Anyone else being put off by all these non-RF threads?

Austerby

Austerby

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Am I being picky?

The thing that first attracted me to this forum was the USP of "rangefinderness" - it was folks like me who enjoy the distinctive qualities of rangefinder cameras: the clue is in the name of the forum.

Over the recent years, as new products have been released, there's been an understandable interest in the non-dSLR world and the cameras have indeed been interesting.

However, I am beginning to feel that the USP (unique selling point) of this forum is being diluted with all the discussions about the latest Fujisonyricoh X-p99xx1z99 or whatever and there's less and less about rangefinders. Some of these cameras don't even have a rangefinder as their focussing mechanism.

There's even enlightened, informed discussion about dSLRs for goodness sake.

I know this is an enthusiastic, intelligent virtual community here, who are genuinely interested in comparing notes about the latest developments in photographic technology but I am finding fewer and fewer threads that I'm interested in reading.

If I'm in the minority then so be it. I don't want to buy an new camera: I want to enjoy the ones I have.
 
Read what you want, leave the rest. Simply click on the RF forum and you won't even see the rest.
 
It's really a general semi-obscure-camera-nerd forum. Rangefinders typify this particular range of tastes, but almost all of us who like them also like other things that other RF enthusiasts might like too. Just ignore the stuff you aren't interested in.
 
I do understand what Mr. Austerby is saying...

In a way, I wonder if this phenomenon is more due to the "nothing new under the sun" nature of real rangefinder cameras. So much of their appeal is their traditional film "workflow", and the fact that they were built with real craftsmanship and care....30, 40, 50+ years ago.

The price to pay....is there really that much more to say about these old cameras that hasn't already been discussed on the web? (Like with large format cameras....ultimately it's just a box with hinges and bellows.)

I like this RFF because of the personalities of the members....and how they are revealed in print. Whereas, when I want to read people insulting one another, I check out DPReview.Com.

Robt.
 
I'm interested in photography, not object fetishism. RFF, more than other big photo forums, has people posting and talking about photography rather than just gear. Even the NEW CAMERA!!!! threads focus more on images than MTF charts.
 
To be honest . . .

To be honest . . .

I am slowly migrating my photo-forum life into this forum partly because it is so "wide open".

The major attractions (for me, about this place) are the level of maturity and the openmindedness (is that a word?).
 
...um, I think you just started one of those threads. :)

But I understand your observation.
I probably open less than 5% of available unread threads now.
 
Same here. I have no plan whatsoever to buy any of those FujiSonyRicoh... etc. and I only read the occasional thread on those to see what is the latest. Who knows, maybe in some years I will consider one of those. I already had a Pana GF1 and liked it a lot but the autofocus was not fast enough. I do however use a dSLR and an SLR on a roughly weekly basis, so I do look at some of the related threads. But I come here for RF discussion so I read and post to the RF threads and general photography threads and only rarely read the rest.

And of course I check the classifieds far too often. ;)

And yes I am a nerd. :D

Cheers,
Rob
 
Doesn't bother me at all what kind of equipment somebody else uses and wishes to discuss. There's plenty that interests me, plenty that makes me yawn (which Leica, which lens, bag angst, strap insecurity, Don or Sherry, will airport security fog my film...), and loads of talent, knowledge and experience.
 
Yeah-bring on all kinds of threads, I say. The more the merrier. And when there are more real rangefinders available, we can talk about them too!
 
I am a Zuikoholic.

I found RangeFinderForum.com by following a link from another website to a discussion about Olympus OM cameras in the Evil SLR forum. That was at least two years ago.

I like the broad range of subjects on RFF, and the people who post sensible or humorous material. Every once in awhile there's a thread that is just a bunch of jokes all in a row (like the recent one about "apostrophe's").

However, after I started reading RFF, I bought a Yachica Minister D (that I passed on to a friend), an M3, an M2, and a CL (that I haven't run film through, yet). I just cannot think of anything original and/or inspirational to say about them. Part of the holdup there is that I don't have exceptional quality lenses. So, rather than post something just to post, I lurk in the RF part, and keep learning.
 
Yeah, we all love the RFs, but the thing is, for those who also want digital, the "USP" has meant unusually stratospheric prices.

The drift away from RFs has been a long process, throughout the course of which people on this forum have pleaded, whined, and begged over recent years for a digital alternative to Leica's extortionate prices. Heck, if somebody had come out with an updated crop dRF that had excellent high ISO and other appropriate state-of-the art features priced below $3000, a lot of people would have jumped at that. (Who knows, maybe Leica's new mirrorless model will offer just that?).

I'm just so glad that Fuji gave me a digital camera+body lens combo that preserves the RF optical viewfinder experience and form factor and gives me the ability to shoot gorgeous color in lighting conditions where my ZI or M8 could only record a blur, all for less than the price of a single new Leica asph lens.
 
Read the best, skip the rest. I don't need the camera fanboy stuff, but there are many real shooters posting their work and experiences here.
 
I like reading posts here about non-RF cameras because I use several types of camera and the posts here are generally from the point of view of people who appreciate the RF approach to photography. Which makes them more relevant to me, even if I don't lust after the latest digi-thing. Also, the posts about the philosophy and politics of photography are also very worthy.

And occasionally I buy one of those new-fangled electric cameras for use when I'm a tourist and just need photographs of record as well as my attempts at beautiful prints.
 
Can't say it's throwing me off.

I was only reading the Leica M, Leica LTM, Rolleiflex and Nikkormat threads anyway :D


Them new EVIL cameras don't do nothing for me. :p

EDIT: How come there's no poll with this question? :D:D
 
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