Are we Nikon shooters actually shooting anything?

[joseph_wisniewski]

<p>I read photo.net in the "unified view" mode, with the Nikon forum flagged with colored dots so I don't miss the Nikon posts mixed in the whole scrolling "everything". There's about as many "recent" posts in the Nikon forums as the Canon forums, something like 780 Nikon, 810 Canon, a difference so small that we can ignore it. So, how come the last 10 really fun photography discussions, the "how do I achieve this effect?" or "here's how I did this" or "how can I do this?" discussions have all been in the Canon forums? I've noticed that this trend has been growing for some years.</p>

<p>Aren't Nikon shooters actually shooting anything, any more? Are we all just sitting around, gabbing about our gear? Are the Nikon shooters who do shoot stuff paying the $25/year and hanging out on Nikonians?</p>

<p>(disclaimer: I've been shooting mostly with Nikon gear for the last 25 years or so. Those who know me, know I have a large assortment of some of the weirdest stuff Nikon makes, and I use it. I'm not a Canonite trolling the Nikon forum).</p>

[marius_mirea]

<p>I am a new nikonian (former pentaxian) and I have to say that the pentax forums seem more actual shooting oriented than nikon forums I have visited (photo.net, nikonias - yes, I am paying :), and nikonians the Romanian breed - luckily this is free because it is kept by the nikon importer in Romania)<br>

Maybe it is a false impression, but still, the gear discussions seem more prevalent here. I love gear discussion anyway ;)</p>

[dan_brown4]

<p>I think of this as an equipment forum, not photographic content. There are several very good forum here for that.</p>

[mark_sirota1]

<p>I agree with Dan -- many of the discussions like "how do I achieve this effect?" or "here's how I did this" or "how can I do this?" are brand-agnostic.<br>

<br />One of the great things about photo.net that keeps me coming back is that so many of the discussions are brand-agnostic, and that there's so little fanboyism. I like that the equipment-specific discussions are stuck in the Nikon forum, and that the Nikon forum is primarily equipment-specific.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Joseph, you should start contributing to our weekly Wednesday image threads.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>I think Dan's right. The Nikon forum culture just isn't built as much around using it as a gallery, with the Wednesday thread being the notable and deliberate exception. A lot of those "how do I get this look" type threads that show up in other brand forums, for example, would actually be better off in places like the Lighting, Digital Darkroom, Portrait/Fashion, or Wedding forums, since most "look" type stuff is camera agnostic, and more about technique and other tools. Likewise, the "here are my photos from Kenya" type threads are more about Travel, Nature, etc., than about the brand of gear the photographer uses ... though a great exception might be a more image-oriented thread that would come as a natural follow-up to a thread about which lens to use (like <strong><a href="00Y0Zi">this one</a></strong>).</p>

[photo5]

<p>I read the Classic Cameras forum and they're always posting photos - of their cameras! I think being a gearhead is a natural thing for us photographers. I can remember being interested in the camera way before being interested in the taking of a photograph. My father had a Nikon F FTn that he used, and I was fascinated by it since I was in pre-school. Didn't get my first camera until I was 9 years old (a 126 format Hawkeye Instamatic, still have it). I'm somewhat of a collector, I have a few Rollei TLR cameras, as they are a passion of mine, and a few other misc. old 35mm cameras as well. They sit on the shelf or in a box. I shoot a few rolls of 120 a year, but not so often lately as I have been in school.<br>

I enjoy the Wednesday Pic thread and it's a great chance for us to post what we're shooting. Otherwise the conversations about gear and technique are what brings me here more than anything else.</p>

[mihai_ciuca]

<p>Joseph, Canon gear is boring... why people should talk about it? By the way Nikon gear is sublime... so we suffer of a narcissistic syndrome... :-) That's why we keep talking about it!</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>Canon photographers are better than Nikon photographers... obviously...</p>

[leighb]

<blockquote>

<p>So, how come the last 10 really fun photography discussions, the "how do I achieve this effect?" or "here's how I did this" or "how can I do this?" discussions have all been in the Canon forums?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Because Nikon shooters already know how to "do this".</p>

<p>They don't need to ask. ;-)</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

 

[CharlesBecker-Toronto]

<p>"I think of this as an equipment forum, not photographic content."<br /> I have to agree with Dan and I have been using Nikon cameras for just over 25 years. cb </p>

[jgredline]

<p>I agree with Marius. I have been shooting Nikon for nearly two years and only just recently started posting over here in the Nikon forum. What I really like about the pentax forum is that it seems to be more about pictures than equipment. Many their have dual systems and so it is not uncommon to see nikon, canon, or other brands being mentioned in their with their pictures. But having said that, I do get that there are specific forums for pictures. :)</p>

[jgredline]

<p>I agree with Marius. I have been shooting Nikon for nearly two years and only just recently started posting over here in the Nikon forum. What I really like about the pentax forum is that it seems to be more about pictures than equipment. Many their have dual systems and so it is not uncommon to see nikon, canon, or other brands being mentioned in their with their pictures. But having said that, I do get that there are specific forums for pictures. :)</p>

[clay2]

<p>I've been busy testing new (to me) lenses, filters, and films with my F2AS:</p>

<p>Lenses; P.C.-Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 ( a pre-set-shift lens)<br>

Nikkor AI-S 80-200 mm f/4 zoom</p>

<p>Film; Kodak Portra 800 colour<br>

Kodak T-max 100 B&W<br>

Kodak T-max 400 B&W<br>

Fuji Superia X-tra 400 colour<br>

The new, improved? Kodak Tri-X</p>

<p>Filters; Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue.</p>

<p>Won't bore you with shots of my favourite brick wall with various film, lens, filter combos.</p>

<p>Best regards,<br>

/Clay</p>

[CvhKaar]

<blockquote>

<p> Are the Nikon shooters who do shoot stuff paying the $25/year and hanging out on Nikonians?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I agree with all of the previous respondents ( well ...most of it...) .<br>

I explicitly do<strong><em> not </em></strong>hang out on "Nikonians" , not any more for various reasons ..... <br>

</p>

[clay2]

<p>Gee, I got booted off too after 4 years!<br>

Best regards,<br>

/Clay</p>

[Matthew Brennan]

<p>This Nikon forum on p.net has assisted me to get a realistic finger on the pulse of Nikon equipment. I was using p.net a few years before I became a subscriber and used this Nikon forum to to work my way through some equipment highs and lows to settle on the kit I now own and use in the field, at home, inside/outside and on travels all of the time. </p>

<p>I had checked out several other Nikon gear based forums/sites but p.net Nikon forum had the members who offered polite advice (sometimes what I did not want to hear but was for the best for me in the long run) were consistantly good listeners and assisted me to make some very good decisions regarding equipment and how to use it. Trouble shooting (and lowering my blood pressure) is another excellent tech reason to 'hang' here.</p>

<p>My gear bag is settled now and i do spend a lot of time taking photos but I still often return to this forum to keep abreast of what's new and how people react to the new gear when it hits the streets.</p>

<p>As for p.net Nikon forum members not being creative or just not shooting with their gear - I'd have to say I disagree - there is evidence of Nikon forum members work all over p.net - I see names I know and recognise everywhere in the galleries / critique forums. </p>

<p>Often when I'm out and about and shooting photos I get people walking up to me and asking me about what I'm doing, which gear I use and how to know lens A from lens B and how they want to get further into photography / printing etc very often I mention that I have learnt an awful lot from being a member of this Nikon forum and recommend they "hang around" here to see what rubs off.......</p>

[User_5050610]

<p>Someone mentioned this earlier--the Nikon Wednesday thread is grand!<br>

Boo--koos of great photos, taken by Nikon users, film and digital.<br>

So--on Wednesday--look for the great shots--rest of the week---look for the equipment discussions. There are plenty of other sites for photos only.<br>

Paul</p>

[evilsivan]

<p>We love our Nikon gear and love to talk about it too. I'm meeting a 'Canon' friend for beers after work-- there must be something wrong him (right???!) Of course occasionally we do talk about technique, but mostly we just know everything already ;-) that's why we settled on Nikon!</p>

<p> </p>

[photo5]

<p>*Chuckling* - I got booted off the dpreview.com forums last month - and get this - for a post I made in 2004!!! I was never active there at all though, there is way too much noise and not enough signal in their forums. But to be permanently banned for one posting is bizarre. All it was was a rant about hating fat Americans driving their SUV's to the grocery store to buy one bag of groceries.<br>

I've enjoyed the Nikon forum for years. And Philip's "Travels With Samantha" site helped me build my webpage way back in 1997. It was the first good photo site I found on the web.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Some bishop once complained that the secular world had all the good music.</p>

<p>At roughly the same time, some prominent atheist bemoaned the fact that the Church had all the good music.</p>

<p>My old dog, may she rest in peace, always thought the stuff on the other side of the fence was far superior to what was going on in my backyard.</p>

<p>Although my links to Nikon are embarrassingly historical, I find little real difference in interesting things on either the Canon or Nikon forums. Of course, as whoever above said, or should have said, it's fairly clear that the best forum on P.net is the Classic Manual Cameras forum. ;-)</p>

<p>And, yes, those Pentax people really do post a lot of good pictures, don't they?</p>

<p>I just come into almost everything from the Unified View, omitting only the Philosophy forum-- I was too irreverent for them and always poked my little stick in to the wrong sort of thing.... As sometimes becomes all too obvious, as a senior I'm entitled to sometimes wonder how I got here.</p>

<p>Not that I am universally loved, but I have fun and some of you seem to be my friends, for which thank you. I am too prone, I guess, to snapping at the goats going by overhead on the bridge. My career as a university administrator, well, that's another topic.</p>

<p> </p>

[jgredline]

<blockquote>

<p>*Chuckling* - I got booted off the dpreview.com forums last month - and get this - for a post I made in 2004!!! </p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Well. i managed to get banned from ''p.net'' for a while for posting an image longer than 700px...yep, sure did. after that i never renewed my subscription here again.</p>

[dan_brown4]

<blockquote>

<p>Well. i managed to get banned from ''p.net'' for a while for posting an image longer than 700px...yep, sure did. after that i never renewed my subscription here again.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>I thought the rule was 511 pixels? Or, do you mean a linked image?</p>

<p>Anyway, in this day and age, the sizes are too small. Photo.net needs to adopt 1024 pixel image width. We all have hi-res display anymore.</p>

[rossb]

<p>The Nikon forum seems like more of a shopping forum to me. What camera could I upgrade to type thing and I wish they would bring out a new camera right away so I could buy it. I am not a big shopper myself and Nikon is not ever going to make a new camera that I would want but I enjoy reading about the stuff others are willing to do. I just bought a beautiful F100 and I figure it will last me many years. </p>

<p> As far as fat people in SUV's driving around I gripe about it all the time. I am a cyclist and commute to work each day and it's usually a SUV driver that is terrorizing me while hogging down a burrito and talking on the cell phone. I support full use of the right lane for bicycles. </p>

[andylynn]

<p>Sometimes I wonder whether I shouldn't get a Pentax so that I could take photos instead of writing about Nikons.</p>