Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:25:25 -0700 > LOL ... I have never heard Pentax referred to as the "Japanese Leica".
I read it somewhere, probably Modern Photography way back in the day when Herbert Keppler was still active. > Leica is most reknowned for its lenses and rangefinder cameras and > Pentax—the name itself was derived from the pentaprism used in SLRs. > > Erwin Puts ... Well, his article would be a heck of a lot more > readable and sensible if he learned how to use paragraphs to structure > his thoughts. He rambles. Does he ever. Trying to follow his thoughts is a real challenge. His camera and lens reviews are equally turgid... But there is often some gold buries in the dross. > I'm in the middle of re-reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle > Maintenance" right now. I read it first in '76 or so, again about '81, > and with all the water under the bridge since, reading it now points > out some very interesting fallacies in the logic presented as > Phaedrus' hunt for the 'ghost of rationality'. Some fundamental > premises seem just plain wrong to me now. > > But, achingly clawing my way through this mass of text, I do agree > with Puts' fundamental premise, although the words he uses are > strangely construed. In the modern world of equipment über alles, too > much weight is lent to numbers without a shred of intelligible > discourse given to the why of their primacy. Everything is opinion, > belief and a faith-healer's trust that "numbers don't lie." > > Well, the numbers are just numbers: they're evidence, not truth. > Interpreting the numbers is where art and understanding lies. > > Just like we can confuse ourselves and think we are increasing our > understanding when we banter on about how photosites work, photon > counting, etc, the truth is that very little of this has much to do > with photography and a lot to do with technology and engineering. > Being able to stand back from the technology, see how the equipment > behaves and then bending it to our purpose of producing photographs, > not theorizing about the engineering of better equipment, is often > lost. > > Equipment cannot make photographs. Only people can. People with eyes, > sensitivity, and skill to know how to work the equipment. Truly > ..."equipment often gets in the way of Photography." Well said, Godders. I'd like to hear more comments in this vein from other regulars here. Regards, Jim -- -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
