A Parable

DJW

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Found this which is too true ;)

Once Upon a Time....

Once upon a time there was a young career photographer. He was talented, but he didn't have much money.

Nevertheless, because it was the mid-'60's and he was reacting to his depression/war era parents, he thought that money wasn't important — art always came first.

Consequently while as his peers, who were developing their careers alongside his, bought Nikon Fs, M series Leicas and Hasselblads, our hero had to satisfy himself using Pentax and Minoltas along with inexpensive third-party lenses from Tamron, Tokina and the like. He reveled in the simplicity of his ways.

And, our hero succeeded. His photographs, made with cheap cameras on even cheaper lenses were widely published in major magazines, his better work was collected by major galleries and national institutions, and he was able to make a decent living as a freelance photojournalist.

Meanwhile his colleagues and competitors continued to tease and distress him about his not using "the best".

Then the illness struck. He started to believe that they might be right. As quickly as he could he started to buy top rated cameras and lenses. Nikons, Leicas, Contax, Hasselblads — all the top brands. His family's life-style suffered as he plowed more and more money into the finest camera bodies and lenses available. Finally his career as well as his personal life were in jeopardy as his spending exceeded his financial abilities.

Years later he reviewed this period of his life. With hindsight he saw how in fact his best work from that time of his life was done when he was poor and using so-called "amateur equipment". There was a freshness and a clarity of vision that became veiled by the later obsession with lines/mm, titanium bodies, exotic lens elements and the like.

Today he can afford to buy whatever equipment he wishes — and he does, and enjoys every one of them. But, he always remembers the lesson that difficult period of his life taught him.
 
Not a Canon user otherwise the work would have been stunning all the way through his career ;)
 
I had a few Pentax's - S1a, ME, MX, and LX, I thought it was me when I started reading it, but the bit about successful photographer bolloxed it completely. :coat:
 
CT said:
snip MX, and LX,

I really wanted the MX when I was younger, was such a nice camera.
 
Actually, the LX was Pentax's attempt to break into the pro market and it never made it. To be honest it was overrated. The MX was far more prized by pros for it's build quality, size, completely mechanical except for metering. Still a cracking camera if you can drop on one today. I preferred the silver bodied version.
 
CT said:
Actually, the LX was Pentax's attempt to break into the pro market and it never made it. To be honest it was overrated. The MX was far more prized by pros for it's build quality, size, completely mechanical except for metering. Still a cracking camera if you can drop on one today. I preferred the silver bodied version.

My memory could be wrong but the LX was fully manual and had the interchangeable screens didn't it? Don't think the MX did. I preferred the black one :p
 
LOL I had a black MX. You could change screens on the MX and the LX, but with the MX it was a real fiddly job through the lens opening, whereas with the LX the prism slid off and the job was a doddle.

Both were manual only, but with the MX the battery only powered the meter, while with the LX IIRC, if the battery died, you had one emergency mechanical shutter speed,which I think was the flash sync speed. Pros were very wary of battery dependant cameras in those days, but batteries were nowhere near as good as they are today.
 
Started with a Pentax Spotmatic given me by my grand-dad.
 
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