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kleinbl00  ·  3357 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why we should design things to be difficult to use

Back in that uncanny valley when a DSLR was $2800 but nobody was developing film anymore, everyone was unloading their field cameras. I almost bought a 8x10 Horseman for $225. No lie. But then I started doing the economics on it. Measuring the footprint. See -

Lemme interrupt. Do you darkroom?

I darkroomed. Black'n'white darkroom stuff can be fun; I was mostly doing it in a friend's bathroom. Even then you're talking about a healthy supply of toxic chemicals. I stopped at 6x7 because I realized that I had to save up a bunch of rolls of film in order to justify rolling out all the chemicals.

And I had a Voigtlander Bessa, too - an antique.

Optics that put Zeiss to shame. Marvelous aspect ratio - think it was a 9x17cm or something. But then I started looking into cutting film for it. And that's where things start getting dumb.

See, the film for that needs to be cut to size in total darkness. And loaded in total darkness. And unloaded in total darkness. And never mind that an 8x12 Velvia is $12 a sheet and you'd get maybe 3 shots out of it because unless you're willing to get into stupid chemicals you're shooting black'n'white anyway.

And that was the ultimate problem. B&W you can do in a bathroom (if it's clean and if nobody else needs to use it for the 4 hours you'll be fucking with it. Here's where I should probably mention that I had a Beseler 23CXL with the dichro head:

...but if you want to develop color film, shit gets real.

Color processing makes sous vide look like barbecue. Timing down to the second; temperatures to a tenth of a degree.

I was almost there. But I realized that using that $250 Horseman would involve building a $25k addition onto my house.

________________________________

This is a mandarin goby.

Isn't she beautiful? You can buy them for about $18.

Problem is, you need about 80 gallons of reef tank to make them happy. Reef tanks, done right, are about $1000 per linear foot. So to keep your $18 goby alive you need a $5000 reef tank.

So I celebrate your $150 4x5. Great idea. Just know what you're getting into. I stopped taking pictures for about 4 years because nobody remembered how to develop film and you couldn't get into a full-frame DSLR for less than $8k. Then you could for about $2800 and I bought one. I still shoot with it 7 years later. And I know for a stone-cold fact if I'd bought that Horseman for $250 I would have sold it, regrettably, for half that much two years later having never taken a single picture.