I recently watched, or re-watched saw it first time around, a documentary on David Bailey, it runs over an hour.
Many cameras/formats shown none talked about, all about the image. Here is a photographer who totally has the eye, the image is all whatever the genre and he switches seamlessly. Despite the output editing is easy he says if you get six good shots a year you are doing well ( and he had 14 pages from one shoot in Vogue).
Could you ever see Bailey or someone similar coming on a forum to discuss DR and why he, and you, only need an 810 or why CCD is dead in the water?
Respect to BC for visiting from the deep end to share with those of us splashing about in the shallows. I think elsewhere looking at a sheaf of prints the interviewer says these are art you are an art photographer, he rants about all the prefixes, including pro, I am a photographer that is all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S678bcdXsag#t=127.097483
I know what you're saying but just because back then forums didn't exist and it wasn't mentioned in the documentary that does NOT mean photographers weren't interested in their gear or discussing it at length.
Black and white or color and which film exactly? Small format or large format or large format? Hasselblad or Rollei? I'm pretty sure those questions were still asked but only in smaller groups and not in international forums like this. CCD vs CMOS is quite reminiscent of the slide film vs colour negative discussion (and both CCD and slide film are in decline but still very usable).
Another aspect that many people tend to forget it that back then a lot of photographers didn't develop their photos themselves, especially not when they were high volume fashion photographers, so they simply didn't care. H.C. Bresson was no fashion photographer but he didn't develop or edit his own photos, he had other do that and those people were often shocked by the horrible negatives he provided and worked hours to get a usable print (if that was possible).
These days you're forced to do just about everything yourself if you're a small to medium sized fish in the photography world - and if you're a big fish you can afford to have someone else edit your RAWs - but even then that doesn't mean that you can't or won't be concerned with your equipment. Annie Leibovitz for example has used just about every brand and type of camera and still switches a lot.
The only thing I noticed about this forum is that people don't really discuss images - at least not in the Medium/Large Format section, that's why I stopped posting them here, it's absolutely useless and there are better forums for that. After all LL was never really focused on discussing images but more interested in reviewing and presenting gear - and that shows in its forum.
