why all the this vs that postings?

[Bertram2]

This is nothing new. . An extreme example of this is the Leica Photography Forum on photo.net which is largely devoted to debates about equipment, which lens or body is better, etc. I think the fascination with gear is largely a male predilection. You see similar behavior when car nuts talk about their favorite automobiles, or audiophiles discuss speakers. Golfers are another example ... they love to talk about the merits of different clubs and golf balls.

Hi Oldprof
very wisely spoken ! And if there is a product which costs 3 to 5 times more than comparable products this is pure dynamite for a discussion which is always a bit
childish anyway and in principle totally OT. (Do painters talk about their brushes all the time ?) The question of prestige then is in the foreground and it gets all hopeless. The Leica owners are suspcted be boasters, the others are suspected to be envy or poor or both and so on 😀
Even on the CVUG list, which is VERY different at this point from all other lists and forums lately somebody answered a newbie's request for a recommendation this way:
"Take a 35mm cron , if you are poor take a CV Skopar". Imagine this choice of words !! If you are poor !!! Caught pants down as we say.
What makes all that really funny for me is the fact that I have not seen a decent photography ever done by this kind of folks, who are often infected by the collecting virus too.
Their photos look always as if they were shot just as a proof of their ownership, for nothing more, no further meaning.Grotesque bad P&S stuff, so poor that you cannot believe that someone dares to post such a nonsense in a gallery.
Up til today I could not find such folks her at RFF, seems this is a mined garden for them. Too much knowledge and skill? 😉

 

[kai]

Imagine if the internet forums existed in 1955:

"Leica or Voigtlander?"
"Will the new Zeiss Ikon be as good as Leica?"
"Can Leica survive competition from Japan?"

Hmmm... come to think of it, 50 years later, all those topics are still valid discussion points!

 

[Pherdinand]

My slippers stink more than your slippers.
(Not to talk about my Zeiss folder, now THAT really stinks!)

 

[supermarcel23]

Well, I have to say I like photography, and I like taking pictures before talking about my gear, but I like to speak of the gear because I am my own camera repairman, and I like sharing experiences.

But, as I post in a previous forum in RFF :"cameras are here to take pictures. Whatever it is written on. All other considerations, like showing them, collecting, being proud of them, take us away from their original purpose.
If the speeds are relatively accurate, and also the focusing is working, the aperture ring is moving, then you got a machine that will produce images with the help of your mind."

It's true some lenses are better than others, but you can make a great image with a plastic toy camera as you can make one nice too with a Leica M7.

That's true that I like comparing for example two samples of the same lens, but for that I must go out and use my cameras !

I'm a user and I try hard not to collect too much, and sometimes it is hard not to buy all the cameras I have under my eyes. But I try to have a collection that is alive ! And that gives images !

I left photo.net for a long time now, tired of this kind of photo snobism, and I met here the nice feel of people living a passion, and that's a very nice thing !

 

[jdos2]

Stinky slippers, indeed.

For the original point, though- I don't see any of the nastiness portion of the "this vs. that" argument here. I see contrast, and that's valuable for me.

Many folks here have never used a Mamiya 7, but I could contrast it to cameras they well might have used, and express the results in several terms that others might understand, and again, that's valuable stuff.

Voigtlander Prominent vs. Leica MP? Thinking of buying one or the other, and have looked through either? One is a bright line finder of decent brilliance, the other isn't. One has a razor spot, the other doesn't. One is known for decementing, the other isn't...

If I want True Silliness in the "vs" arguments, there are plenty of other forums online for that. This has always seemed to be a gentlemanly place, and I'm grateful for that.

Unless I missed the point of the original poster, and for that, well, it's coffee vs. sleepiness, I guess...

 

[back alley]

not a critictism but a curiosity...lately there are a number of threads that, when condensed, seem to be about 'my camera vs yours'.

what's that all about?

joe

i never said things were getting nasty.

it just seemed to me that we were experiencing a bit of competition re. our equipment, for the first time on this forum.
i love the joking, the comparing and the learning from each other when we explain our gear and talk about what makes it work for us.

again, it's not a criticism but a comment.

joe

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Isn't that illuminating? 🙂

I mean, the direction this thread took... First rover mentioning slippers, and then, after the slipper controversy (btw, mine are a German brand, Romika... very good), oldprof points out what my wife has been telling me all along: that men like gear for its own sake.

And what's happened? We just made light fun of the "This vs. That" threads! 😀

Now... I haven't seen many of those here, joe, but they sure develop into amiable conversations about the benefits of something over something. Now, in that "other forum" they may turn into unkind exchanges of the type we've never seen here.

Now... how about coffee vs. tea? Ektachrome vs. Kodachrome? (and now, the big gulp... 😱 ) How about Canon P vs. Leica M2?

Nah... I like them all (except tea; that's only when I feel civilized! 🙂 )

 

[DougK]

I agree, Francisco, even our worst debates remain civilized. Makes this a real nice place to learn a lot.

And just for the record, slippers are for wimps... I go barefoot 🙂

 

[RML]

Tea for me, please!

 

[Honu-Hugger]

I use to drink coffee, but now it's some sort of super-charged jet fuel that comes out of an Espresso machine -- all because of the "Camera and Coffee" thread 😀
I'm so easily influenced I almost took up smoking after seeing some great looking European cigarrettes in one of the posts (might have been Denis'), and I've never smoked before in my life -- probably would have been good for a few laughs, before throwing up. Yeah, we're a pretty nasty group here (I just have ordinary slippers, but comfy and well broken in).