Re: Hey Folks

["J.Wood" <shopper@xxxxxxxx>]

At 08:34 PM 9/9/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi, as instructed:
>
>Please fill in this bio:
>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>- Name:  Daniel W. Goodale (aka the Iron Captain)

>>- Expand on anything photographic you like:  >> start tirade << What is up
>with camera prices!  A thousand bucks for a camera that has a special "space
>shuttle launch" mode.  Reminds me of that scientific calculator that has
>about 300 buttons I never use!  Then there is the other side....cameras that
>have one button and cost just as much.  Where is the lost middle ground - a
>camera with the quality to take award winning photos, robust enough to
>survive a war, and inexpensive enough not to have to declare bankruptcy when
>you drop it into that field latrine (don't laugh, it happened to me).  >>
>end tirade <<
>
I have to agree with your basic premis.  However, IR is a nice place to
avoid it.  My 35mm outfit is the remains of a Pentax Spotmatic, long gone
but leaving a half dozen fine lenses to perch on other bodies.  For serious
work I have a wooden field camera which is about 50, give or take a decade.
 I only use two lens, a Schnieder and a Rodenstock which are costly but
should outlast me.  My only expensive camera is my Bronica 2 1/4 which
could take up to a 5 kiloton direct hit and still function.  

The problem with most new cameras is the same as computers.  The basic
price is going down which is anathema to the producers and dealers.  So
they add bells and whistles, again and again.  Who actually needs a
date/time group on the negative?  It's like a diver's watch with a calendar. 

Of course you can also take heart that there are people out there using IR
and pinhole cameras.  On the other hand I don't envy trying to combine the
army and photography--I was on a troop ship about a week older than Titanic
and told I could not take pictures because I might include something
classified.  
Jim

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