Resurgence?

[xtolsniffer]

Surprisingly it's not that heavy. Yes it is bulky, but it's well designed and everything seems to be in the right place for your hands. With an RB67 and one lens you can easily go for a walk, and I find I take less kit than I did when doing 35mm, so on balance the weight is the same. I quite like loading it up with Reala and using it to photograph my children when out, though that does get some funny looks, but I've also had many people come up and start discussing their own MF cameras and how much they'd like to start using them again, which I guess is where this thread started.

[Q.G.]

White/grey lenses seem to be the latest toy for the cashed-up "must have" nouveau grandé set. I have a "white knight" from Canon.

That makes you a member of the 'cashed-up "must have" nouveau grandé set' then.

But I don't really like the white colour

And you are by no means the only one who does not!
But what are you going to do? Have one, or have no lens.
(Or put a sock over it, of course. Yes... )

[gr82bart]

Naysayers keep saying this thing called LOMO is just a fad and its participants will fade away, but it keeps growing and growing amongst the youngsters. I met up with a Yale Lomo Club here and there are over 100 members. The Creative Arts Workshop which has one of the few darkroom courses left around has about 6 youngsters taking the darkroom course - shooting with mostly LOMOs and ToyCameras.

http://www.lomography.com/
http://www.toycamera.com/

Regards, Art

[Ken N]

I went from the biggest to the smallest (that being the OM4Ti). Of course, if you needed to scare the living daylights out of others carrying e.g. a tiny OM1n, the F3HP+MD4+Metz was a sure fire way to start a lengthy conversation on "suitable travel cameras", and many an interrogation lasted well beyond the allotted meeting time of the monthly touring club meetings!

By the time I load the OM-4T down with the Motordrive-2, 35-80 F2.8 zoom and the T45 handle flash, my kit will scare animals and small children too.

An F3 with a compact lens really isn't that big of a camera, but not quite as small as an OM.

[Poisson Du Jour]

By the time I load the OM-4T down with the Motordrive-2, 35-80 F2.8 zoom and the T45 handle flash, my kit will scare animals and small children too.

An F3 with a compact lens really isn't that big of a camera, but not quite as small as an OM.

I think the OM-4T kit described is much, much sexier than the F3 (the Ti version even more so!). Cannot recall precisely the lenses I had, except at one stage I did have a Zuiko 70-200 (?) tele zoom which was just awful optically; a 50mm and a 28mm and an Olympus top-mount flash (OM32??). For small hands the OM4 even with motordrive is 'just so'.

Unfortunately, my OM4Ti was destroyed when the rack top case it was on jettisoned from the back of the tandem I was on gaining speed downhill, and was run over by 3 cars following (May 1985). It was a pretty devastating end. It was replaced in July that year, at a time when it cost AUD$470 for the body only.

The only thing I scared way back then with humungous machinery was my Mum who thought spending "obscene amounts of money" on cameras will "surely land you in the asylum". Unfortunately, Mumsy went in first, while rehab for me didn't work at all. It just didn't. I cut off that joint's electricity, gas and water, then escaped on my bike, on the run for 2 years living as a bushman ... all the while continuing to learn photography and photograph the world I passed through on two wheels. Love it.

[Ken N]

The only thing I scared way back then with humungous machinery was my Mum who thought spending "obscene amounts of money" on cameras will "surely land you in the asylum". Unfortunately, Mumsy went in first, while rehab for me didn't work at all. It just didn't. I cut off that joint's electricity, gas and water, then escaped on my bike, on the run for 2 years living as a bushman ... all the while continuing to learn photography and photograph the world I passed through on two wheels. Love it.

I'm never sure just how much to believe on the Internet, but this story made my day.

[stradibarrius]

On a grand scale my digital infatuation (not digitography but computers themselves) started almost exactly 30 years ago. Back then computers were interesting in their own right, not just because of what they could do, but "how in the world did they work?"

Cars had a similar fascination for me just starting 10-15 years before that and following a similar 30 year curve.

"In the beginning" both required constant thought and maintenance, today not so much.

Over the last few years I've seen sales people, webmasters, and programmers going back to paper calendars and address books, because "paper and pens; don't crash, don't distract you with incoming messages, and don't need to boot in the client's office".

Prints have similar attributes, the cactus flowers one of my work buddies showed me a snap of on his cell phone yesterday were, how shall I put this, a bit small. They looked fine to him be cause he saw the original scene and the snap was just a memory trigger.

I'm starting to here people ask for simple cell phones that do nothing but make calls and last ten years. (I believe that right now Mattel or Hasbro might be able to build a better phone than Motorola or Nokia because it would be simple and it would be designed to survive dropping it or dunking it in milk without ruining it.)

Personally I think that the world is starting to find the limits of digital stuff in general, much like I've found the limits of autos. I won't give up electronic ignition to go back to points & condensers, but I don't drive just to drive anymore either.

As digitography's shine wears off and people find it's limits I think film photography has the opportunity to find it's feet. That does depend on "us analog geeks" some too, educating our local camera club buddies and the like.

Mark, I have wondered about this for some time. I have several digital cameras and several film cameras. For some reason the film is more fun to shoot...makes me feel more like a photographer I guess. I was curious, your comment about the limits of digital stuff? What do you think the limitations of DSLR's are compared to a good film camera?

[clayne]

So...

Back to the Japan side of things: http://tokyocamerastyle.com/


(c) John Sypal

When's the last time you've seen 20 somethings walking the streets with bags of Kodak powder?

[Jedidiah Smith]

Looks good to see a Leica and those bags of Kodak powder!

Jed

[bill spears]

Thats a heartwarming picture !