michael_alpert3

Aaron,

<p>

Everything matters. You apparently already know that planting you

tongue firmly in your cheek is good. Some people think that if there

are sparrows on the ground outside your door, that helps. Others hope

for a halo around the moon. If I were you, I would stand or I would

sit. But while enlarging I would not late at night lie down.

I asked the original question, so I feel that I should respond. Heat is

not needed here, only light. I feel that View Camera Magazine's current

articles on digital technology do not give a balanced view, which would

necessarily include an account of the limitations and pitfalls of these

gismos, as well as the joys of using them. I never suggested that Steve

Simmons received any equipment from manufacturers (an associate of the

magazine is a "test site" for Epson, but he wrote nothing in the

current issue). I wondered (perhaps too openly) why the writers of the

articles would do what they did. I am not saying that these writers are

dishonest, but their articles are incomplete and misleading. I simply

cannot understand why a worthwhile periodical like View Camera would

allow articles that do not present a more comprehensive view. Whenever

film-based products come on the market, they are treated with scrutiny

and suspicion until proven to be fine. There is no reason for anyone to

be angry. Given the heat of his response, I am not about to call Steve

Simmons. (I now believe that a phone-call with these same concerns

would have led to an extremely short conversation.) As I have already

stated, I feel that my original question was too accusatory, and I am

doing my best not to make the same mistake again. The basic idea of

this forum is community, and I see View Camera Magazine as an important

part of this community. I assumed (I guess, wrongly) that the publisher

of View Camera Magazine would be a reader of this Large Format

Photography forum. So I assumed (as it turns out, rightly) that I was

in fact contacting Mr. Simmons about his current issue within a

community-based context. In the end I hope Mr. Simmons sees this

somewhat awkward process as useful.