I think you're right. I did the same thing playing with mine.
Thankfully I didn't have any film in it yet.
Just an FYI. After running a roll thru the ol' brick I figured out why you see those cocking levers on backwards. I probably have three or four frames that will be over exposed because my middle finger was in the way of its return trip when I released the shutter causing the shutter to stay open longer than needed. I just adjusted mine to be reversed so it points toward the lens......
I found out Mr. Baker more than thirty years ago by bitter experience as I've often written on this forum that buying more and more and better equipment doesn't solve the problem and make you a good photographer you can't buy creativity, and most hobbyist own more and much better equipment that the great photographers we all admire ever had that they became legends with.
The problem and sad fact is when a person eventually has all the best and most expensive equipment that their heart desires, and their work is still crap, they have nowhere to go, and nothing to blame.
I will never be a great photographer. Oh sure I'm continuing to learn to be exposure and processing savvy, but I don't have an artists eye.
Still, I like to collect old cameras, I like to take photos, I like processing my own film. Besides, the one who dies with the most camera equipment wins!
People can spend their money on whatever gives them pleasure, it's not my place to criticise them but if they spend it in the expectation that owning more expensive cameras/lenses will make them better photographers, they are going to be very disappointed.
People can spend their money on whatever gives them pleasure, it's not my place to criticise them but if they spend it in the expectation that owning more expensive cameras/lenses will make them better photographers, they are going to be very disappointed.
I'm not trying to suggest that people should work with cheap crappy after-market lenses, only that the equipment is only a means to an end, that of making good photographs, not an end in its self, and that once you have reasonable quality gear buying more and more is counter productive.true, however its takes money to buy good quality equipment that works correctly.I've shot Minoltas for years,can you save money on aftermarket lenses but they are not as good optically or mechanically as Rokkors.
The Rokkors don"t make a better photographer but give me better images.
I'm not trying to suggest that people should work with cheap crappy after-market lenses, only that the equipment is only a means to an end, that of making good photographs, not an end in its self, and that once you have reasonable quality gear buying more and more is counter productive.
I like " replacing being with having " very much Michael it's very apt. even though I have only bought two cameras in the last 25 years I recently got rid of 2 cameras and two light meters that I haven't used for a long time and I found it strangely liberating I now have five Canon FD 35mm SLR bodys, three of which are F1's, that are all in good working order and a set of lenses, my outfit makes sense to me because all the lenses fit and work correctly on all the bodys, and I doubt very much if I will ever buy another camera.Ben,
I could not agree more with you. One of my pals on flickr once compared that 'collector's itch' to an addiction, and I guess he's right. At any rate, it's a prestige thing, and a surrogate thing. In the words of German philosopher Erich Fromm, we're basically trying to replace being with having through this constant craving for more and more and still more...
One caveat though; I think by buying into different camera systems you can also--by trial and error, as it were--learn a lot, namely, what type of shooter you are and where your individual preferences and strengths might lie. In other words, how do you know what you're really looking for unless you have the opportunity to give things a try?
Come to think of it, it was sheer GAS, this typical 'must-have' itch, that led me into buying the handful of cameras that I really love working with, e. g., the Kiev 4A (a Ukrainian Contax II rangefinder copy) or, quite recently, the Pentacon Six. When the latter arrived in the mail, a couple of weeks ago, and I unpacked it and opened the viewfinder, I knew immediately, this it it...!(I find myself sort of 'moving back in time' anyway, preferring solid mechanically-operated cameras over gear stuffed with electronic gimmicks, but that's another issue.)
Then came the hard part, that is, parting from some good cameras which I had that collector's pride of owning yet never really got the hang of. And--hooray!--I actually made it, sold off my minty Yashica Electro 35 GX rangefinder and my medium format Pentax 645 which I knew I would hardly ever use again, and was rewarded by a completely new sense of pride, the pride of being reasonable, for a change.
And it is some relief to rid yourself of things you don't need (and even get back the money you invested).
So I've now made a vow to myself (and my wife), saying...
...(1) for each of my five favorite cameras I am allowed one--and only one--backup or organ donor
...(2) for each new camera I acquire another one must go
...(3) every camera I do not use within one year will have to be sold.
I know this might seem pretty childish to some of you, but I guess camera junkies like me must simply learn to discipline themselves, some way or other...
Michael
Obsessive collecting like any obsessive behaviour Isn't a healthy thing, and in it's most extreme form can become a mental illness, but I admit I'm not qualified to say at what point.
I still can stop when the fun vanishes.
But that term GAS has not been invented for nothing...
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