Camera Romance

[Jim Jones]

Did you start with the early Leica IIIs?

I'm just wondering if the move to the M-series was as big an evolution as it seems to me.

Did your photography get better?

The Leica IIIf bought new in 1953 was like a sports car; my current M4 is more like a SUV, practical rather than elegant.

 

[markbarendt]

Each to their own.

But I work quite the opposite. When a camera works really well for me, I forget it's there.

That means I am only thinking about the photo and operating the camera without any conscious thought about it.

I don't have any emotional relationships with objects, except maybe that I get frustrated if they break.

I know my cameras well enough to work them with little if any thought too. But objects do affect emotions.

For better or worse each camera has it's strengths and it's stereotypes in our worlds and those translate into how I relate to the world and how those around me relate to me.

In a sense picking a camera is like choosing which "friend" you want to spend the day with.

For example choosing an RB is for me a commitment to a more planned or formal "date" with a serious-minded city girl, where grabbing my Holga is more of partying by the lake with the girl from next door "date".

I'm not the only one that gets this either, the "girls" I hang with have a distinct affect on how the people around me act. Think Michelle Obama vs. P!nk. I'd happily spend separate afternoons with either, each afternoon would be a very different experience.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I feel this way about my Rolleiflex. In the beginning, I wasn't sure how I felt about it - did it work well with me, was the twin-lens thing a good idea or a bad idea? But after putting some film through it, and taking it out on 'dates', I got to know it and realized it was probably the best camera for me that I've ever owned (no slight to my large format stuff - they're the friends-with-benefits when I need some spice or want to do something I can't do with the Rollei). But it does just get out of the way and let me take the images I want to take. I would say it does love me back, because I get the best pictures from it.

 

[Jaf-Photo]

I know my cameras well enough to work them with little if any thought too. But objects do affect emotions.

For better or worse each camera has it's strengths and it's stereotypes in our worlds and those translate into how I relate to the world and how those around me relate to me.

In a sense picking a camera is like choosing which "friend" you want to spend the day with.

For example choosing an RB is for me a commitment to a more planned or formal "date" with a serious-minded city girl, where grabbing my Holga is more of partying by the lake with the girl from next door "date".

I'm not the only one that gets this either, the "girls" I hang with have a distinct affect on how the people around me act. Think Michelle Obama vs. P!nk. I'd happily spend separate afternoons with either, each afternoon would be a very different experience.

I think all my efforts to convince people that avid photographers aren't kooks just went out the window

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I think all my efforts to convince people that avid photographers aren't kooks just went out the window

We are all perfectly normal. It's 'they' who are bananas.

 

[markbarendt]

We are all perfectly normal. It's 'they' who are bananas.

 

[Jaf-Photo]

We are all perfectly normal. It's 'they' who are bananas.

Well, I had a friend at university who coined the phrase:

"I thought everyone else was nuts, until I realised it was me."

That was after they put him on Lithium. Great guy, though.

But more seriously, I think everyone who has an all-overriding interest should watch out little bit.

I've seen people get kooky over the silliest hobbies, such as stamp collecting, jogging, video games, hifi ... or photography.

 

[markbarendt]

I feel this way about my Rolleiflex. In the beginning, I wasn't sure how I felt about it - did it work well with me, was the twin-lens thing a good idea or a bad idea? But after putting some film through it, and taking it out on 'dates', I got to know it and realized it was probably the best camera for me that I've ever owned (no slight to my large format stuff - they're the friends-with-benefits when I need some spice or want to do something I can't do with the Rollei). But it does just get out of the way and let me take the images I want to take. I would say it does love me back, because I get the best pictures from it.

A TLR is on my bucket list.

 

[JDW22]

I'm the son of an retired pro shooter. I grew up watching my father use a variety of Linhof's, Hasselblad's, and Rollei's. For reasons I can't rationally explain, the Hasselblad's always were my favorite. Although I own more digital camera gear than I have a right to, my photography dreams always involved Hasselblad. A few months ago I finally purchased a 500CM and a couple of Zeiss lenses. The minute that chrome and black camera arrived at my home, it felt like I'd come full circle. I continue to enjoy my DSLR gear, but it doesn't come close to having mojo like that 500CM. There is something about Victor's design that just feels magical to me.

 

[MattKing]

Is it a coincidence that there doesn't seem to be a single female member of APUG posting to this thread?

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Is it a coincidence that there doesn't seem to be a single female member of APUG posting to this thread?

I think it's a total fluke.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Real Camera Romance??

From the days when cameras were cameras, men were men, and sheep were scared...

Just look at those faces.

:w00t:

Ken

 

[Tom1956]

Is it a coincidence that there doesn't seem to be a single female member of APUG posting to this thread?

Personally I'd like to hear from some single female members.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Personally I'd like to hear from some single female members.

THAT comment is the reason why... APUG is not a dating service.

 

[Markauf]

Analog cameras are sexy machines! There's a sensuality to them when cradled in your hands. They're seductive with their burled knobs and finely crafted mechanisms as they whisper, snap and clap while you manipulate their controls. A digital camera seems to me to be otherwise, a lifeless drone, robotic and cold. Just my (perhaps strange) thoughts....

 

[pstake]

A digital camera seems to me to be otherwise, a lifeless drone, robotic and cold. Just my (perhaps strange) thoughts....

I have this feeling about most autofocus SLRs, digital or not.

 

[jovo]

In a human romance, there is always a degree of mystery and not all is ever fully revealed. As sincere and open a bond as one feels they have with their beloved, one can never truly know another's mind all the time. Chimping at the screen of a DSLR is mindreading. There's no mystery, no romance, no spark. It's all out there. As competent as I try to be with my film cameras, I never truly know what I've got until the film is dry and sitting on my lightpad. That frizzante quality keeps the love alive! I love my P67 even though I wish she would lose some weight, and not be so cranky when loading film. But, we're a pair...an item....a couple!

 

[Sirius Glass]

You named your cameras and call them by their names? :confused:

Yes, the 503 CX is Victor, naturally.
The 903 SWC is Wide Willy because he is such a braggart.

 

[Sirius Glass]

A TLR is on my bucket list.

The TLR was on my bucket list, but i dumped the TLR for the Hasselblads.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Nice to know that I'm not alone with names for cameras.
I have 'Pentaximus' the 67, 'Brutus' the EOS 1N, 'Ollie' the XA, 'Nil' for the ZeroImage pinhole and 'Nix' for the Nikon digi.
When I called out to myself in a café last week, 'where is 'Brutus'!?', the girl looked up at me: "you didn't bring a dog in here, did you?". "No! I'm referring to my camera.". :confused:

 

[Sirius Glass]

Tessina Auto is Tessie.
Nikon N75 is Nick
Nikon F100 is Frank
WideLux 7 wants to be called Roving Eye.
Voitlander Vito II is Vinny
4"x5" Pacemaker Speed Graphic is "Speedy" as in Alka-Seltzer.
4"x5" Graflex Model D is Dov, meaning Bear.
Kodak Brownie Hawkeye has the cleaver original name Brownie.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Analog cameras are sexy machines! There's a sensuality to them when cradled in your hands. They're seductive with their burled knobs and finely crafted mechanisms as they whisper, snap and clap while you manipulate their controls. A digital camera seems to me to be otherwise, a lifeless drone, robotic and cold. Just my (perhaps strange) thoughts....

nono,I think you hit the nail on the head.I'll go and hug one right now

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

nono,I think you hit the nail on the head.I'll go and hug one right now

Shouldn't you be hugging your wife, and not cameras? Your priorities are all a-kimbo.

 

[Tony Egan]

I think the car fanatics would probably put us to shame when it comes to pet names for inanimate objects. My cameras don't have pet names but our cars do. We have "Bob" (a 7 year old Subaru Outback) and my wife mainly drives "Dianne" (a 15 year old Toyota Corolla) - pretty dull, eh?!

 

[lxdude]

Voitlander Vito II is Vinny

I doubt he likes being called that, as his name is Vito.