Monterey, California has a rich and varied photographic history. To this day there are many serious photographic artists in the region. Living here, I get the chance to work with many of them.
Photography is a technical pursuit. When you’re trying to make art, the tech stuff is the yin to the art’s yang. You need, if not mastery of, at least serious attention to both. So when photographers get together, we talk about gear. Cameras, lenses, printers, programs, processes, paper, chemicals, pretty much everything. Gear actually gets more attention than it deserves, probably because most photographers are more comfortable discussing gear than their inner motivations and visions, and also because gear knowledge is a lot more transferable than mindset and world view.
Canon shooters, knowing that I was one of them for three years and went back to Nikon — the D3 did that to me, or for me, depending on your point of view — and now use Sony gear a lot, ask me about some cameras or lenses. What they get from me are mostly the negatives. I’m not trying to scare them off, but when you work with a camera system for a while, whatever’s good about it tends to become part of the atmosphere, and when was the last time you thought hard about the air you’re breathing? But bad things continue to irritate.
So, whenever anyone asks me about the Sony alpha 7 series, they get an earful about the maddening menu system and the incessant need to look at it, whether they want to or not. I don’t hate the cameras; in fact, on balance, I like them a lot. However, the negatives get more air time from me than the positives. If you ask me about the Epson 4900, you’re gonna hear about ink clogs before I extol the gamut.
It’s the same when I ask others about some gear. I never get a paean to its wonderfulness. It’s always a balanced response.
I’ve noticed that the same dynamic doesn’t seem to play out on the Internet, at least in the non-professional milieus. Especially in fora devoted to a particular brand, you’ll find people who point out flaws castigated unmercifully by those who think that vendor can do no wrong. You will also see a funny kind of ad-hominem attack on a person who questions some aspect of the WonderFlex Mark XVII: “You’re just a Canon user; you have no right to your opinions, you’re just trying to stir up trouble, and what are you doing on our forum anyway?”
This is classic tribal behavior. The tribe in this case is defined by ownership of the equipment in question. A tenet of the tribe is that equipment, if not flawless, is exemplary. Departures from perfection are to be discussed infrequently, and with deference towards the maker of the equipment. Users of other equipment have questionable taste, and their motivations are suspect. People who use many different cameras and lenses are confusing.
The whole dynamic is not very useful, and contributes to discussions that provide more heat than light. In that last, it’s not so different from the Internet writ large. It’s a great tool, but the SNR could use some work.
One thing that can help improve the experience of the Brand X* forum on Big Camera Site R* is to actively manage one’s ignore list. Often, it’s just a few poorly-moderated sociopaths ruining it for everybody, and with a single click you can make them vanish, apart from quotations in other posts.
It’s bad enough being in the Brand X forum with Brand Y on one’s gear list (infidel!), but even worse is having generation N of Brand Y’s product and generation N-1 of Brand X’s (apostate!). It dampens one’s enthusiasm for generation N+1 of Brand X, that’s for sure.
(* We may be thinking of the same X and R, but maybe not.)
Excellent to see Jim. Only one thing counts, the image itself. Great to see Jim. Danny.
I’ve tried the ignore function, what I need is an advanced version that filters out the posts that quote a huge chunk of the ignored post as well !! In most cases by the time I’ve filtered I may as well invoke the “ignore forum” function.
Interesting as well that when N+1 arrives N to some extent and N-1 certainly ( no one still uses N-2 right?) become pretty rubbish products really even, or usually particularly, to the devoted.
The Sony forum is largely a place where people who collect gear can congregate. Like those who buy guns but don’t shoot, there are a significant percentage of people who look at camera gear rather like mechanical toys. Because their hobby is the gear, they’re very defensive of their investment – emotional and financial.
I bought my NEX-6 because I wanted a camera that would tap my many film-era lenses. I bought my A7 because it was a much better platform for those lenses.
But ultimately, the purpose of those lenses and bodies was – for me – to take photos. My A7 and backup NEX-6 occupy just a fraction of the travel space and weight of the pair of Nikon D7000s they replace.. These light bodies and excellent light kit lenses, supplemented with a few native lenses, allow me to go get photos under the most challenging circumstances and settings.
Yes, I love the feel of new optics and mechanics. But I really, really like shooting all kinds of photo essays. When my fellow shooters gather and talk photography, hardware is the least discussed. There is no gear tribalism. On the forum, that’s 90% or more of what is discussed.
Primal need for identity, acceptance and superiority.
A forum member protecting his brand of choice, another forum member informing that she has returned an expensive lens after two days of terrible experience with it, a product reviewer showing disdain for a certain camera, a blog writer expressing annoyance about a particular menu design, … Such instances have very little to do with the gear, but are opportunities for promoting oneself. It’s quite subtle and convenient on the so-called social networks.
Nothing to do with photography.