I joined this group about 12 years ago, just exactly too late to submit to the first annual.
Back then I had been active on the dpreview pentax forum, and dpr did something particularly annoying, I don’t remember what, a squirrel may have been involved. My impression of online photo fora at that point was pretty much that people who had figured out some of the basics of manual exposure three months before were at the peak of their Dunning-Kruger confidence and would share their extensive knowledge, some of which was based in reality, with people who had bought a digital camera three weeks before and would ask questions like “why should I shoot raw?”, “What’s an f-stop?”, and “Do I need a tripod?”. At the time I had only been doing photography about 40 years, and it was nice to find a group where a significant number of members made me seem inexperienced, and only a couple of people had repeated the same year of experience 50 or more times. > On Jan 6, 2023, at 3:56 PM, Bill <anotherdrunken...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 1/6/2023 4:41 PM, Rick Womer wrote: >> I wish there were more people actively participating here. Looking into the >> archives at pdml.net <http://pdml.net/>, on this date ten years ago there >> were 63 messages. Yesterday there was one. >> >> Rick > Go back 20 years and there were probably 200 posts. > > When I joined the list in 1999 it was a vibrant and sometimes raucous > community that was focused on Pentax camera equipment and photography. There > was very little discussion outside of those subjects, and we had a lot to say. > As a group, we have taken our eyes off the ball in that regard. There is very > little Pentax or photography discussion these days. I do find it frustrating that where I used to get a lot of useful critique of my own photos, and even see useful critique of other people’s photos, at most there might be an occasional “nice photo”. > > The introduction of new lenses passes most people by, it seems. When the DFA* > 50/1.4 was released in 2018, we barely murmured about it even though it is > among the best lenses in it's class. That may be, but in my case I already had an FA 50/1.4 and I rarely lost shots because they weren’t sharp enough to cut myself shaving. It’s good enough, and I spent my money on lenses that would take photos that ones I already had couldn’t. > The same with the DA*85/1.4 in 2020. This lens is the best 85mm lens > available on the market, but other than a couple of posts from people who > have purchased one, crickets. This is one that interests me, but at the moment it doesn’t interest me $1900 worth. It also looks like it weighs a ton, I’ll make do with my 77/1.8 for now, not quite as long or as fast, but a lot smaller, and I love that 77 pixie dust. > Did anyone here actually notice the DFA21mm LTD that was released last year? I noticed it, I already have lenses that will do what it does, maybe not quite as well, but they do other things better. > > How about the K3III? Does anyone here really give two fucks about it? It's > one of the best APS-C cameras on the market and probably will be the last > APS-C SLR that anyone will release for the next decade, and then it will be > another Pentax because no one else will be making SLRs by then. I’d love to have one, and have been tempted, but when it came out I was unemployed and broke, now that I’m employed and less broke, I haven’t had time to take photos. Note that my total collection of keeper candidate photos last year was 11 frames, I used to get that many photos of that quality in a month. > > How about the updates to the 31, 43 and 77mm lenses that were introduced last > year? Did anyone here give enough of a fuck about it to start a thread about > them? I already have a 31,43 and 77. The 43 and 77 are two of my favorite lenses. Trading up for a little bit nicer coating just wasn’t worth the money. If I were buying them new, I’d be very interested. If they released them with the coating and weather sealing, I’d be interested. > > We are supposed to be about Pentax cameras and photography, but we talk about > neither for the most part. This thread is a case in point. > > The honest truth is that this list is no longer relevant for anyone > interested in Pentax or photography. Not entirely true, and some of us may not be as relevant to photography as we once were. > > The world has moved on from email lists to online forums. Do a non specific > search for anything related to discussing Pentax cameras and the PDML doesn't > show up unless you type in Pentax discuss, and then it's on page 2 of Google. > In other words, you have to know this list exists to find it. > Have we even had a new member join in the last 5 years and if so has that > person stuck around for more than a couple of posts? This is an important point. How many people actively invite new people to join. On top of that, I’ve maintained contact with some of the friends I made here and several of them have left because of people being, well to use the colloquial, assholes, to them. I will note that you personally don’t have a stellar reputation for being a ray of welcoming sunshine when you disagree with something someone else says. I don’t know the details with Mark, but after many years of his putting in tremendous amounts of work, someone bitched him out royally for something in the quotes file. So all it takes is one flaming asshole to chase away someone who did more for this community than most of the rest of the members combined. > > We don't talk about what we are purportedly here to talk about, and what we > talk about is, to be kind, pretty mundane shit for the most part. We've > become comfortable with silence, and so have become silent. True, how much useful critique have you given on the photos posted? > > For myself, I've pretty much moved on. I'm very active on PentaxForums. I > recently took on the task of Moderator over there. The last time I looked in there (a while back admittedly) it fit my description above as a good soapbox for people who knew just enough about photography to make fools of themselves. But times change. > > I suspect I'm not alone in this (other than being crazy enough to want to be > a forum moderator). We've just gotten bored, have found other things to do > that mean more to us and concentrate our time on anything but the PDML. > > We have become a small closed door social club in the basement of a burnt out > building in a ghost town. With a sign on the door that says “Beware of Leopard”. > > I want to talk about Pentax. I want to talk about photography, and when I try > to do it here I may as well be talking into a vacuum. > > Sadly, the PDML has become boring and irrelevant, and that is reflected in > the activity shown on it. Sadly, I’ve become boring and irrelevant, I guess it bleeds over into my email discussions. -- Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from ret4est -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-le...@pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
