Stupid Camera Tricks, Cot'd

So this morning I have a PM from Rosco:

What's going on with you lately, you use to be such a nice - happy guy? I use to be able to ask you q's and you'd send me info, or help me out. Now your calling people out on threads, and making brash comments. What's going on??

"Cause if you're going to blow over a grand .... -- and want to use it as more than a status symbol hanging around your neck "

I think your a smart enough guy to know that this was a pretty rude to say about me. Just as I'm sure you would find it rude if I told a film guy to get a real job, or a credit card and ditch the record player.

I'm asking a question here cause I don't understand how the f# on a lens relates to shutter speed, and I don't think your comments were deserving.

I say this honestly (name deleted); I'm sorry that your current financial situation doesn't allow you buy a DSLR, as I'm sure you'd have some great stuff to post, but that doesn't mean that someone who's not an expert shouldn't have one.

Now if I went out and bought a $8,000 Mark II and then ask where the batteries go - then by all means.

Methinks he doth protest too much. From the beginning, I could smell the incredulous response to what I had posted. But nothing I had said had strayed into insults; everythig I posted was an honest opinion or question. The reason Rosco's smarting is because what I said made it clear he'd done something dumb.

My reply:

"I'm asking a question here cause I don't understand how the f# on a lens relates to shutter speed, and I don't think your comments were deserving."

Look, how much did you spend? Let's round it out at about $1200, though it was probably more than that. You've had that camera for how long? I'm thinking it's been at least 6 months, maybe a year. And in all that time, you never took less than $20 to buy a book and a few hours to read it and learn the basics. (Hell, as someone pointed out, even if you were broke, there's the library.)

That's the height of laziness.

You even admit it, in a post you made last night:

"This is part of what I don't understand, and I don't want to wait for a book to show up when I know you guys can tell me off the top of your heads."

You don't want to learn. You won't even try, not even once. You expect those of us who did learn it to just bail you out. Heaven forbid you might have to read something.

It's one thing for someone who's trying to learn asks a question; it's another when someone asks in order to avoid having to learn.

"Now if I went out and bought a $8,000 Mark II and then ask where the batteries go - then by all means.

F/stop, shutter speed, and ISO are the most basic principles of photography. Any adolescent photography student would learn about how they interact in first week or two of classes. (No, I never took classes, and I'm not saying you have to either.)

So, to a photographer, you did just ask where the batteries go.

Let me make this perfectly clear: it's not that you don't know these things, it's that you had ample opportunity to learn them and you apparently never even bothered to try.

It's really hard to respect someone who feels they are too good to learn.