all bets were off.


- Barrett

 

[peterc]

Good point. The CR2 and CR123a can be found at just about any drugstore these days.

 

[rxmd]

To be honest if I was standing in a bog somewhere with a DSLR and had to change batteries and had to fiddle around with four AA batteries I would be quite grateful if the manufacturer had instead put the battery into a convenient package. ("Dang! Dropped one of them darned AAs again!")

If you expect to need more batteries, buy them in advance (just like you have to do with film if you don't want to rely on having a well-stocked drugstore nearby).

Philipp

 

[Roger Vadim]

My gripe is lens speed, and zooms as 'normal'. What happened to consumer cameras and fast lenses?

I totally agree that this is the major culprit.
For example, amateur photography to a major turn for the worse with the introduction of small aperture zoom point and shoot 35mm cameras.

There are shots where the wide aperture is almost mandatory, and there are shots where you want to stop down. The 35mm format with wide aperture lenses is a very flexible compromise. It is just right.

I have seen a huge number of wonderful looking snapshots (pro-like) that were created between the 30's and 60's (some in 70's). There have been much less since. This would be with both rangefinders and SLR's.

Definetely the case. It's not so much about the cameras itself, but the use of them. the 'trained' amateur up untill the end of the 70's had slow film, fast lenses (compared to the 4.5-5.6 zooms of nowadays Kit lenses) and when he was shooting the kids with granny the oof was great because he had to use a large aperture. so I'd say: Fast film. That's when everything went wrong

But seriuosly, I find it rather sad that our photo-albums will look rather boring compared to the ones when I was a kid (70's), or the ones of my mom and my grandparents... despite (or because) the evolotion of consumer products.

 

[wt67]

Why a rangefinder? In my view, there are a couple of things I felt that I had to learn. First, understanding how cars work; particularly, understanding engine so that I could figure out how to fix them in case something was wrong with it. So I bought a 1968 Mercedes 280SL and have been studying and tinkering with it ever since. And second, how to use a camera. And not just how to point and shoot. I needed to understand how they worked, and the Leica rangefinder seemed like the best way to do so. So I bought an M6ttl and 50mm Summicron M and have been shooting and experimenting ever since.

 

[Athos6]

I've used everything from 6x6 folders, 4x5 field, the Argus C3, Nikon F3, Fm3a, F5, D200, Nikkormat Ftn, Canon A-1, Ae-1, Ae-1 prog, Av-1, F1n, G3, Bessa R, Leica M2... (I think thats it.) I voted for the T90 because its UGLY plain and simple. I haven't bought a Canon SLR newer than the A-1 because of the way they look, wouldn't be caught dead with one. Call me shallow but at least Nikons look nice Automation vs. Manual, Digital vs. film, makes no difference to me. When taking pictures for the fun of it is the purpose, looks become a lot more important Nice pictures are the perk of a relaxing activity.

 

[Sam N]

This poll is based on two assumptions that are problematic:

1) That camera design is linear and only comes from one source.
There's a huge variety of competing camera designers and types. Leica is still kicking and Canon is still cranking out faster DSLRs. People still design (or at least build) large format cameras and SLRs, TLRs, RFs, etc.

2) That it ever went wrong in the first place
Camera design has progressed in every direction. You can get pretty much any type of camera you could want nowadays (except for an affordable full-frame digital RF ).

If anything, I'll agree with the previous poster about the physical look of most newer cameras and lenses. I'd love a DSLR that looks like a Manual SLR and lenses that feel solid. I don't want AF and AE to disappear though. I can just turn them off when I don't want to use them.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Things didn't go wrong. Everything is great.

I honestly could not agree more. I love using my DSLR, and getting into older-style RF cameras has made me enjoy photography even more. Every era since the beginning of photography has had its wonderful designs, and most of these cameras are still wonderful today.

I record music on a computer, except when I record it on 1/4-inch RTR 4-track. And both are great experiences, with different strengths. I think the same holds true here.

 

[charjohncarter]

I'm bidding on a 6x6 folder from the fifties, I hope I get it. It took me a long time (too long) to realize that I took/take better pictures (at least ones that satisfied me) with my Leica IIIf and my Pentax Spotmatic. So I decided: use them.

 

[literiter]

I'm bidding on a 6x6 folder from the fifties, I hope I get it. It took me a long time (too long) to realize that I took/take better pictures (at least ones that satisfied me) with my Leica IIIf and my Pentax Spotmatic. So I decided: use them.

I wish you luck with the folder. They have their issues to be sure but they are special cameras.

Special cameras in that they can be compared with cedar and canvas canoes. Quiet, slow moving, delicate, maneuverable, beautiful, infinitely repairable and in the right hands...precious.

 

[sdotkling]

Don't you mean...

Too bad we moved away from wet plates and blacked-out Conestoga wagons.

 

[huntjump]

I use an RF not because i dislike my nikon D700, but because i enjoy using it at least twice as much if not way more. I keep my d700 because its a badass camera! Just too big and heavy. (which besides the full manual control, the size of the RF is what appeals to me)

 

[excellent]

Brutal thread.

 

[Corto]

interesting old thread.

I dont think Cameras ever "went wrong". Lots of great cameras have been made up till this day.

And as far as Polycarbonate cameras go, I have no problems with them as long as they are as reliable and accurate as a damn Glock 19.

 

[celluloidprop]

The minute we progressed beyond wet-plate collodion.

 

[back alley]

3 year old thread...original poster no longer visits here...

 

[n5jrn]

Voting is no longer allowed on this poll, but for me I'd have to vote for autofocus as the downward slide point. I really prefer to focus manually. It wouldn't be so bad if autofocus didn't degrade the ability to focus manually, but it does. Half-silvered reflex mirrors make for a dimmer image in the finder, and the focus rings on AF lenses don't have the same feel as those on manual-focus lenses.

Moreover, AF lenses tend to be heavier and bulkier than their MF predecessors. This is another minus for me, as I do much of my photography out of doors while hiking, making portability a second feature compromised by autofocus.