S
Shelby Lewis
Guest
Bill G... I'm speechless as to the amount of negativity in your post. I apologize that the content of this thread is so offensive to you.
Back to my idiot corner, I guess.
Back to my idiot corner, I guess.
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Speaking only for myself, I'd much rather use equipment I can grow into rather than equipment that limits me. However some equipment is so far beyond my capabilities that I'd crash in the first turn. The S2 interests me because it would allow room to grow into a larger format while not being too far beyond my present comprehension..... I finished this feeling that I was back at DPReview listening to a bunch of idiots who have a piece of equipment that has more to offer than any of them will be able to use or understand....
Agree with the above - but would like to expand: good equipment can also come with creative tension: it pulls you along, it makes you work, it makes you think, it delivers what you imagined.Speaking only for myself, I'd much rather use equipment I can grow into rather than equipment that limits me. However some equipment is so far beyond my capabilities that I'd crash in the first turn.
No offense taken Bill.I just have to add my comments to this longer than necessary posting.....I have read each comment...the very long and tedious as well as the short replies..I recognized that most if not all of the posters on replies are either Professional Photographers....or......wish they were Professional Photographers.......I happen to know one of the people that have added their comment and whom I admire and I would suggest to you that that person probably knows more about photography than all the rest of you. That person constantly posts results that are stunning and can reflect the character of the instrument being used. I finished this feeling that I was back at DPReview listening to a bunch of idiots who have a piece of equipment that has more to offer than any of them will be able to use or understand. Having a well rounded education with perhaps a number of degrees to prove your intelligence.....or.......lack of that does not make a great photographer.
I have always said that "it is not the camera that takes the picture...it is the person behind the camera that takes the picture."
I apologize to any person who might be offended but I do think that you have spent to much time discussing a subject that most people could never wish to own......a Leica S-2 DSLR camera.
Readable and relevant article by Ctein who used to carry on about dye transfer and other arcana when I was a much younger photographer.So the kind of discussion that we're having isn't new - it's inherent in a discipline that combines science, engineering and art. One reason to photographers test is to learn the limits of their technical resources so they can adapt their techniques to them.
:thumbs:So I've just ordered a used copy of Edward Weston's Daybooks (edited by Nancy and Beaumont Newhall) from Amazon. I'll return to this thread after it arrives and I've had a chance to spend some time with it. What I think it will demonstrate is that there's nothing new in the issues that we're discussing, except perhaps the pace of change and the ease of communication (of qualified and unqualified views) via the internet. What I think I know about Weston's technical choices is that in the 1930s he used an 8x10 camera, a Century Universal, that was expensive and more sophisticated than the maddening Deardorff that we might expect that he was using, that he was disappointed in several aspects of it and developed work arounds, that he used apochromatic lenses that were exotic and expensive at the time and that he experimented with film and with processing choices and techniques. To a significant extent the tools available to him defined his art. He had an extensive correspondence with other photographers on technical issues.
In the wet darkroom era there were angry debates on the merits of D76 vs. Accufine, the merits of pyro and other similar such issues.
So the kind of discussion that we're having isn't new - it's inherent in a discipline that combines science, engineering and art. One reason to photographers test is to learn the limits of their technical resources so they can adapt their techniques to them.
There was a guy named Fred Picker who published wrote articles on some the kinds of issues referred to above for Zone VI. As various issues were discussed his advice was always "Try it." Still good advice
See, you learn something every day...Did you know that in the 1800s WN offered a pigment called "Mummy" that was actually ground up Mummies from Egypt?
-Marc
Absolutely agree. The tools today allow us to get into situations, play with light and color in ways not readily imaginable back then. The mastery of Weston and Adams was as aggressive in pushing their envelope as well. Part of the art is working hard against the limits and knowing the back and forth across that line.See, you learn something every day
I make my living by selling images. I hate it with passion when somebody makes a remark "you must have a great camera". But truth be told, the new technology enables me to make images that were not possible few years back. Yes, the photographer makes the image ... but the tools he uses play a BIG role on the output.
So, I think it's silly to keep saying "it's the photographer, not the camera". It's both.
Them's fighting wordsIn the wet darkroom era there were angry debates on the merits of D76 vs. Accufine.
That was what books were for ... remember them ... the things we held in our hands and learned from? :ROTFL: I have a whole shelf full of "technical" books from the age of stinky rooms where we worked bathed in an atomic red glow to the sounds of running water and ticking timer clocks ... sigh.Them's fighting words
It's cool that you can still buy acufine. Wet work is now a thing of the past as I'm so allergic to fixer
I think the internet has made the ability to discuss technical issues very, too?, easy. Before the internet if I wanted to really know how many times I could replenish the acufine I'd either have to do the experiments myself or hope that someone at the local pro shop had done it.
Brewed my own and used to love a two part D76 derivative, sighThat was what books were for ... remember them ... the things we held in our hands and learned from? :ROTFL: I have a whole shelf full of "technical" books from the age of stinky rooms where we worked bathed in an atomic red glow to the sounds of running water and ticking timer clocks ... sigh.
Marc
So Do I - the best retort seems to be that:I hate it with passion when somebody makes a remark "you must have a great camera".
Drifting off subject ... but we're dinosaurs at heart, huh Bob?Brewed my own and used to love a two part D76 derivative, sigh
-bob
I am afraid it is more than the heart.Drifting off subject ... but we're dinosaurs at heart, huh Bob?
I still have my wet work room intact ... filtered water, big sink, timers now forever set to 0, great Kaiser Medium Format enlarger with top Rodenstock lenses ... it all looks like Miss Havisham's wedding room ... just as I left it on the last day I made prints all those years ago.
My plan was to return to it once I retired ... so much for the plans of mice and men
-Marc
Jono,So Do I - the best retort seems to be that:
It's like telling a chef that he must have great saucepans