Colorado Dave. Goodness me, I thought it was only old girl photographers (young girls, old photographers for the pedants amongst us) like moi had ever even heard of Russ Meyer! Exactly what his input on aircraft is worth beats me, but then much does, so I won’t push it. Head honcho of an aircraft firm even! Wow! All that and chickies too: luck favours the lucky. ;-(
MatthewCromer. Um… exactly what was this great era of innovation from CaNik during the film slr era? I seem to remember having a brand new Exakta Varex llA in the 50s and then a llB and they were as hot as it got; replete with film cutting knife built in, they allowed all sorts of tricks with film lengths/use. Interchangeable screens, finders, interchangeable lenses, pre-set diaphragms, it was already all there in the 50s and much earlier, without CaNik. And don't forget the Asahi, Miranda and similar competitors of the era.
I bought a new Nikon F when I could, a new F2 and then a new F4s (whose ‘innovation’, semi-auto film spooling sucked big time) until, getting rid of that, I took a step backwards to a real 35mm slr and a new F3. Backwards progress, you might say, but progress nonetheless for me. As for the tricks such as af etc, yes, if you feel you can’t live or work without it, but thousands already did and probably many (again, like myself) still do. Come to think of it, the F did everything valuable that the F4 could do other than be as fast in the shutter, and it took the cheapo FM and FM2 to bring in higher synch speeds. In essence, those flagship cameras stood still, bar some ergonomic changes such as softer edges that played more gently in the hands when held for hours of the day.
If anything, I’d suggest that ‘progress’ in dslr cameras is a cynical ploy to give the market a priapic woodie (tautology?) and that to make things even more cynical, if that’s possible, quality control departments have been closed in the factories and new, external departments opened, called General Public, where running costs are negligible and no pension schemes need be applied.
Was a time that one could buy a Nikkor and just know that it was as good as it got; now, go buy a lens somewhere and you know nothing, and have to find out afresh with each new purchase whether, like Friday night, you brought home a lulu or a lemon.
Yep, things sure are a lot better now. Other than photographs, of course: they were as good then as they have been since.
Rob C