On Wed, 19 Nov 2003, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > So ... BFD. When it gets to the point that discriminating people can't > even buy good equipment because the companies are busy dumbing down to > "most people," it's a sad state of affairs. Name one, new, high-end, > fully manual 35mm camera that can be purchased today that's still in > production? Maybe the Leica MP ... am I missing something else? Shit, > even Leica had to make a "special" camera to feed the demand, albeit > small, for a high quality Leica.
The Nikon FM3A offers full manual control, with a hybrid mechanical/electronic shutter. For those who don't know, this camera is fully mechanical in manual mode, and only uses the electronic mechanisms in aperture-priority. I think the big problem here is that you're not taking price into account. The vast majority of people who use fully-manual 35mm cameras are students, and most can't afford to drop $1000 on a new all-manual camera. Any full manual camera that would appeal to a large number of people would have to be priced so that most people could afford it, and that's extremely hard to do when you start adding building it out of metal. Plus, you have gazillions of used K1000s and FM2s kicking around on the used market for very attractive prices, so selling new 3Ms (metal, manual, mechanical) gets even harder. So you're left with a handful of people who want a 3M camera for non-student work who are willing to shell out the big bucks for a new one, and many of them are probably going to be shooting MedF. There's definitely a market for 35mm 3M cameras, but is it large enough? I would love for manufacturers to sell cameras that lost them money, but I can't really fault them for not doing it. > Development has essentially been curtailed on slow, extra fine grained, > film. No one gives a shit because "most people" don't know what they're > missing, because "most people" are happy with mediocre quality at best, > because "most people" want slow, medium quality, zoom lenses, and 400 > ISO film is a good starting place for them, and because most people want > some kind of "digital capture" these days ... Money talks. If enough pros bought the slow film, it would still be in production. If enough people complained about the lack of it, it would be reintroduced. Evidently we didn't buy enough of it to keep that area profitable. As I see it, the 35mm format is about sacrificing quality for convenience. If you want grainless prints, why are you shooting that itty-bitty little negative? Use a MedF. Some are quite small and unobtrusive, and they'll give you the quality you're looking for. The ISO 100 emulsions they have for 35mm these days are quite good. If you need a less sensitive film for exposure reasons, there's always ND filters. Again, it would be nice if Kodak continued to produce a film that sold in very small quantities, that didn't make them much money, and that probably prevented them from making money by using that production time to make RG25 instead of something more profitable. I would love that. However, I don't expect corporations to behave like that. > So, I don't give a rat's patoot if "most people" are happy with things > that are "good enough" if I can't get things that are better than > mediocre. You can't tell me that most ISO 100 films, or a Nikon F5, or a Canon 1Ds, or most f2.8 zooms are mediocre. They're excellent, but they're not the type of excellent that you're looking for. Canon users bitched when Canon discontinued the FD mount in favour of the EOS one. Sure, the old lenses were reassuringly mechanical. I love my LX, and I'm happy that they're still around on the used market. I love the feel of using a good MF camera, and I'm happy to pay several hundred dollars for one. But how many people would actually pay $2000 or whatever a new LX was selling for recently? The market's just not there, and you can't really blame a manufacturer for not wanting to produce a camera that few people will buy and which will collect dust on Pentax's shelves for decades to come. > And now a bunch of listers are gonna come out with their torches burning > and storm the Castle Belinkovite, their cries carrying for miles "We're > not most people!" as their mediocre quality torches burn out > prematurely and darkness descends upon them. "Holy shit, maybe we > shoulda bought a better torch!" "Hey, these were the best they had. > Maybe it's the inferior oil." While those who appreciate the benefits of modern technology have high-intensity flashlights with some back-up batteries in their pockets. Their tools will be smaller and lighter than the torches, will produce a brighter, more controllable light, and will outlast every torch except the one belonging to the guy lugging the keg of oil with him. chris
