[Clicker]

Shouldn't this be a FOOL shouldn't be dissing a tool????

I was using this definition:

tool:

someone who is a complete idiot

[straightshooter]

Thank you much CW for defending us and Pentax. What an elitist dork your instructor is.

I think he thinks I'm crazy because my backup in my bag is a 1962 S1a complete with clip on light meter along with 28mm, 55mm, 105mm and 135mm Super Takumars. LOL

CW

[flyer]

Pentax images have more bite anyway!

Maybe you could mail him an image. Sweet revenge.

[TaoMaas]

As for a Pentax being an Edsel, Well your instructor is an idiot. Edsel was one of the finest car's made in it's time. It just never caught on.

That's what I understood, too. I thought the Edsel's biggest problem was that it was priced too high relative to it's competition. A more modern version of this scenario would be the Subaru SVX. A nice car with some unusual features, but it was trying to steal buyers from the Nissan 280ZX and Toyota Supra. Buyers asked themselves, "Why gamble on this new car when I can buy a proven vehicle for the same or less money?" By the way, I think this will be the exact same battle Pentax will be fighting if they opt to build a full frame DSLR. Unless it has some world-beating features, buyers will have to be pretty big gamblers to spend that amount of money for a Pentax over a Canon or Nikon.

[Tom2]

Hey, just smile, say "Yes, I know," and continue to make good photos.

You can learn something from almost any instructor. Get what you can from him, don't worry about the "slight" of your equipment, and keep shooting.

In the greater scheme of things, this is absolutely nothing.

[jgredline]

Perhaps you should e mail him this link? Show him the error of his ways.

[patrickt]

Maybe your instructor flunked Analogy in college. A Canon would obviously be a Ford, which produced the Edsel and the 300D. Nikon would be a Chevy. The two big guys. Pentax would be a Studebaker. Really nice cars and very popular with a few. They're still popular. Of course, the company went under.

[Marcus]

Does he realise that if he has a D40, D70, or a D300 then his native ISO is also ISO200. The latter camera only goes down to ISO100 by frigging the apparent sensitivity.

Bingo!

I thought that was common knowledge with everyone about Nikons.

[ve2vfd]

I think he thinks I'm crazy because my backup in my bag is a 1962 S1a complete with clip on light meter along with 28mm, 55mm, 105mm and 135mm Super Takumars. LOL

Niiiiice! Thats some serious glass!

Pat

[Mark Castleman]

Go get yourself a t-shirt made that reads "Those who can not do, teach." and wear that to class.

You are welcome to come in to my classroom and see that I teach because I think it is important, not because I can't "do" physics. It's ignorance like yours that make everyone look bad.

[hut234]

That wouldn't work with him. Besides his own studio, he works for the Atlanta Zoo, AP photographing NASCAR at Atlanta Motor Speedway, worked for the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, was full time with the AP, etc. so he can do as well as teach. He shot the famous (in Atlanta) photo of Sid Breem sliding in safe at home to win the 1991 NL Championship over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

CW

Ah, a sports shooter. Aren't those the folks who aim their camera at a spot and wait for something to happen? Or aim it at the action and hope that somewhere an interesting athletic body does something interesting in the frame?

I wouldn't take any advice about photography from a sports shooter, no offense to the ss here. But this one doesn't seem to have things in perspective.

[Mike Cash]

Seems to me it would be appropriate to look at his portfolio and say, "My goodness, your cameras took some nice photos!"

If he is too obtuse to get it, all the better.

[FHPhotographer]

In my digital photography class we were talking about ISO ratings in cameras and I mentioned that my K100D Super would only go down to 200 instead of 100. This is when he said I bought an Edsel. At least I got even with him. Told him while he was spending thousands on IS (or whatever they call it) that Nikon built into it's lenses to rip him off, I could buy Takumars, some of the greatest glass ever made, for practically nothing and all of them could be used with shake reduction. I think I made my point and I think he realized I wasn't happy with his joke.

CW

I'm going to assume this is a community college class? Mostly adults? And I'm also going to assume that none of the Forum critics know anything about the context of the comment, or about that classroom dynamic.

In fact, I'm going to guess that the vast majority of y'all never stood in front of an "adult" class, never were pulled 20 different ways by students and administration, forced to work around a bad syllabus or worse texts, or found yourself subject to micro scrutiny by students who were hypersensitive to anything that deviated from their frequently uninformed opinions.

Think about what it feels like to care about something, to want to share it with others, then to look out at a room of entitlement-bound, frequently surly students knowing that at least a couple are lying in wait for the slightest politically incorrect act or comment that can be used as leverage to secure a better grade, or just to play "gotcha" with an instructor.

I'm not challenging straightshooter about what was said, or suggesting in any way that these comments apply to him/her... but I am challenging some of the posters who responded to rethink these kinds of cheap-shot comments that do a disservice to teachers.

So next time before you launch into some drivel about this or any other teacher, or advise some kind of juvenile "pay back," just ask yourself why you aren't in front of the class sharing your expertise. And maybe reconsider criticizing what you can't, or won't, do for what amounts to about $6 an hour.

Brian (FHPhotographer)

[CaymanImaging]

I'm so glad I'm a pro that was self thought by reading books and the web. If you want to learn, do it yourself!!! The heck with the theatcher.

[straightshooter]

I'm going to assume this is a community college class? Mostly adults? And I'm also going to assume that none of the Forum critics know anything about the context of the comment, or about that classroom dynamic. (FHPhotographer)

Brian, the context was this. We were discussing the photos I had shot for our weekly assignment. His suggestion was that I should have dropped the ISO rating down on one photograph from 200 to 100. I explained that my K100D S didn't go to 100 only down to 200. He asked, "Isn't that a Nikon?" and I answered, "No, Pentax." He sort of curled his lip and said, "Oh, you bought an Edsel." Now I am 59 years old and something as petty as that really doesn't bother me. Believe me I had a lot worse said to me years ago in boot camp and then in the corporate world. What does bother me is that some others in the class (yes all adults) currently have P&S cameras but have talked about buying DSLRs. I see it really as a deliberate attempt on his part to steer the students in the direction of Nikon. He tried to talk one student who already owns a Nikon out of buying an $800 Tamron lens in favor of a $4800 Nikon lens.

Now, having said it doesn't bother me, honor still demands retribution. Hence the thought of the Edsel photograph with someone slightly out of focus in the background extending the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate. ROFL

BTW, part of the assignment was to shoot outdoors, subject facing sun, wearing a ball cap. One pic without flash and one pic with fill flash to light the face under the ball cap. Problem is he wanted the shots at f5.6. The shot without flash was at something on the order of 1/2000 using f5.6. Using fill flash required sync at 1/180 sec and still trying to use f5.6 as he wanted blew out the shot. To get what he wanted with flash would have required f19 (tried it out) so dropping from 200 to 100 would not have helped very much.

Now just as an fyi for everyone. I sit in the back of class, do not interrupt and don't try to show off that I've shot film as long or longer than the instructor. This is the basic class offered by the state university near me (not a community college although it is continuing education) and I have to take this one so that I can take the advance class. Otherwise I would have just taken the advanced class.