|
View Poll Results: A camera is just a tool?
|
|
Yes
|
  
|
36 |
37.89% |
|
No
|
  
|
25 |
26.32% |
|
Oh yes it is
|
  
|
22 |
23.16% |
|
Oh no it's not
|
  
|
30 |
31.58% |
 |
A camera is just a tool? |
 |
02-06-2008
|
#1
|
|
Stewart McBride
Sparrow is offline
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Perfidious Albion
Age: 61
Posts: 9,769
|
A camera is just a tool?
One way to settle this
A camera is just a tool?
__________________
Regards Stewart
Stewart McBride
You’re only young once, but one can always be immature.
flickr stuff
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#2
|
|
Stewart McBride
Sparrow is offline
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Perfidious Albion
Age: 61
Posts: 9,769
|
Nothing wrong with my chakras mate 
__________________
Regards Stewart
Stewart McBride
You’re only young once, but one can always be immature.
flickr stuff
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#3
|
|
... likes film.
maddoc is offline
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: 調布市
Age: 47
Posts: 6,466
|
... just some tool ...
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#4
|
|
Registered User
oftheherd is offline
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 6,302
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sparrow
One way to settle this
A camera is just a tool?
|
As long as we are willing to agree that size matters.
__________________
<a href='http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=50'>My Gallery</a>
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#5
|
|
Stewart McBride
Sparrow is offline
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Perfidious Albion
Age: 61
Posts: 9,769
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by oftheherd
As long as we are willing to agree that size matters.
|
that would need a 135 vs. 120 poll, I'm not sure the world's ready for that one
__________________
Regards Stewart
Stewart McBride
You’re only young once, but one can always be immature.
flickr stuff
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#6
|
|
genius and moron
sepiareverb is online now
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: NEK
Posts: 7,116
|
Bravo! This will finally be settled.
|
|
|
|
|
Hard case |
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#7
|
|
-
leif e is offline
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Close to Oslo, Norway
Posts: 147
|
Hard case
Sparrow! I´m glad you brought this up, but it´s darn difficult to decide!
leif e
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#8
|
|
Registered User
rbsinto is offline
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Thornhill, Ontario, Canada Thornhill is a suburb of Toronto
Posts: 1,122
|
Whether or not a camera is just a tool depends of course on your motivation for having it.
Me? My cameras are for taking photos, so in my world they are just tools.
To others, cameras are an investment. Things to be bought, sold or traded as their value changes.
And to still others, they are object of affection, to be collected and cherished.
And then there are the posers. Those individuals who play at being photographers by having all the trappings, minus the motivation or talent to produce images. For them cameras are props.
So no, cameras are not just tools. They represent many things to many people.
Last edited by rbsinto : 02-06-2008 at 04:23.
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#9
|
|
genius and moron
sepiareverb is online now
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: NEK
Posts: 7,116
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rbsinto
...So no, cameras are not just tools...
|
Blasphemy!  |
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#10
|
|
Stewart McBride
Sparrow is offline
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Perfidious Albion
Age: 61
Posts: 9,769
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by leif e
Sparrow! I´m glad you brought this up, but it´s darn difficult to decide!
leif e
|
Yep forty years in and I’m still stumped, when ma granddaddy bought that old Bessa I’m sure it was a tool then one day, what’ya know just upped and changed into an ornament
__________________
Regards Stewart
Stewart McBride
You’re only young once, but one can always be immature.
flickr stuff
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#11
|
|
Registered User
Keith is offline
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 15,493
|
Yes they are just tools ... but a dedicated craftsman can still love and cherish his equipment!
__________________
---------------------------
zenfolio
Last edited by Keith : 02-06-2008 at 04:32.
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#12
|
|
Registered User
marke is offline
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Age: 54
Posts: 1,141
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sparrow
It’s not got a soul silly, it’s just a camera; although the lens sometimes has an out of body experience.
 |
But never an out of camera experience. Now that just wouldn't be right.
__________________
- markE
Leica MP & M3
Summilux 50/f1.4, Summicron 35/f2.0ASPH, Elmar-M 50/f2.8, VC-CS 25/f4
Leica IIIfRD
Summitar 50/f2.0
http://www.pbase.com/marke
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#13
|
|
Registered User
landsknechte is offline
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Los Gatos, CA
Posts: 297
|
Put soul back in bowl.
__________________
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
1936 Zeiss Contax II
1939 Leica III to IIIa conversion
1940 Фэд-НКВД
1946 Leica IIIc to IIIf conversion
1957 Зоркий-C
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#14
|
|
Old Guy with a Corgi
bsdunek is offline
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Michigan
Posts: 729
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Keith
Yes they are just tools ... but a dedicated craftsman can still love and cherish his equipment! |
Probably the best explaination of how I feel about my equipment.  |
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#15
|
|
Personal Photography
shadowfox is offline
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 7,579
|
Simply,
a camera is a tool ...
that can make two or more decent, even-keeled grown-up men to bicker (online or otherwise) until their faces are blue.
... what a tool.
Btw, Stewart, how many of us do you think vote both Yes and No ??  |
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#16
|
|
Trying to find my range
luketrash is offline
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Iowa
Posts: 262
|
For me, the unpaid hobbyist, they're fetish items. If owning one camera is good, owning 200 must certainly be better, right?
I like using them and I like looking at them, analyzing the differences and realizing that I still haven't found any one camera that does everything I want it to do.
By definition, I don't use all of my cameras and none of them make me any money, so I guess they aren't tools.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#17
|
|
Shooter of Film...
nikon_sam is offline
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Alta Loma, CA
Age: 52
Posts: 3,766
|
I have a problem with the word "Just"...
Is it just a tool??? No, not just a tool...it can be used as a tool but it can also be a work of art...and the same camera can be seen as either one by two different persons...and it doesn't have to be in perfect condition to qualify as either...
Calling a camera a "Tool" is not a bad thing...I use tools everyday and when you need a certain tool for the job and you have that tool the job becomes alot easier and you come across to the customer as more of a professional than if you just bang things together...
I have a Ball Pein hammer that's been in my tool box for the last 21 years...it still works and I like the way it feels but it's showing it's age...I've been looking for a replacement for sometime now...I'll wait until I do find the right one for me...It sounds silly but that's the way some folks see their tools...
__________________
Sam
"tongue tied & twisted
just an earthbound misfit...I..."
pf
|
|
|
|
 |
|
02-06-2008
|
#18
|
|
Registered User
kevin m is offline
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Eastern Connecticut
Posts: 2,321
|
Quote:
|
I have a problem with the word "Just"...
|
I was thinking the same thing. It seems that most of us here own cameras that are more than "just" tools, they also happen to be well-made artifacts of a bygone age that are beautiful to hold and look at. It can be a distraction. |
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#19
|
|
Registered User
thomasw_ is offline
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Fort Langley, BC
Age: 47
Posts: 1,632
|
Yes and no. Yes it is does perform a designed function, as a tool. But it has characteristics which are attached to it. For some the way it functions, how it looks, how it feels, how costly it is; these things can make it a status symbol, a workhorse, or a cherished memorial of a friend or family member. So it seems a camera is a tool but can be more, too.
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#20
|
|
Leica-Fan and NEXer
Kent is offline
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Germany
Age: 42
Posts: 1,023
|
Just a tool?
No way! Too much fun to be "just a tool".
__________________
Cheers, Kent
_______
Cams: Leica, Sony, Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Fuji, Panasonic and Pentax... mainly.
Lenses: Voigtländer, Leica, Sony, Sigma, Nikkor, Tokina, Tamron and some others.
Click me...
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#21
|
|
Trying to find my range
luketrash is offline
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Iowa
Posts: 262
|
If the camera is a tool, my photos are the equivalent of all those nuts I rounded off with an old pair of pliers.
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#22
|
|
Landscaper
chris000 is offline
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Out in the fields, UK
Posts: 512
|
Caneras are sometimes "... beautiful to hold and look at ..." or " ... a work of art ..." ???
I'm sorry guys, they are pieces of engineering designed for a purpose, and if they are not being used for that purpose then they are just so much waste metal/plastic/whatever - they are just a tool, yes some are better tools than others, but still just a tool.
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#23
|
|
Registered User
Roger Hicks is offline
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Aquitaine
Posts: 18,259
|
Anyone who can use the word 'just' to create the phrase 'just a tool' is unlikely ever to learn how to get the best from any tool more complex than a crowbar (American: pry bar).
To get the best from any tool, you need to learn how to use it. Good tools are easier and nicer to use. If you don't believe me, try comparing a decent Snap-On or Craftsman socket set with a Chinese set made of pot metal and putty. Or a forged Solingen kitchen knife with thin, wobbly stainless steel.
edit: I have to modify this in the light of Chris and his Land Rover. But stand that next to an Austin Gypsy...? They're both 'just' tools.
Cheers,
R.
Last edited by Roger Hicks : 02-06-2008 at 11:51.
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#24
|
|
Trying to find my range
luketrash is offline
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Iowa
Posts: 262
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by chris000
Caneras are sometimes "... beautiful to hold and look at ..." or " ... a work of art ..." ???
I'm sorry guys, they are pieces of engineering designed for a purpose, and if they are not being used for that purpose then they are just so much waste metal/plastic/whatever - they are just a tool, yes some are better tools than others, but still just a tool.
|
hahaha:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1327/...af8e239027.jpg
When people use the word 'just' or 'only' when stating their opinion as if it were a universal truth it's amusing.
I can think of all sorts of cameras that were produced that were never really intended to be used for anything.
Last edited by luketrash : 02-06-2008 at 12:01.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
02-06-2008
|
#25
|
|
Landscaper
chris000 is offline
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Out in the fields, UK
Posts: 512
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Roger Hicks
Anyone who can use the word 'just' to create the phrase 'just a tool' is unlikely ever to learn how to get the best from any tool more complex than a crowbar (American: pry bar).
|
I can't agree Roger. I need a camera (or perhaps more than one) to make photographic images (which is what I enjoy doing) and I have no other reason to own cameras but for that purpose.
Whilst I accept that some 'tools' are better than others, and I prefer to use good quality tools when I can afford / find them, I don't 'fondle' them or place them on display, in fact I don't even take them out of the bag unless I am going to use them or for periodic maintenance.
The word 'just' in this context means 'no more than' and does not refer to the quality of the instrument.
To be honest, I have never understood camera collecting - but I suspect that to some on these forums that will be regarded as a serious inadequacy on my part! |
|
|
|
|
| Thread Tools |
|
|
| Display Modes |
 Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:05. |
|
|
