How is your ecosystem doing?

[GerrySiegel]

I get amused when I see a solemn reference to Panasonic's "ecosystem."" Ecosystem, really?" Lately used

regularly on that other shopping geared website about lens mount . Language is fine and almost fun. But kind of

techno geeky and even preciously lofty for us old tool user types who remember brassing paint. Makes me kvetch

as I watch shopping become a serious and studied goal with its terms that are reminiscent of audio geekspeek.OK, I am almost used

to Creamy Bokeh -translation: transcendental thing - adopted by adfolk after pilgrimage climb to the Bokeh

Temple in high Himmalayas. "Legacy lenses," i.e. something in the family for generations I suppose. I got legacy cameras too. Can't

sell them for much or give them away.."Legacy community members," have your say--

[Matt Laur]

<p>It's not such an odd turn of a phrase. As the health of a system like Nikon's ebbs and flows, so goes the ecosystem in which other creatures (like Sigma, Tamron, Rokinon, Yongnuo, and others) thrive and invest. And with that comes marketing investment, press coverage (or the lack of it) and such. Same thing happens in Sony-land, Canon-land, and the rest.<br /><br />The same thing is happening in the drone world. The early-moving, well-funded, and very innovative DJI is much like Apple in their focus on proprietary system features - but there is now a long tail of third party manufacturers, software engineers and whatnot that are thriving when DJI wags. <br /><br />As for "creamy bokeh" - hey, if one can't tell the difference between a lens that makes it pretty and one that makes it busy-looking and distracting, then so be it! There's money to be saved. If it matters, then there's more expensive ones that solve that problem, to whatever degree someone finds it to be a problem. </p>

[Hector Javkin]

<p>The term is not such a stretch, really. For example, the mold that grew in my old Spiratone 400mm pre-set f/6.3 after many years is an organic thing that could have developed in the local vegetation, in a terrarium, whatever. It didn't affect the rest of my photographic ecosystem because the lens was so far gone that I ditched it. Edit: Come to think of it, the lens itself was an ecosystem, one that fortunately remained isolated.</p>

[Sandy Vongries]

<p>Jurassic Park around here. Still have nearly all of my old Nikon film cameras, from F Photomic TN through F3, a pile of old Nikkor lenses, my Dad's Leica M 3 kit (that he let me learn on). Additionally an amazing obsolete Ricoh GXR kit that I got recently for a pittance. I haven't much interest in any more "new" lenses for my DF or D 750, but am considering another old one or two -- a 300 2.8 ED AIS, and possibly a PC Nikkor since I have always wanted to play with one. I think the DC Nikkors are interesting as well, but pricey for someone who doesn't do a lot of portraits. <br>

As with Fusion cuisine, old and new cameras and lenses are a tasty combination.<br>

Over more than 50 years in photography I have not found off brand lenses to be of interest -- occasionally expedient to meet a need at a lower cost than the real thing, but always sold or traded later.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

I have a growing ecological niche in my home office come to think on it. A moist environment for growing plants too... As for lenses, fungi dwell in some and not in others. Strange fondness of some micro organisms. (Could be a doctoral project in this.) My two Zuiko ED lenses (water resistant in fact) from ca. 2004 have had their focus rings go mushy and sticky to turn. Scraped off all the carbon long chain carbon goo with alcohol and Q tips and the barrels and elements are still free of mold. and the lens zoom rings are still tactile.

[GerrySiegel]

Matt, you convince me that there are predator companies in cameraworld now that you mention it . And I suppose extinction level events. What would those be? Evolution was steady until some big silicon monsters came along.

[jaydann_walker]

<p>May I venture some less consumerist, more personal, slightly lateral thinking here?</p>

<p>With all due respect to most camera manufacturers who are forever striving to give us the best possible quality in new photo gear, the use of such terms as "ecosystem" in their marketing and advertising are, to me, merely cynical sales ploys and need to be regarded and responded to as such.</p>

<p>The camera manufacturers also need to be reminded of this, bearing in mind that in our modern age, the web is our best friend if used properly. Emails to customer relations centers produce a scripted response and the original is quickly deleted. Yet a carefully thought out and worded faxed letter sent directly to Nikon's CEO in Japan produced a direct response from a senior executive in two days, two international phone calls to discuss relevant points, and a followup email some weeks later to confirm that my considered suggestion to one of their systems had in fact been implemented.</p>

<p>As for the rest, the term "ecosystem" is so often used, and so indiscriminately, that some of us who have been around for a while may well reflect on Nazi Reichmarshall Goering's oft-quoted remark that hearing the term "art" mostly made him want to reach for his revolver.</p>

<p>Can we not forget the business buzzword "ecosystem" and look within for a more personal and relevant meaning? This will have little or nothing to do with lens mounts, with all due all respect to those posters who go on about this as if they seek to legitimise what seems to me to be a sort of pro capitalist rant.</p>

<p>What is YOUR personal application of "ecosystem" and how have you gone about this, or intend to do so? To me, this is far more important than the slick consumerism intent of this term.</p>

<p>My own photographic 'ecosystem' has been to to revisit and re-evaluate all my shooting and processing processes of the past five decades, and then make many minor (and a few major) adjustments to deal with 21st century realities.</p>

<p>Since 2006, my year of 'practice' retirement (followed by full-on retirement in 2012) I have progressively downsized my traditional film and dakroom practices and shifted over to new modes of film processing. Consequently I use less and spend much less for better results. </p>

<p>I nowadays use much less film and increasingly moved to 120 roll film B&W emulsions. I also research and plan my shoots to get what I want with as few exposures as I can get away with. I still maintain my trad darkroom, but I print more infrequently and very carefully. I no longer process E6 at home and when I do an occasional C41 session, I carefully rebottle the used chemicals and recycle them to a local chemical disposal site.</p>

<p>My move to digital took place in 2009 after I had determined that DSLR image quality had reached a level of quality that I was satisfied with in colors and resolution. My beloved Nikkormats and Contax G1s were mostly relegated to shelves at home - I still use them but more sparingly than before) and replaced with, first, a Nikon D90 kit, then a D700. I still use the latter and my partner has taken to my D90 which is used almost every weekend.</p>

<p>After nearly half a century of shooting almost everything in sight, I now approach all my shoots with the utmost care, ensuring that I make as many essential notes as I possibly can before setting off with my two small camera kits (digital and film) to record cultural and architectural sites in Southeast Asia. For my purposes, the internet is a wonderful medium if used in the right ways, and I now research my travels and plan my journeys to photo sites with Google Maps and other useful and reliable web sites.</p>

<p>I have recycled much darkroom and camera gear I no longer use, either sold or donated to friends who will make good use of it.</p>

<p>All common sense stuff. Digital photography has freed me from the limitations of film and paper print photography and above all from tyranny of profit obsessed manufacturers who chop and change products at will, seemingly to satisfy executive level MBAs who think more of the profit sheet and their fat annual bonuses than they do of their clients. Black and white photography (so much less chemically intrusive to the ecology) has become more important but I now approach all my shoots with more care and buy my stocks with global concerns in mind rather than by sheer volume discount. (Like most everyone else of my vintage I am also well aware that the big discounts era of the '60s and'70s in photo supplies is now long vanished.)</p>

<p>All this in my usual long-winded way to say that applying a little critical thinking in our photography, as we should in everything else we do, can go a long way to improve conditions in every aspects of our lives as well as globally.</p>

<p>My thoughts, offered with respect and the utmost concern for our fast-deteriorating planet.</p>

<p>JDW</p>

<p> </p>

[colin carron]

<p>Like Gerry I had thought'<em>ecosystem</em> meant an interrelated community of living things, but on looking it up I see it can also be a business term meaning<em> the interrelated parts of a business </em>etc. So Panasonic are just using the latest business buzzword in their blurb.<br>

<br /> But maybe that isn't so far away from the original meaning as the <em>eco</em> bit of words like <em>ecosystem</em> or <em>economics</em> etc all derive from the greek<em> Oikos</em> - meaning house, property or family. So <em>economics</em> derives from <em>Oikos nomos</em> - 'house law'.<br>

<br /> So the business meaning of <em>ecosystem</em> is maybe just reclaiming the <em>eco</em> bit away from science and towards the original, more day-to-day meaning of the words. But that sort of business language still grates with me and brings to mind some pretentious people I met in my working life who I would rather forget.</p>

[SCL]

<p>Language is ever evolving. Like the dinosaurs we can either die or adapt to new meanings of familiar words (I dinosaured with my grandson last weekend when he told me "that's not how that word is applied today". Oh-well)</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>Perhaps we should be more worried about the shift away from the use of the word in regard to natural ecosystems to a more generalized use of it. As Colin says, the latter may well be appropriate in terms of original meaning of the word. Apple apparently uses the term in regard to the interaction of business units and their products. However, since the mid 1930s man has considered ecosystem to mean a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Today, ecosystems are greatly affected by external non natural causes of global warming and it is perhaps important not to dilute the more than 80 year plus meaning of the word and remove focus on the natural ecosystems which are to a large degree victims of those non natural causes of climate change.</p>

[andylynn]

Is that really a marketing term, or is it something that marketing got from blogs and discussion sites? I think I've been

seeing the term ecosystem used for a long time to describe the extent of support for a system - everything from

availability of useful lenses to how easy it is to find a rental to how good tech support is. It's not a perfect term but I don't

have anything better. I've seen mirrorless systems criticized for not having as good an "ecosystem" as Canikon, so it

makes sense to me that they would use the same language to respond.

[GerrySiegel]

If ecosystem is to have any meaning regarding the natural world and the inter relationship of species, as Arthur describes,then I find the watering down, the dilution, a little hard to get used to. Not exactly the same, but if every new development is "awesome" what will be awe inspiring? If everything is an "instant classic" what will have enduring value. If every thing is now this "iconic and legendary" ( Zeiss lens even ), what is left for the real 'icons' What deserves tribute?

Among movie actresses, a popular reference,I reserve "icons" to those who stole my heart and still nab them. Who, LIke Marilyn Monroe. Dress alone went for just under five million at auction, hubba hubba. Steven, I do try hard to keep up with my grand kids, and it helps keep the brain cells alive. But I may need a dB adapter on hyperbole etc . I try. No rant,just a reflection for the legacy gang..:-) What I hate lately,is the stereotype I got on a comment I posted elsewhere ,e.g " You old farts, now go yell at kids to keep off your lawn." ..Poo. I have mostly rock garden out front with a few plants. Ecologically sound !

[GerrySiegel]

Andy, I don't know but we just used to call it " the Canon system." With a bird on the page to show the environmental devotion of owners. "Canikon "is definitely not a system, but I can live with that one for typing brevity.

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Canikon saves 2 letters of typing. Hardly a saving worth it piling two different ecosystems into one ;-)</p>

<p>The term ecosystem is usually used for smartphones, where "3rd party apps" are often seen as more important, and hence the interoperability with those can make or break a system. It's not so much a marketing invention, more a word that popped up on tech blogs and review sites. In a sense, one could apply this line of thinking onto cameras. With the smartphones, the differences between various "ecosystems" makes for the silly fanboy discussions not unlike the standard holy Canon-vs-Nikon nonsens.<br>

But indeed it is a sort of language abuse that wears out. Everything is now an ecosystem, every new launch is a "game changer" (seriously, if eveyr new camera changed the game, how can it be we still make photos?), or if it doesn't change the game, it "redefines the category".<br>

I'm not that old a fart, and I think getting bored with this hyperbolic language has got little to do with age. Though maybe the younger generations are so extremely used to this blabla that they fail to notice, while we can still recall the days that writers managed to keep their calm a bit better.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

There may be hope for language sensitivity, Wouter. Librarian here says Jane Austen is highly popular, good on that. Maybe it is a poverty of word choice and the tweet effect. I told a friend about the young high school driver I thoughtlessly got ahead of in a line near school let out time . " Hey A-hole!", is so common. Applied to those who cut in line and any and all others.I told a friend that he could at least say " Up yours, MISTER a-hole. " He agreed, Yeah " Show some respect." :-) I will not resign to the blah blah in the interest of following the trajectory of dumbing down nor will the members in the POP from what I observe. Art preserves language arts too.