[Leica] Violins, lenses and cameras

[jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols)]

:-) :-) :-)

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA

On 5/16/2014 8:28 PM, Jim Shulman wrote:
> All this reminds me of a favorite Jackie Mason story:
>
> Two old men are talking one afternoon.  One asks his friend,
> "Sam, what's with the new Mercedes?  Why not another Cadillac?"
> Sam replied, "There's a reason I wanted the Mercedes: it's the
> engineering."
> Sam's friend thought a minute and said, "So, how much engineering do you
> need for driving 15mph to the early bird special?"
>
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org] On Behalf 
> Of
> Peter Klein
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 6:27 PM
> To: lug; olympus at thomasclausen.net
> Subject: [Leica] Violins, lenses and cameras
>
> A number of my friends are symphony musicians.  Today, one of them posted
> on Facebook that she had found a great online deal on a set of high-end
> violin strings, and wondered if they were OK.  This led to a discussion of
> the fine points of shelf life, variants of the brand, and whether a
> platinum-coated E-string is better than a plain tin one.
>
> And I wished that the "your camera (or lens) doesn't matter" crowd were
> listening in.  Yes, musicians argue over instruments, strings, reeds and
> mouthpieces, just as artists *do* argue over paintbrushes, and
> photographers argue about cameras and lenses.  Does anyone seriously
> believe that  a cheap school-orchestra fiddle should sound as good as a
> Stradivarius or Guarneri violin?  Yes, the best players might be able to
> make the bad fiddle sound reasonably good, but no way would it sound as
> good as the Strad.
>
> So why do some of us constantly down people who prefer Lens A over Lens
> B, or Camera 1 over Camera 2?   The lens "resonates" the light,
> emphasizing some aspects while diminishing others, just as the instrument
> resonates the sound.  The camera's ergonomics and design are optimum for
> one type of picture over another.  And a camera that you have to fight to
> get the shot is just as hampering as the violin with a bad "wolf" tone in
> an exposed passage.
>
> Yes, of course musicians can get cultlike about this brand over that, just
> as photographers do about cameras and lenses.  Yes, a good photographer my
> be able to take a decent picture with any camera or lens, just as the
> musician may be able to turn in a decent performance with any instrument.
> But if my friend is going to play a big solo, she wants the best violin
> and strings she can afford. If you handed her a cheap school fiddle and
> told her that "instruments don't matter, it's the musician that makes the
> music," she would probably think you were an ignoramus (to be charitable).
> And she'd be right.
>
> The hard truth is:  Tools do matter.  Maybe not so much with Web-sized
> JPGs, and maybe not to rank beginners.  But once you're doing things "for
> real," they do matter. A lot.
>
> --Peter
>
>
>
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