techno..

[cobalt]

hi
not trying to start a debate here, but just wondering...
am i the only one who thinks the technology of art (and photography) is actually moving backward?

i have been fighting with this damned camera all afternoon...little monorail with little knobs and STIFF rotating back...and i realized something:

my old, old korona 4x5 locks down tight, i mean TIGHT. it is rigid as hell. not as flexible as a monorail. have to take the back off to change from landscape to portrait. that's ok with me. but it's solid. put the film holder in, it don't move. not a centimeter. nope.
solid.

and then there's that tachihara (that someone mercifully bought fro me). how the hell do you fold that thing without ruining the finish and/or wrinkling the bellows? what kind of field camera uses two knobs simultaneously t shift??

just like my old buick...tough...solid...SIMPLE.

they dont make 'em like that any longer.

[Sylvester Graham]

It's not just the technology of art, its f-ing everything. You said it yourself, "like my old buick"

Everybody's cutting costs, outsourcing, building things out of plastic, making more crap instead of less quality... How have you not noticed this?

[scrichton]

anyone else hear about the cost cutting at mercedes. last year their cost cutting team got it so badly wrong it was only after about 3000 cars were shipped they realised the new cheaper galvanisation process hadn't had any chemicals added. It was just a waterbath. Recalls have started!

Everything is just too discardible now, I think internet purchasing does not help as the profit is getting driven away. Therefore manufacturers look at inferior materials all too often to maximise gain.

[Mark Sampson]

Convienience trumps quality every time?

[paulr]

I disagree with all of this. You can find examples of almost anything that are better designed and better made than ever before in history.

But there are a couple of serious caveats. One is that we pay a lot more for labor now than ever before, especially in developed economies (bad news for you, good news for the guys who make the stuff). So quality workmanship just costs more than ever. And few people can or will pay for it. The result is that average quality is often very low, even if quality at the high end is very high.

Also, in some areas, higher technology processes have replaced traditional hand processes. The newer technologies often do a better job, but since they don't LOOK like hand processes, we assume they're inferior. My road bike is from 1984 and was made with hand-filed lugs, assembled completely by hand with silver solder. It's gorgeous, and has more of that old-school look and feel of quality than a modern frame that's welded and heat treated, and made of combinations of alloys and composites. But what the new frame loses in aura of oldworld craftsmanship, it more than makes up for in every other way. It's just a better performing, more thoroughly engineered and finely realized thing. It only comes in second place if you're judging it as sculpture (you could say the same thing about the old Buik!)

[Nick_3536]

If anybody tried to sell a camera like an old 1940's woodie most here would say

1) It's too heavy

2) It doesn't go wide enough

3) It can't be twisted into a preztal

4) It's too expensive.

There are reasons you can buy many of the old cameras for so little. If you want what they provide grab one. Or two

[Marko]

But there are a couple of serious caveats. One is that we pay a lot more for labor now than ever before, especially in developed economies (bad news for you, good news for the guys who make the stuff). So quality workmanship just costs more than ever. And few people can or will pay for it. The result is that average quality is often very low, even if quality at the high end is very high.

It is a classic example of "pick two out of three" - high durability, high quality, low price.

Back in the "good old days" when labour was cheap and technology relatively primitive, quality and durability were a premium because people were looking for things that could be bought once and last a lifetime. My grandparents spent their entire life with a furniture they bought early on in their marriage and it is still alive and functional. Try that with an Ikea or most any other furniture made today. But it was hand-crafted and the cost of it was proportionally high.

Today, with automated factories, strictly controlled and repeatable processes and synthetic materials, most everything can be made faster and in greater quantities and at much lower individual prices. Most everything actually has to be made in greater quantities in order to fully utilize those factories and amortize their price.

So that leaves us with mass-produced, cheap and yet functional things we easily buy and discard with little thought.

That's bad news for those of us who like to personalize their possessions and keep them around for a long time. That's good news for most everybody else for two main reasons: a) if you loose it or break it, it is easy to replace and b) when the cycle closes and the time comes to buy a new one, there will likely be new and improved model available for roughly the same amount.

There's always an option for those with distinguished tastes and money to match, of course. Those products will really last a lifetime, but their price will also reflect the qualified labour cost.

In the end, it's all just about economy, not art, or even craft.

[Ken Lee]

People live longer, but now overpopulation is a problem. Cable TV gives us 900 channels to choose from, but most of them are junk... and so it goes.

As we move from one era to another, some things get better, while others get worse. Such is Life. What are ya gonna do ?

[Lee Hamiel]

Buy a Linhof Master Technika.

It's not anywhere close to a new camera by the way ...

Nowadays it's all about volume sales & small profit margins - try going to a bank & getting a commercial loan for a small run of high quality made cameras - not going to happen. Only can be done by solvent makers that could probably make more profit but stay with the quality aspect as it's what they do & it's more important to them.

[Brian Ellis]

"how the hell do you fold that thing [a Tachiahra]without ruining the finish and/or wrinkling the bellows? "

I've probably folded and unfolded a Tachihara close to 1000 times. Never even scratched, much less ruined, the finish or wrinkled the bellows. It couldn't be more simple. I just pulled my Tachihara out to take a look because I couldn't think offhand how one could possibly ruin the finsih while folding or unfolding it. Now having opened and closed it a couple times while watching the moving parts I still can't figure that one out. I'd have to make a real effort to damage the finish while folding and unfolding the camera. Maybe using a large wrench instead of my hands would do it.