Come come now Torger, be serious, you are mildly offended? Please, you're a grown man on an internet forum, the chances of everyone agreeing with you all the time is pretty slim.
Actually I read your entire post, I just felt everything you were saying was either absurd or you were professing to know another persons motivations, there are a lot of people who stand by the images they produce rather than the kit they own, it's not unusual you know.
As with all things in life, balance is healthy, you and Eric (are you guys related?) are so singularly focused that sometimes it becomes ever so slightly tedious, the is a photography forum as much as a gear forum so how about commenting on the pleasures or passions of photography as you see it rather than constant cross-talk and mtf graphs, better yet, how's this for an idea, show some incredible photography taken with the extensive kit you carry about? Just a thought.
I'm quicker than most on the keyboard, that's my problem. I can put out massive amounts of text in notime, and I can get excited. Sorry for overflowing the forum at times
Anyways, in this context I pledge guilty of simplifying. I wanted to show that there are valid means to be interested in technical performance, and the ones that claim that they are not often still is but is not so interested in the measuring part of it.
I also wanted to show that not all strive to become artists and can still have a strong interest in photographic equipment and their performance. It
is an exciting area with great technological achievements over the years, which involves both electronics, mechanical and optical advancements. I thought the Otus lens line was an impossibility until I saw them. CMOS in MF is finally here. Low cost MF is coming, lots of exciting stuff going on.
There are threads which has images in them, and there are threads that discuss gear and argue about gear, and argue about things like this. There are even sections dedicated for photographic art criticism, not so much on GetDPI but on other photographic forums I visit.
As I write so much and long I guess you miss that I actually
do write about the pleasures of photography. I'm a strong view camera advocate and I often return to the reasons, I'm also a strong advocate to not bring sharpness too far as you loses other flexibility.
Crosstalk is a special interest, but it has great impact on the future of tech cams as we know it today. I want to raise awareness of the issue so tech users can put pressure on the manufacturers to solve the issue rather than moving further and further away from the great performance that we had in the Kodak sensors. If the trend continues it will be the end of tech lenses as we know them today, we'll see even more heavy and complex optical constructions than current Digarons. Symmetrical wides are small, light cheap and still have very good performance. I think there's value in keeping that optical design possibility, and well it's not only about symmetrical designs, it's about weakly retrofocus too. The trend has been going for breaking that design as well.
Ending with "why don't you show your work for a change" is a classic. But anyway, here are a few random shots (my lack of order is becoming an issue...) from the past year, I hope you enjoy them. They of course become out of context here but should give some idea of my shooting style and why I like to work with a view camera. Actually I don't use wide angles as much as one might think from my interest in wide angle design
, but I have them in my arsenal and use them from time to time. I enjoy making images out of ordinary subjects, I think it's fantastic that only placing the four corners of the frame on a particular postition can create an image out of nothing. Of course I also enjoy to capture grand photos of famous locations in wonderful light, but that is to me more of a experience of nature to me and there are already so many that do that well. Creating an image out of nothing in particular is the ultimate photographic experience to me.
I also think that a great part of the artistry in landscape photography, perhaps the greatest these days, is choosing what you show. You decide what is to be shown and what is good, the audience have to adapt (or not come, which probably is more likely in reality...). Therefore I don't believe in the excellence of the single image, anyone can shoot a great image once in a while. Artistry comes from a body of work, the feelings you convey when many images are watched together. I don't think you can convey a message with a single image, especially in the landscape genre, but you can with many. Being careful when choosing images is key of course, but even in which order you choose to display them can have an impact on what the images convey.
