You can only be a good photrographer if you have a camera with a red dot

[xkaes]

Every Minolta Rokkor-X lens has a big red dot. No extra charge!

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

There's nothing about a Leica that says you can't take good photos with a different brand of camera.

For the hell of it I tested my M5/Summicron against my $15 Agfa Solina/Apotar in a street shooting scenario:

• Pre-set focusing, counting on depth of field;
• Smaller f-stop for increased depth of same;
• Slower shutter speed to make up for the stopped-down lens;
• Walking;
• Taking the shot when I judged I was 8 feet away.

Now, all these things degrade the image quality. Stopping down the lens degraded the Sumicron's image quality but improved the Agfa's - a stopped down triplet works about as well as any other lens.

I enlarged the shots so the subject was ~ the same size. Then the prints got shuffled in a clean-up and I can't un-shuffle them as I can't tell which print came from which camera. So I feel I have to re-do the trials before I can post the results - maybe I should post them and ask folks if they can un-shuffle them.

Looking at Henri Cartier-Bresson's work I was always struck by how out-of-place some of his photos were - then it struck me - they looked weird because they were in focus and there wasn't any camera shake. His best work was blurred - and all the better for it.

HCB was known for taping his cameras up with black electrical tape so red-dots weren't an issue.

I have to confess my Agfa Solina has a tiny red dot on the self-timer lever.

FWIW #1 - Agfa put a big red dot shutter release on the Optima Sensor camera - "The other red-dot camera."

FWIW #2 - The Agfa Solina sold for $14.97 in the 1962 Montgomery Wards catalog. A Kodak Instamatic 100 sold for $15.95 at introduction in 1963. Go figure.

 

[pentaxuser]

I can't believe how gullible I have been to marketing and advertising.

Isn't that what people living on $20 million yachts with gold taps on all the basíns, showers and baths say when they substitute the word "they" for "I"

pentaxuser

 

[Horatio]

I think we've all fallen prey to marketing at some point, otherwise there wouldn't be endless debates and bragging rights.

 

[Tel]

I am devastated to report that not one of the lenses for my Mamiya TLRs has a blue dot. Devastated!

 

[Chan Tran]

The Contax T has the red shutter release button made of ruby. That's the real red dot.

 

[Milpool]

What is this about?

 

[AnselMortensen]

What is this about?

Red dots.

 

[MattKing]

The most important question to me is whether you need a red dot in order to be able to spell "photographer".

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

I only have one camera with a red dot. It is paired with a super high performance 50mm f/2 lens. This camera and lens do everything any photographer needs, and if I can’t take a great picture with this camera and lens, it is my fault, not theirs.

 

[Milpool]

Red dots.

Got it now. At first I thought it was about people trying to convince themselves they are better at photrography for not having Leicas.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Got it now. At first I thought it was about people trying to convince themselves they are better at photrography for not having Leicas.

​

As the title sez: "You can only be a good photographer if you have a camera with a red dot."​

The new MF "Red-Dot" camera. Sure to be a sensation, price to be announced.

 

[Petrochemist]

I only have one camera with a red dot. It is paired with a super high performance 50mm f/2 lens. This camera and lens do everything any photographer needs, and if I can’t take a great picture with this camera and lens, it is my fault, not theirs.

A capable combination, but pushing things rather far to claim it does 'everything any photographer needs' Some photographers need to record details from sports, or shoot wildlife, which isn't going to be good with any 50mm lens.

If I'm not mistaken the 50mm f/2 is the most basic of all Pentax K 50mm lenses, The 50/1.7 was standard on my film models (hardly any difference I know), but there was also a f/1.4 for those after higher performance & I'd say the f/4 macro is also a more high performance model...

 

[snusmumriken]

A capable combination, but pushing things rather far to claim it does 'everything any photographer needs' Some photographers need to record details from sports, or shoot wildlife, which isn't going to be good with any 50mm lens.

So get a different camera if you do that kind of photography. Why is this an issue?

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

A capable combination, but pushing things rather far to claim it does 'everything any photographer needs' Some photographers need to record details from sports, or shoot wildlife, which isn't going to be good with any 50mm lens.

If I'm not mistaken the 50mm f/2 is the most basic of all Pentax K 50mm lenses, The 50/1.7 was standard on my film models (hardly any difference I know), but there was also a f/1.4 for those after higher performance & I'd say the f/4 macro is also a more high performance model...

I was being a bit facetious. I don't shoot sports and very seldom shoot wildlife, but I did get this shot with the K1000 and 50mm f/2:

Not that this photo is great or anything, but I did get the shot. (It helped a lot that the bobcat was only about 12–15 feet away when I saw it through the back window of my office.)

Don't knock the 50mm f/2. It's not super sharp wide open, but it's sharp as anything stopped down a bit.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I am devastated to report that not one of the lenses for my Mamiya TLRs has a blue dot. Devastated!

go buy some stickers or get a red acrylic marker!

 

[Tel]

go buy some stickers or get a red acrylic marker!

The prevailing mystique around Mamiya C-series cameras is associated with the presence of a blue dot on the shutter cocking lever. Mamiya users dismiss the red dot as hokum but (some) fervently believe in the blue dot.

 

[chuckroast]

I was being a bit facetious.

What???? This is a very serious thread, you know. How dare you mock the circle of red. For shame ...

(Nice kitty pic

 

[AnselMortensen]

For those who are Serious about their Red Dots...let's take it to the Large Format thread.

 

[Kino]

 

[EricTheReddish]

(I hope someone else remembers this, or I'm really going to sound like an idiot)

Growing up, I always heard "Blue Dots for Sure Shots!"

 

[Craig]

I have a screw mount Leica I was given by a photographer I very much admired. There are no red dots on it. Does that mean it take poor photos?

 

[dynachrome]

I have a Calumet just like that one. What about the Pentax K mount standard lenses? I have a number of 50/2 examples but they aren't my favorites. I like the 55/1.8 SMC Pentax better than the later 50/1.7 SMC M but both are very good. Of the f/1.4 lenses, I prefer the earlier SMC Pentax to the later SMC M. Both are sharp but the earlier lens feels better when I use it. It's more solid. I would like to eventually have a copy of the 50/1.2 SMC Pentax to round out my collection of K standard lenses. There wouldn't have been any point in making an M version of that lens. It would still have been big. I like the 50/4 SMC Pentax and the version marked M but the later 50/2.8 A lens is brighter to focus. My only complaint about the A lens is that it has so much plastic in its construction.

 

[250swb]

Sometimes when I see somebody write 'my $25 yard sale camera is all I need' I do think to myself 'no you definitely need a better camera and more ambition'. Ambition can come in many forms, but it's not about being happy with what you've got. That isn't the American Dream or anybody's dream. And it's not always about buying a 'better' camera, it can be as Imogen Cunningham said when asked out of all her work which was her favourite photograph she said 'the one I'll take tomorrow'. So if any camera helps you take tomorrows photograph isn't that a recommendation in itself? And if a red dot (or camera beginning with 'H') gets you out the house feeling ambitious it's already better than the dusty camera on the shelf.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Sometimes when I see somebody write 'my $25 yard sale camera is all I need' I do think to myself 'no you definitely need a better camera ...

Yard Seller: "Yeah, I dunno. It says 'Leica M3' on it but it doesn't have a red dot so it's probably not real. $25 too much for you?"