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#1
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RANT- Reality Check-"The Early Days of Digital Photography"
Okay, this one is driving me nutz so I'm going to blow off a little
steam and be done with it. Repeatedly I have been seeing/hearing the phrase "back when digital photography was new", sometimes with a wry intent, but more often with complete seriousness that carries a sort of blasé "been there/done that" attitude (possibly a symptom of a sort of time-compressed, multitasking, revved-up, "Moore's Law" mentality that many of us live with today). I have to admit that I find it triggers equal measures of irritation and humor. Photography in general stems from the ancient concept of the "Camera Obscuras", but for the sake of my comparison I consider modern photography to be a direct descendant of the first film negatives created by Henry Talbot in 1834. That gives photography a pedigree of at least 170 years. Even starting from the first Leica (1924) we have a photographic history of 80 years! By contrast, digital photography (using a sensor as opposed to a film negative) can, at best, claim a history of roughly 17 years with Kodak's first commercial sensor around 1987 or, more practically, about 13 years because the 1991 release of the DCS cameras by Kodak could be considered the spiritual equal of the stunning release of the 1900's "Brownie" camera. Today (2004) we have moved well into the equal of the "Leica/Kodachrome" phase (roughly equal to 1936 in film terms). Obviously development of digital photography has been accelerated since digital took only 13 years to cover roughly the same span that took film photography 36 years. This is no real surprise as many aspects of digital photography (especially lens technology) rest firmly on the well developed shoulders of film photography. However even at this faster pace it seems apparent that digital photography is still a very young sibling to it's parent (film photography). Just as Talbot had no idea what his creation would (pardon the pun) develop into, we have no idea what digital photography will accomplish in 80 (or 170) years. We're standing in the shallow end and I'm telling you now that digital photography is still very, very, new. Drifter "I've been here, I've been there..." |
#2
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Drifter states:
Okay, this one is driving me nutz so I'm going to blow off a little steam and be done with it. Repeatedly I have been seeing/hearing the phrase "back when digital photography was new", sometimes with a wry intent, but more often with complete seriousness that carries a sort of blasé "been there/done that" attitude (possibly a symptom of a sort of time-compressed, multitasking, revved-up, "Moore's Law" mentality that many of us live with today). I have to admit that I find it triggers equal measures of irritation and humor. No more so than the 20 somethings on TV ads who claim some grease mixture has kept their skin "young." Or the people I listen to sometimes, just turned 27-28-29 or so, talk about "when I was young." Or some TV ad woman talking about how she stays slender--at 25! It's either societal or a part of the human condition. We all want to be more experienced, thus older, than we are, until the joints actually start creaking, eyesight begins to fail, and we have to get up 3-4 times a night. Then we'd rather be 30, but without a loss of knowledge. Charlie Self "Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary |
#3
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Way back when I got my Oly E-10 I would hear people whisper "That's a
digital camera!," others would freak when I showed them a photo on the viewer...they had no idea that digital existed. I think that is what people are refering to when they talk of when digital was new...the days before it was ubiquitous. I do agree though that we are where the PC was before the IBM-PC. There are no standards. |
#4
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Way back when I got my Oly E-10 I would hear people whisper "That's a
digital camera!," others would freak when I showed them a photo on the viewer...they had no idea that digital existed. I think that is what people are refering to when they talk of when digital was new...the days before it was ubiquitous. I do agree though that we are where the PC was before the IBM-PC. There are no standards. |
#5
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Drifter wrote:
Okay, this one is driving me nutz so I'm going to blow off a little steam and be done with it. Man, if this be a rant, you've set the curve in the opposite direction! I thought a rant was supposed to be rude, condescending, filled with righteous indignation, no real point, and generally poorly written. You have "failed" to reach any of these benchmarks. Please do "rant" again sometime soon; I enjoyed it, and agree "the early days of digital" can be equally amusing/irritating. -- John McWilliams |
#6
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Drifter wrote:
Okay, this one is driving me nutz so I'm going to blow off a little steam and be done with it. Man, if this be a rant, you've set the curve in the opposite direction! I thought a rant was supposed to be rude, condescending, filled with righteous indignation, no real point, and generally poorly written. You have "failed" to reach any of these benchmarks. Please do "rant" again sometime soon; I enjoyed it, and agree "the early days of digital" can be equally amusing/irritating. -- John McWilliams |
#7
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"Gene Palmiter" wrote in message
news:Ufe7d.42$ae7.12@trndny07... I do agree though that we are where the PC was before the IBM-PC. There are no standards. What kind of standards do you think are lacking in the world digital photography? |
#8
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On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:57:56 GMT, "Gene Palmiter"
wrote: Way back when I got my Oly E-10 I would hear people whisper "That's a digital camera!," others would freak when I showed them a photo on the viewer...they had no idea that digital existed. I think that is what people are refering to when they talk of when digital was new...the days before it was ubiquitous. I do agree though that we are where the PC was before the IBM-PC. There are no standards. Standards? As opposed to film? I can go into a camera store that stocks 35mm film, and see the lack of standards there. Or lenses. Or cameras themselves. Standards? We've got hundreds of standards, none of them standard. :-) How about Pentax calling themselves "The official camera of the Internet"? What standard elected them that? Bill Funk Change "g" to "a" |
#9
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"Robert Lynch" wrote in message news:Sre7d.5$na.0@trnddc04... "Gene Palmiter" wrote in message news:Ufe7d.42$ae7.12@trndny07... I do agree though that we are where the PC was before the IBM-PC. There are no standards. What kind of standards do you think are lacking in the world digital photography? Well....RAW files....why can't they be standarized so that the programs that handle them can improve? Lion Battery packs...do they all have to be different and proprietary? But....the market will decide what the standards will be....but not for awhile. |
#10
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Big Bill wrote:
How about Pentax calling themselves "The official camera of the Internet"? What standard elected them that? Theirs, of course. -- jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' |
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