Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:32 AM 10/12/98 -0700, you wrote: >the value of manual cameras. IMHO it's the beginners, the rich amateurs and >the hack pros who are so entranced with technology-in other words, the ones >with the least vision and the sloppiest technique. They want the camera to >compensate for their own inadequacies. They look for the camera with the >most metering modes, with the best autofocus, the fastest motor drive. They >search through chemical catalogs and photo recipe books for esoteric >developers and toners. They compare resolution test charts (and prices) to >find which is the "best" lens. They study the Zone System before they learn Though much of this is true, it seems to me a straw man. Why? Because it makes the assumption that old cameras with no meters are more "pure" than any other camera on the planet. It is just as wrong to believe one as the other. No person can say for any other person what is best for them. And to complain because someone wants something different than another is just as guilty as the anal retentive types who are constantly on the search for something "greener on the other side." Technology has its place, and is no more or less "pure" than any other. Sports photographers would be fools to use Leica M cameras as their main tools. Just as much as a street shooter would be crazy to use a 4x5 camera for low-light candid pictures. The tool for the job. M2, M7, R8, F5, EOS 3, Sinar or Minilux. Whatever works. To call pros "hacks" because they use a lot of tools is ignorance of the requirements of the challenges they have to meet. Technology is a tool, not the devil in disguise. - -- Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch I love cats...they taste just like chicken.