Photography and Arthritis

[ki6mf]

I think the Shen Hao field camera has the largest diameter knobs which can help with getting a grip to tighten the camera controls. I am speaking anecdotaly and have never measured them against the other wooden field cameras!

[IanMazursky]

Last year i was diagnosed with the beginning stages of inflammatory arthritis working its ways to RA according to my doc.
The Xrays showed it in my hands, shoulders, elbows, knees and spine.
I also have a number of bone spurs on a number of my cervical discs in my neck. I also have a bad bursitis in my left elbow.
I call it my genetic crap shoot, heavy on the crap. Im only 26, this all started over 10+ year ago.

Like others with arthritis i have good days and bad. Anti-Inflammatories (Celebrex and Volatren) help a bit and so does rest.
Its much worse in the winter and changes of the seasons but all in all it could be much worse. My knees can also tell the weather!

I like shooting my Korona 12x20, it has big knobs. Its not that hard to handle considering its size.
I sometimes find it hard to push the small buttons on my sekonic L758DR meter but you can switch the buttons from back to front which makes it easier.
My Crown Graphic 4x5 has small focusing knobs but i just grin and bear it.

I know a few guys who will wrap rubber bands around the knobs to increase traction and make it easier to turn.
Or you can go to a sports store and buy some grip tape which also works.
If i do venture out in the winter, i take a bunch of the heat packs you buy in ski stores and put them in my gloves.
They help a lot with the finger joints. You just have to be careful not to burn yourself. Been their not fun! Same with heating pads.

[Frank Petronio]

I have RA too but I'm lucky that it isn't too bad and I've found the right combo of meds after experimenting with my doctors for a couple of years. In combination with my new middle-aged nearsightedness I have been getting frustrated with my cameras and keep experimenting with different set-ups to see which is the best for hands and eyes....

For small format 35mm and dslr, I finally realized that AF and larger cameras are the way to go. My Nikon D300 is heavy but the buttons and controls feel right; I have an AFS prime and zoom and I like them much better than the screw drive primes. I also have a D60 but it's a backup and family camera, I find it too small for serious shooting but it is best for casual outings.

Nikon 35mm N80s and F100s are the film equivalents but I don't feel like shooting 35mm unless I can use a real Leica to be honest, even if that sounds snobby. But Leicas are hard to see without glasses and because I tend to compose and shoot a lot of frames doing portraits, I find the Leica (Hexar AF, etc.) not as good for portraiture so I gave up on them. Right now I just have a couple of AF P&S Olympus Styluses and 35mm is gone....

Now 120 film - Blads - are not going to be as easy as you're thinking. Loading 120 is not fun, more intricate than any 35mm. I can't say that other brands are any easier but maybe the Fuji rangefinder 6x9s are the easiest -- big wide open backs and large controls.

The Crown you have is going to be pretty nice, I swapped a heavier Linhof for one and found the weight savings great for handholding.

But ultimately for large format, 4x5, 8x10, whatever, I think a full studio monorail, like a Sinar, will have the easiest controls and easiest set up to use. You're not backpacking and the weight of it on a tripod isn't going to be that bad. Heck a heavier, more solid tripod might be good to have if things get worse, you can lean on it!

The most important thing is to stay active, shoot a lot and live large because who knows what will happen next?

[dave wagstaff]

I have severe RA (actually psoriatic arthritis) and was diagnosed to be in a wheelchair by now. When it was bad I could only walk from the chair to the fridge, and with great pain. One leg was twice as big as the other, they call it sausage leg.

I do methotrexate, injectable kenalog (not good long term, but I do it when I travel), and also on Humira. Enbrel did nothing for me. Now I "phase in phase out" my dosages, have just finished ramping up now I can coast for awhile on low doses (1/4 of my mtx and humira maybe once every 6-8 weeks for 4-8 months). I am now symptom free (in remission) and photography is one of the activities I pursue that keeps me active and interested in keeping getting about.

Obviously I'm no Doc so don't do what I do, it's not advice. I got a lot worse before I got better.

My Doc says I healed (temporarily at least) myself. I'll tell you what changed my life around. I used to think, "I will beat this and live a healthy life". I changed my thinking to just visualizing myself perfectly healthy, by removing the negative thought of having it, ....for me anyways.....it worked. I also drink lots and lots of spring water, use sea salt with trace minerals, and eat no processed food and organic only.

I have changed my life as my priorities changed. Seeing my family crippled, I have given up the desk job. No sense for me to work hard to retire enjoy life. I am poor now and do what I want to do every day and I enjoy it!

Best of luck to all others with this condition.

[Nathan Potter]

Self injectable Enbrel is quite effective for some individuals with RA. For those not familiar though, it's expensive, on the order of $3000.00 per month. Insurance pays some of that depending on what kind you have. But either way the cost to society, per individual, is so staggering as to be unsustainable. Of course the cost to manufacture is expensive since, I believe, it is a form of recombinant DNA and produced in volume in the ovaries of Chinese hampsters. I suppose American hampsters would be even more expensive. But does anyone seriously want this stuff injected into them?

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[dave wagstaff]

You are correct Nathan, it can be effective for some.

Let me point out though none of us do it recreationally LOL. Enbrel is $1000 a month, Humira is $2100 a month (in US). Everyone on it faces a tough choice, one that requires us to choose between a lifetime of the crippling disease or in a very worst case scenario a few years of pain free living good. The risks are high, recent warnings went out that increased lymphoma is something like 10x or more more likely with Biologics users. With MTX we also have to worry about lowered immune system and bone marrow decrease. NSAIDs also destroy the immune system long term.

It's something that only those of us that face this can make the call, and we all weigh the benefits and cons and none go blindly into it. We make a choice and we live with the consequences. That is why I ramp up ramp down, I def don't want these in me all the time.

I know people that have been on these meds (the ones that have been around long enough) for 17 years. They go skiing and have a normal life. Dangerous? Hell yes! But until you are in that situation, it is a pretty hard call. I would not post about it, but for those afflicted.........it changes our lives. We all try diet and herbal therapies first... push comes to shove you have to make a choice. Used wisely those of us on it will live a decent standard of healthy life and achieve old age. Sounds good to me :-) LOL.

Respectfully,
Dave

[jmooney]

. But does anyone seriously want this stuff injected into them?

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

It's a lot better than the previous treatment which was high dose prednisone. Prednisone thins tissue over time and not just your skin, all tissue. We buried my grandfather at 62 because of a ruptured bowel and abscess due to long term prednisone usage.

Also the biologics have the capability to slow or stop the progression of the disease. This was never possible before.

So to answer your questions: No, not a blessed one of us WANTS to inject this stuff into ourselves, however it's either inject or use a cane to walk, not be able to tie my own shoes, turn a key in a lock, or use a camera.

Jim

[Nathan Potter]

Dave and Jim, I understand what you're saying and agree wholeheartedly. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to lead a near normal life and minimize the inflammatory pain. BTW the cost of Enbrel in Austin, without insurance reimbursement, is in fact just about $3000.00 per month. Either the insurance Co. or the individual has to pay the cost. I use a Remicade infusion every other month at the local hospital and it has been very effective for me - I'm about normal with ,usually, no difficulty working LF gear, or packing my 40 lb. backpack.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[J_Tardiff]

I have Raynaud's like Scott that gets worse year by year, at this point I can no longer shoot in the cold so this is the time of year when I fiddle around with restoration projects and one of my favorites is replacing knobs on my field cameras! Always fiddling with these.

I found that I really had to make sure to get my hands on the cameras I was considering, came within inches of buying a Canham sight unseen (until Ted Harris, who knew about my lousy hands warned me to try one first...).

My favorites are the larger knobs with a strip of rubber, I think some of the Shen Haos have them. I do find my Crown very easy to work with.

Good luck with the RA, my sister-in-law struggles with it and the endless on-off steroid game. But she has finally found an approach that works with her tapers and that helps. She was diagnosed over 25 years ago after multiple misdiagnoses .

JT

[ASRafferty]

Jill, as you say, Ted knew firsthand (no pun intended) whereof he spoke when it came to dexterity issues and cold...I seem to remember at one point that he actually settled on a Toyo IIA because of its big rubber knobs (not the only reason, of course, but I recall his saying that's what swung his decision at the time)...he probably posted about it here somewhere.