At 11:44 AM 17/09/01, you wrote:
>I think most of us are comfortable with being backward-looking.
>
>I know I am. I appreciate and enjoy Pentax M42 screwmount equipment and
>SMCP-M equipment particularly.
>
>But how many of us are willing to be FORWARD LOOKING as well?
>
>How willing are each of you to come along for the ride? I'm not asking if
>you'll "switch over" to digital--I have yet to see it written that if you
>use digital, you can't also use K2s, LXs, and MZ-Ss. But WHERE are you in
>your understanding of the new ways of making pictures, and HOW DO YOU FEEL
>about becoming forward-looking as well as backward-looking, and...will you
>still BE LOYAL to Pentax when most new product introductions are digital???
Well I for one am really very interested. I've been into photography now
for more than 40 years. The days when I developed and printed my own B&W
stuff are long gone. Increasingly I am finding that my requirements are
being met by digital in one way or another. I have no need to make huge
enlargements or murals. It is a pain to set up my projector, screen, load
magazines and arrange a slide show. The shelves in my study are loaded
with full photo albums. Many never get looked at, except to go on
nostalgia trips. It is soooo very convenient to load scans into my pc and
sit back with a minimum of effort to watch hours of image viewing which is
perfectly acceptable and pleasing to me and any friends who might be
visiting. Nothing to clear up afterwards. No space to stack things. When
I communicate with friends by Internet I send them a colour or B&W photo is
less time than it takes to write all this. Naturally backups are made just
in case but this should be standard procedure for anyone who uses a pc anyhow.
My needs have obviously changed. So I see have the needs of newspaper
photogs around the place. At the moment digital is still just a wee bit
too quick in development although it is significant that there are certain
models which appear to be having a extended life by digital standards. As
far as I am concerned new camera gear is not on the map. My cupboard full
of Pentax and Nikon stuff is more than I'll ever need. But didgital is
where I think I must go. It is the logical development of my
progress. Maybe not for many folks but for me, I think yes.
But as for always being loyal to Pentax well, I don't know. My admiration
for Pentax was and still is based on their old equipment, the
Sla, SV, Spotmatic and such like and of course in later years on the
K1000, the MX and the LX. I lost respect for Pentax with the MZ series
which seems to me very flimsy and very unlike the things I just
mentioned. Maybe that is one of the serious reasons I bought into
Nikon. If they produce a digicam which works well, and I am NOT asking for
a technological whiz-bang wonder but for a simple camera which will take
fine digital pictures of moderate resolution which will be adequate for my
needs, then I will certainly support them. If there are others who come
before then well, who knows? Should I hand out and wait for what might
never come?
Conrad Samuels
Kirstenhof SA
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