I'm not trying to get people riled up here. I just want to provide some perspective FWIW (and that may be nothing to many of you) from a relative outsider's POV to what seems to me to be a largely insular community. I will be making generalizations, and it should go without saying that there are many exceptions, and more nuance than I have time to describe. But I feel like my generalizations apply to significant swaths of the forum membership. This is NOT in response to any specific thread or comment, but instead arises out of what I’m feeling has been a general and recent trend. I’ve been thinking about posting this for a long time, in fact since before the recent pricing policy change. I just happened to have time to type it out today, and yes, all of the ridiculous comments that have been spawned by the policy change probably added a little extra motivation toward me finally expressing my thoughts here.
I used to post on a lot of photography forums, most notably Fred Miranda. I dropped off of that board a couple of years ago. It's a great forum in many ways: huge membership, wide range of expertise, a lot of talent. I learned much of what I know on FM, and without it my development as a photographer would have been different, and I suspect slower. But as I settled into that community and made thousands of posts over several years, I became somewhat complacent, and sort of lost sight of why I was there. I found a couple of specific sub-forums, made some friends and got to know people. I became, for the most part, one of them. For that reason, I was slow to grasp that the forum was becoming stale for me, and then slow to figure out why.
Eventually I realized that for most people on FM (at least in the sub-forums where I participated), the driving force behind their participation had changed, or was never what it was for me in the beginning. For me, the driving force initially was to learn, and then as I became more experienced, to help others learn. Anyone who's ever taught anything knows that learning and teaching are not opposites, but rather inextricably linked. As a teaching assistant in grad school and then later in other venues, I was awakened to the fact that one doesn't really understand something well until one can effectively teach it to others, and that the process of helping others learn something invariably results in the teacher him/herself learning a surprising amount about the topic at hand. I make this digression to point out that when I say I spent time helping other photographers learn their craft, I'm not trying to lay claim to any sort of altruistic motivation. Sure, I had learned a lot on the forum, and it felt good in a way to "give back." But ultimately, jumping in and talking about what I knew, helping others fill gaps in their knowledge, lead me to a better understanding of many photography concepts, and also revealed gaps in my own knowledge that I needed to attend to. I've still got plenty of those gaps, many of which I’m sure I don't even know exist yet, and if I explore photography for the rest of my life I'll never fill them all. That's a huge part of what attracts me to the craft (or art, or whatever you prefer to call it). Creating beautiful images is a great pleasure, and seeing others do it, and learning how they do it, and why, is almost equally enjoyable. It's a fulfilling pursuit, with no end. I can always learn more, get better, alter my approach, my gear, etc.
So, UN-digressing here, that's why I was on the forum. To learn, to grow, to change, and to watch and help others do the same. Finding a good deal on a lens now and then was nice. Making a new friend was great. Getting praise for an image I created made me feel good. But all of those things were bonuses, subsidiary to the main driving force: learn; grow; evolve as a photographer. But it slowly dawned on me that that wasn't the reason many of my forum peers were there anymore, and maybe it never was. Worse yet, I realized that I had become like them in many ways, and that what brought me back to the forum on a daily basis was no longer closely-related to my above-stated "Prime Directive." I was visiting threads to indulge in microscopic analysis of the latest gear releases, or to engage in rampant speculation about what was coming next, or to see who had burned who in the current ongoing epic argument about something that really wasn’t important in the long run. Said epic argument, of course, very closely resembled the epic argument of the week before, and, in fact, the epic argument of one year ago, and five years ago. These people were peeping pixels, and spinning wheels, and lusting after gear they couldn't afford, or that didn't exist yet. They were frequently throwing away money on buying and selling, even changing systems, or expending lots of time and energy orchestrating complicated gear swaps that would finally result (yeah riiiight, right?) in them being satisfied with what they owned, and of course make them better photographers. They also took a lot of time to complain about high prices, poor QC, spotty availability, etc. Whether they were Nikon people or Canon people, many of them knew better than Nikon or Canon what these companies were doing wrong, and how to fix it. If only those big companies would pay attention, they could have put together a fresh board of directors, a whole new engineering department, and a global marketing division which would no doubt bring billions of new consumer dollars to the shareholders (Yeah. Right.). What they weren't doing, was shooting. They weren't enjoying photography. I found that demoralizing.
The thing is, it wasn't just them. I was right in there with them. I got caught up in the hype, and joined the fray more often than not. I had to have an opinion, and it was always a pretty damn good opinion because, well, it was mine. I'd like to think that I was at least a little less engaged in the dumb stuff, and a little more engaged in the actual hobby/craft/art/profession of photography than some of the worst offenders, but who knows? It's difficult to be objective about your own participation; much like it's difficult to be objective about your own photographic work.
In any case I slowly became conscious of the negative side of how I was participating, and promptly decided the only solution, since I had become so integrated into the FM paradigm, was to sever all ties with the forum. No regrets there. I'll say again: it's a great place. Used responsibly, it's a phenomenal resource, with many good people. But it had become a very bad place for me, and despite all I had learned there, getting away was the right decision. Maybe I'll go back in another five years or so. Probably not.
The story of how I came round to Pentax is a long one and I won't go into it. I had some help from Ben (deadwolfbones), who is on this forum, and still on FM as far as I know. He's a great guy who seems to me to be doing photography for all the right (yes, “right” is only my personal opinion) reasons. I've found several others on Pentax Forums of whom I'd say the same. I'm not going to start listing them, because no doubt I'd leave someone out. But I'd been indoctrinated with Nikon and Canon to the extent that I barely even knew Pentax existed. I was in shock when I realized how much great, great gear was available from Pentax. I was particularly shocked when I began to see prices. Example: the FA77 is half the price of a Nikon 85/1.4. The FA77 is better in every way. I could go on, but I doubt I have to.
Coming over to Pentax Forums from FM was like a breath of fresh air for me. There was a ton of new stuff to learn, and the people, as well as the established forum resources (like the lens database), were very helpful. And after browsing and participating for a few weeks, I had the impression that among the core membership here there was a more genuine love for photography, as well as a much-reduced tendency toward gearhead know-it-all BS. This was excellent.
However, it wasn't long before I started to detect that many Pentaxians were walking about with chips on their shoulders, just ready to spring into aggressive action at any perceived slight. Many of these perceived slights didn't even seem real, and even the ones that did rarely seemed significant. Sometimes it doesn't even require anything bad to be said about Pentax; sometimes it's enough simply to say something positive about Canon or Nikon. I'm probably more attuned to this because I have a tendency to say good things about Nikon. I love Nikon. They make good stuff, OK? I shoot both Nikon and Pentax now, and love them equally, for different reasons. But saying something good about Nikon around here can lead to someone scoffing at Nikon products, or having a defensive reaction about Pentax products due to the inaccurate inference that Pentax is somehow inferior. Not a huge deal. I'm happy and confident with my Nikon gear, and if someone scoffs at it, it doesn't bother me. I don't take it as a personal attack, and it doesn't shake my faith in the brand. That's because my faith in the brand derives from using it, and seeing what it can do, and not from other peoples' uneducated opinions. I feel the same way about Pentax. It's just some stuff I use because it makes what I want to do possible, and easy, and enjoyable. Attack it all you want, it doesn't matter. I'm getting reasonable value for my money with both systems. I know the capabilities of both systems, and I know their limitations. I'm not saying I don't comprehend the attitude; I'm simply wishing it wasn't present, or at least not so overt. But it is what it is, and I suppose it's a natural response to feel somewhat connected to your gear, and to take it a little personally when someone thinks it's "not professional," or makes some other claim of inadequacy. But after spending some time on PF, I feel like this tendency arises in part because it's fundamentally ingrained at some level, in a significant number of people who post here. Even the oft-used portmanteau "Canikon," which I try hard to avoid using, is evidence of this, and a result of this. I know, most of you are probably thinking "Canikon" is just harmless shorthand to save on keystrokes. But it's more than that. It arises from, and reinforces, a sort of Pentax-against-the-world culture. It either underscores prevalent attitudes that Pentax is superior in every way to other camera companies, or promotes a persecution complex among its marginal supplicants. Perplexingly, some people seem to display both the persecution complex and the Pentax-is-the-only-true-way attitude at the same time. At best, it’s lazy to lump Canon and Nikon together. Canon and Nikon are as different from one another as Pentax is from either of them. If I had my way, and could enact a wide boycott, I'd boycott the usage of the term Canikon.
Like I said, the attitude itself is not a huge bother...just unfortunate and mildly annoying. But in addition to that, and more ominous IMO, it feels like there are more and more complaint threads, more and more know-it-alls who are positive they know what's best for the future of Pentax, as well as an ever-increasing number of pointless gripe threads, silly gear-peen comments, and endless energy being sunk into speculation.
All of those things are fine, and healthy, in good measure. It's helpful to talk about the good and the bad, how we might improve things, and speculation can be entertaining to a degree. But there's a line that can be crossed. It's a fuzzy line, to be sure, and the error bars are different sizes for different people and personalities. It's not for me to say where that line lies for any specific individual. But I do think it's fair to say that if you are doing more whining than you are shooting, you've crossed well over it. If your concerns about the currently available gear, or its pricing, or the long-term corporate strategy of Pentax/Ricoh are cutting into your enjoyment of photography, you really need to reassess things. If you’re bitching more and creating less, there's no one to blame but yourself.
I really feel like this negativity I'm describing has increased in the last year or so. Maybe it's because the K-5 finally showed the world that Pentax can be for real again, and the little taste of legitimacy coming from outside the Pentax world has resulted in some grumbling because it didn't come to immediate, orgasmic fruition and Pentax world dominance. People still disrespect us. We still don't have a full-frame body. Meh. Wank. Who, among people with a true and consuming love of photography, can muster the time to give a rat's ass about such things? Maybe it's always been this way here. Maybe it just seems new to me because it took me a while to acclimate and identify what I'm talking about, and now that I've identified the suspects, I see them peeking out from every corner. I'm perfectly willing to accept that latter possibility. But that doesn't do anything to change what I see as harmful elements among the Pentax populace.
Honestly, I'm just offering my own personal insight, for whatever it may, or may not be worth. Feel free to call it misguided, obvious, pompous...whatever. This is just what I see: a substantial number of people are coming off as entitled cry-babies who don't know how good they've had it, and how good they still have it. Cranky and impatient noodlers who'd rather gripe about what they don't have than appreciate what they do. It’s not constructive. Life’s too short, and we’re missing great photographs.
If you actually read all of that, thanks. Even if you hate me for typing it. And if it made you angry, fire off a nasty PM to Ben for his role in luring me here in the first place. ;)
