By John Siskin
I was thinking about how photo gear endures. I used to think about wearing out equipment, and I still do. But I don’t think about wearing out my camera. Technology will force me to replace it long before it wears out. I am on my fourth digital camera system and, as with the others, it will be retired before it stops working. That wasn’t the case with film cameras. I have a Speed Graphic, still my favorite film camera, that isn’t worn out after fifty years.
 4X5 Speed Graphic Camera © John H. Siskin All rights reserved |
I still use it when I want to do personal work with a large negative. It was a pleasure to use. My first digital camera was a Leaf back, a DCB 2 that fit on a Mamiya RZ67. I really disliked that camera. It made 3 separate exposures in order to make a color shot. It was very slow and awkward to work with. I was glad to see it go. But, when it did go it was a working camera, a technological dinosaur. I wanted to write about this topic not to whine about digital cameras, but to discuss the expected life times of photoproducts; and how that should affect the way we buy them. For instance, I think that we should buy cameras that have been on the market for a while; my business can’t stand a recall. I also think that I will need a camera with a large file, I do some business in display prints. As a consequence I believe that a camera has a lifetime between 3 and 5 years. It needs to pay for itself quickly!
When I think about lenses, I have different considerations. Current lenses will wear out: the motors that make the lens auto focus will not work forever. Also the focus tracks are very lightweight, they will have wear problems. The tracks are built this way in order to allow auto focus to function. I would guess that the lenses I use frequently are going to last between five and ten years, not too bad. I can make an investment in a lens that will pay off more slowly, even buying specialty lenses that I might not use more that once a month. So I can easily make a case for buying quality lenses.
 Fish Eye camera I made this camera from a Ukrainian lens and and a Speed Graphic Camera. It makes around image 8cm across. It sees 180º, everything in front of the camera © John H. Siskin All rights reserved |
Tripods last for decades. I would not be surprised to see my current tripods, I have five, and each may last for more than fifty years. So the cost of a tripod is very inexpensive because of the thousands of times I will use it before it fails. By the way I have five tripods because I have small medium and large cameras. My 8X10 camera requires a tripod that is unnecessarily large for my digital camera. If you buy a good tripod it may outlast ten cameras, a poor tripod may be lousy from the first day.
 Toyo 8X10 Feild Camera/Ries Tripod The big camera! © John H. Siskin All rights reserved |
I actually started writing this blog so that I could talk about lights. In my discussions about strobes I often here how expensive they are. An investment in strobes is like buying a tripod, since strobes last such a long time. I have some Norman equipment that I bought new in 1983, that’s almost 25 years. The tubes haven’t broken and the strobes still work. Not bad. More to the point, of the photos I’ve made for money since 1983 all but a handful required strobes. More than any other piece of equipment, lights separate the assignment photographer from people who don’t do jobs. So, although it may not seem that way when you right the check, strobes are cheap; they really do pay for themselves. Good strobes may make good photographers!
 Calumet Travelight 750 A monolight © John H. Siskin All rights reserved |  Norman 5 © John H. Siskin All rights reserved |
Thanks,
John
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