Bah Humbug - I'm a Ludite

dinners

dinners

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Phil
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I'm hardly 'old' at 39 and certainly consider myself to be somebody who embraces technological progress but I'm finding myself more and more disillusioned when it comes to photography.

Like many - I grew up shooting film and was part of that late 80's / early 90's generation who initially resisted (for all the right photography reasons) the move to digital but eventually (once quality caught up) rightly - made the move.

Years later - much as I still enjoy my photography - I'm starting to feel my hobby has been swallowed up by the 'gadget'.

A beautifully engineered tripod or lovingly machined head still commands a premium. Quality lenses likewise remain the crucial factor but camera’s themselves leaving me feeling somewhat flat.

At the end of the day it's the image that matters but being a lover of 'build quality' I (rightly or wrongly) find myself feeling sad that quality gear is now being eclipsed by what seem to be performance gadgets.:bonk:
 
Such as? Have you seen a 1 series Canon or any pro Nikon?
 
dinners said:
I'm hardly 'old' at 39 and certainly consider myself to be somebody who embraces technological progress but I'm finding myself more and more disillusioned when it comes to photography.

Like many - I grew up shooting film and was part of that late 80's / early 90's generation who initially resisted (for all the right photography reasons) the move to digital but eventually (once quality caught up) rightly - made the move.

Years later - much as I still enjoy my photography - I'm starting to feel my hobby has been swallowed up by the 'gadget'.

A beautifully engineered tripod or lovingly machined head still commands a premium. Quality lenses likewise remain the crucial factor but camera’s themselves leaving me feeling somewhat flat.

At the end of the day it's the image that matters but being a lover of 'build quality' I (rightly or wrongly) find myself feeling sad that quality gear is now being eclipsed by what seem to be performance gadgets.:bonk:
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Come back to film!
 
dinners said:
I'm hardly 'old' at 39 and certainly consider myself to be somebody who embraces technological progress but I'm finding myself more and more disillusioned when it comes to photography.

Like many - I grew up shooting film and was part of that late 80's / early 90's generation who initially resisted (for all the right photography reasons) the move to digital but eventually (once quality caught up) rightly - made the move.

Years later - much as I still enjoy my photography - I'm starting to feel my hobby has been swallowed up by the 'gadget'.

A beautifully engineered tripod or lovingly machined head still commands a premium. Quality lenses likewise remain the crucial factor but camera’s themselves leaving me feeling somewhat flat.

At the end of the day it's the image that matters but being a lover of 'build quality' I (rightly or wrongly) find myself feeling sad that quality gear is now being eclipsed by what seem to be performance gadgets.:bonk:
Click to expand...

gadgets, gimmics, megapixels are there to tempt the great unknowing public, into thinking they are 1] getting something for nothing, 2] actually NEED them to take meaningfull photographs, 3] because it is better than one without or less.
Pure marketing ploy's,...
Nothing wrong with being a ludite, but before you become one, look at the ADVANTAGES digital photography has given us.
I'm sure you don't need me to spell these out for you :)
I just wonder how some , brought up on Digital cameras would actually cope with an SLR from the good (bad?) old days.

No image stabilisation
No Autofocus.
no Auto/manual white balance
no high speed shooting
having to wait a week to get your slides back, only to find a pile of pooh!

I could go on, but I think sometimes we could all do with going back to film, to appreciate what we have actually got these days.
As much as there is nostalgia to go back to film, and there is a lot of (good) kit out there going for a song, most of us will ellect to stay with digital.

I do think there are two types of modern photographer, those who moved from film to digital and those who went straight to digital.
I suspect the latter expect the camera to do far more of the work than the old film buffs.

It is like working with a prime lens rather than a zoom.....
 
I don't feel that my digital cameras are any less build quality than my old film SLR, certainly a lot more sophisticated. It still requires a certain amount of user intellegence to get a good shot, all the gizmos haven't completely made the button presser redundant.
 
dinners said:
A beautifully engineered tripod or lovingly machined head still commands a premium. Quality lenses likewise remain the crucial factor but camera’s themselves leaving me feeling somewhat flat.

At the end of the day it's the image that matters but being a lover of 'build quality' I (rightly or wrongly) find myself feeling sad that quality gear is now being eclipsed by what seem to be performance gadgets.:bonk:
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I fully agree with the fact that it's the image that matters, and I'm not sure how build quality relates to that? I'd take improved performance over build quality any day of the week. I suppose it depends on if you look on your gear as being a means to an end or just an end in itself. To me it's just a tool, but hey, everyone's different! :)
 
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I'm 10 years older than you but I must be remembering things a little differently.

From what I remember I think the cameras of today are better made and despite their increased complexity probably more reliable too.

My 20D feels and looks better made than the Nikon 35mm SLR I bought sooooo long ago and better than the decades old Canon SLR I bought more recently and my LX5 and GF1 are in a completely different league build wise to the compact cameras I have/had decades ago too.

The only argument I can see for the older kit is that they sometimes had mechanical dials instead of push buttons and menus so you get into the whole nostalgic more tactile view but IMHO you'd have to go back another decade or two to truly be in the right time frame for those cameras as my Nikon and Canon SLR's were electrical devices with buttons and menus too. Looking at new ones and comparing them to cameras that would have been new and occupying the same sort of market segment in the 70 or 80's I think that the new stuff is better with just as much soul.
 
bottom line is - It's not what you have, but how you use it......

A monkey can pick up a spanner, but it doesn't make the monkey a mechanic.

appologies to all monkeys by the way....:wave:
 
I love gadgets. Wish I still had my first camera though. And yes I'm a bit older than the OP as well...:
wave.gif
 
Maybe Canon and Nikon have been improveing their build quality (I doubt it), but I'd certanly take my Olympus OM's build quality over any digital offering from any manufacturer. (except maybe an Olympus tough as a compact). An OM2 with a digital sensor would be a dream come true!

And I cope just fine with no IS, image feedback, AF etc etc. The only thing that has me stumped on film is the use of Flash.
 
Never tried to deliberately bust a camera but I think a 1D body only could take as much hammering as any film cameras I've had (or seen). Cannot comment on offerings from other manufacturers.
 
I have yet to form any sort of 'bond' with a digital camera - my old OM2 is now an ornament since it fell off the back of a motorbike but I used it for many years and feel attached to it, but to date not one of my digital cameras has given me that sort of feeling, though I have yet to own a 1d body, which may be the one to arouse me..
 
stevewestern said:
I have yet to form any sort of 'bond' with a digital camera - my old OM2 is now an ornament since it fell off the back of a motorbike but I used it for many years and feel attached to it, but to date not one of my digital cameras has given me that sort of feeling, though I have yet to own a 1d body, which may be the one to arouse me..
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That's the kind of attraction :thumbs:
 
dinners said:
I'm hardly 'old' at 39 and certainly consider myself to be somebody who embraces technological progress but I'm finding myself more and more disillusioned when it comes to photography.

...

At the end of the day it's the image that matters but being a lover of 'build quality' I (rightly or wrongly) find myself feeling sad that quality gear is now being eclipsed by what seem to be performance gadgets.:bonk:
Click to expand...

This may seem completely unrelated, but when I was your age I was deep into archery...and started with compound bows...very high tech. Then I gravitated to recurve and long bows to recapture that historic, almost animalistic, sense of bow and arrow, arrow and target that comes with simplicity.

This is what I hear you saying about your photographic equipment...and what sports car enthusiasts opine about when they talk about the "feel" and "sound" and "handling" of their favorite cars.

In today's world technology provides a high level of mechanical performance unheard of in earlier times. But it doesn't provide the same sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with mastery of simpler, more elemental arts.
 
Just gimme a ccd for my OM1n and I'd be happy
 
Dave in Wales said:
A digital F3HP would do me.

F3HP, now THAT was a camera.:'(

D in W
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Last year I got some film and dusted off my old F3 HP and took it out for a spin. Although I enjoyed using it again and getting the film processed, it did make me appreciate the comfort and handling of the modern day digital. Just this feature alone I had taken for granted.
 
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