I hate this word...

[funkydog]

"Strobe". What's wrong with saying "flash" to refer to on-camera flash, studio flash, hand-held flash,built-in flash,etc?
Flashlight is synonymous with torchlight so there's no confusion there.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by funkydog

"Strobe". What's wrong with saying "flash" to refer to on-camera flash, studio flash, hand-held flash,built-in flash,etc?
Flashlight is synonymous with torchlight so there's no confusion there.

... but then they would have to call themselves Flashers, rather than Strobists ... which seems fair enough now I think about it

[bigeye]

There are 2 major definitions of "analog": one in electronics and one in literature & science. Unfortunately, the term fails both when applied to film cameras.

What is particularly odd about calling a chemical film medium 'analog' is that 'digital' sensors are, ironically, analog sensors (analog signals are processed through analog-to-digital conversion).

The literary/scientific definition of 'analog' would also cross-up the definition - digital cameras are the analog (e.g. similar, substitute) to the "original," film cameras.

It looks like the term originated, or was at least made firm by the popular analog photography users group (APUG, est. 2002) website, within the film community itself, probably as a reactionary joke to the hyperbole surrounding 'digital' at the time? I don't think new folks to photography get the joke.

(My other term-peeve is "airhead BMW"...)


-Charlie

[stausauser]

vs.

if it appears in a thread title ...

[p.giannakis]

"Is it a Rolleiflex?" .... for my Ikoflex....

[JoeV]

I just wrote a blog article about this, last week, and have yet to post it.

While I don't as of yet have a good alternative for the word "analogue," I think that the term "Boolean" is a better descriptor for electronic photography than "digital," it being George Boole who codified Aristotlean logic into mathematical symbology that has become the basis of electronic "logic".

When we employ the term "logic circuit," for instance, we are saying that the circuit in question operates under principles of Boolean Logic, which is not necessarily "digital". Truly digital circuits employ Boolean Logic to encode data in numerical form (such as BCD - Binary Coded Decimal, or PCM - Pulse Code Modulation, or the output of an A-to-D converter, a serial bit stream of numerical information), whereas circuits employing logic gates (AND, OR, NAND, XOR, etc.) employ Boolean Logic absent numerical digitalization.

All digital circuits are Boolean, but not all Boolean circuits are digital, digital being a subset of Boolean.

-Joe

[John E Earley]

Originally Posted by recent CLA

BTW, Gumby.

It's out back...and to the left.

I chortled at that

[Spanik]

There are 2 major definitions of "analog": one in electronics and one in literature & science. Unfortunately, the term fails both when applied to film cameras.

There isn't any difference between the electronic and scientific version. Both denote something that changes continuous in time. (the literature interpretation as being "vaguely equivalent" is out of this context)

The problem is how it interpreted by those that have no electronics or scientific background.

[.... _]

Now just a minute, doesn't film capture the electromagnetic waves that hit it? Isn't it therefore an electronic medium just like digital. Analogue is a superfluous label.

[Sparrow]

I think the whole point of language is to convey ideas, and almost everyone understands what is meant by the terms analogue or digital photography, the introduction of boolean is as much of a conceit as bokeh was in the last decade ... people use such words as a pretence

[Spanik]

doesn't film capture the electromagnetic waves that hit it?

Well, we could start a discussion on the duality of light as concerning photography.

[Jack Conrad]

Originally Posted by John E Earley

I chortled at that

Hasn't PETA put a stop to chortling yet?

[.... _]

Originally Posted by Spanik

Well, we could start a discussion on the duality of light as concerning photography.

Yeah lets. the OED even mentions it.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/defini...lity?q=duality

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Both denote something that changes continuous in time. (the literature interpretation as being "vaguely equivalent" is out of this context)

Back when I learned electronics, the word analogue was used to denote a computing device that predicted a result by creating a copy, hence "analogue", of a real world interaction. The Wikipedia article seems to echo that definition.

Language, of course, is a constantly moving target. The change in meaning began, I imagine, when people started to produce interfaces between digital (i.e. boolean) circuits and continuously variable circuits, such as continuous frequency amplifiers. It's not a big leap from there to regarding the world as analogue, in other words continuously variable, or digital.

[John E Earley]

Originally Posted by Jack Conrad

Hasn't PETA put a stop to chortling yet?

I chortled again.


Now I have to go put another roll of analog in my camera.

[varjag]

Originally Posted by Spanik

There isn't any difference between the electronic and scientific version. Both denote something that changes continuous in time. (the literature interpretation as being "vaguely equivalent" is out of this context)

Not quite, they refer to a model of a process, rather than a process itself. In electronics in particular, it's a subject of signal processing with analogue being continuous models and digital discrete.

The signal processing devices thus can be analog or digital. E.g. your turntable is analogue, and CD player is digital. With imaging technology, your granma's Betamax recorder is analogue, while a DSLR is, well, digital.

The term makes no sense when applied to a technology not involving signal processing, e.g. film cameras, ovens, combustion engines and so on. That said I think it's hopeless fighting its misuse.

[DNG]

Originally Posted by gns

Not all new, and don't get me upset, but funny (at least to me)...

"Glass"
"Soup"
"Wet" prints

oh, and "Giclee (or however you spell it) and "Fine Art Photography"

Cheers,
Gary

I have used "Soup", and "Wet Prints" for over 30 years!!

I hate to hear the words: Shot, and Shoot, referring taking a "Photograph:.

Guns Shoot, not cameras..

@Apreture64... My avatar must bug you also..

[acheyj]

Originally Posted by Jack Conrad

Hasn't PETA put a stop to chortling yet?

I would like to chortle PETA.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by MartinP

In this context, it's not even as though analogue was spelt correctly either . . .

That's an interesting one. In the UK, one would say "analogue" for all applications of the word. In the US, "analog". Myself, I'm Canadian, and therefore torn between the two cultures, so I think most literate Canadians would refer to an "analog computer", but also say that something could be a good "analogue" of something else.

Cheers, eh?
Dez

[Dez]

Originally Posted by Sejanus.Aelianus

Back when I learned electronics, the word analogue was used to denote a computing device that predicted a result by creating a copy, hence "analogue", of a real world interaction.

So by my Canadian definition, an analog computer would create an analogue of the system it is modelling. Lots of strange word usages in Canada: it is probably the only place where "chips" refers to two different foods, called "fries" or "crisps" in other places. Context is required to understand which one is being requested.

Cheers,
Dez

[semordnilap]

Non photo related:
I have the lack of use of the word prepone in American english... I think it would be an excellent addition, and replace the clunky and awkward 'move up' or 'reschedule earlier' constructions.

http://wordsmith.org/words/prepone.html