jimmy462 Offline Upload & Sell: On
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p.6 #5 · p.6 #5 · What is deal with everyone keeping their boxes/manuals | |
justruss wrote:
Hi Jimmy, we're basically in agreement!
I still think (turn on the humor-reading, I'm going for a little lightness here) you're putting these lenses on a bit of a pedestal. I mean, c/mon, "self-respect of their own labors" and "respect of others labors" and "finely-crafted precision equipment"-- that all strikes me as hyperbole. These are not things I think of when I think of modern camera lenses and the people who use them to make images... and especially not when it comes to saving boxes and what I can infer from that about the person who owns the gear and how the gear was kept.
Granted, I shoot for work (as well as fun), so my views are colored by what the equipment lets me achieve; I feel nothing for the soullessness of the tool, even my 1960s Canon FL 55 f/1.2, whose mount I re-built with my father so it is now an Franken-EF lens (by way of contrast: I do feel something for the time I spent side-by-side with my retired father working on that mount, using the drill press, sanding down the new mount to achieve the right thickness for infinity). I'm impressed by what these lenses achieve, and I think the technology involved is impressive. But particularly when it comes to mass-produced, consumerist-driven, widely available gear (yeah, I include most modern Zeiss lenses in that category)... I'm far more in awe of the one-off leather shoes the cobbler around the corner from me here in Bavaria makes, or my handmade Italian rock-climbing shoes, than a mass-produced lens when it comes to respect for craftsmanship, etc. ...Show more →
Hi justruss,
My first love was for astronomy. And it must have pre-dated school days for me because I remember boring my classmates with my hand-drawn crayon pictures of the constellations during show-and-tell one day back in kindergarten! And I remember learning at an early age from some old books in the school library what a feat it was for humankind to have figured out how to focus light through the use of curved-surface glass lenses and mirrors that we could see far away things as though they were near.
I also remember a day as a little boy when I was holding my dad's hand while we walked through our backyard when he plucked a single leaf from our hedge row and while showing it to me said, "Y'know, for all the amazing things that men can make, none of them can make something as simple as this leaf." I grew up learning wonder.
I grew up to be a tradesman, of sorts, and recently finished up a 32-year career being one of the countless myriad of nuts-and-bolts craftspersons who helped build the amazing infrastructure of today's telecommunications network, I've done it all, from digging the holes to plop Southern Pine sticks in the ground to string cables to, to building server rooms and programming Sonnet networks. Where many see just an unfathomable mess of wires and cables and poles and metal racks and blinking lights, I see the trunk, tail, legs and body of a vast machine which spans the entire globe and which allows us to reconnect with loved ones and, um, debate cardboard boxes.
No one appreciates a painting more than a fellow painter, I suppose. And, I suppose, no one appreciates craftsmanship like a fellow craftsperson. And where some sense wonder, I suppose some see hyperbole.
Whether its when I'm handling my 17mm TS-E or my 13mm Ethos eyepiece I know that I am handling a work of precision engineering, design and craftwork. And I know that somewhere over distant mountains and a vast ocean there is a factory somewhere populated by a small army of craftfolks, and robots and all sorts of precision manufacturing apparatus which are capable of manufacturing a continuous stream of optical devices each capable of focusing light to within one-quarter of a wavelength of light. That we humans went from making one-offs of single lenses by hand to being able to create thousands in a run through the use of computerized precision fabrication is, well, pretty damned amazing to this fella. Where some folks see just a lens or just a box, others see something else.
So, as someone who can feel some of the soulfullness of his tools, yeah, I want the box and all the stuff that came with it.
I've been enjoying our side discussion, and I'd agree, we're pretty much on the same page with a lot of it. The rest?...well, it's all good.
Best,
Jimmy G
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