Personally I’m not into flag or banner waving, especially that piece of shit rag banner AIM unfurls whenever a buck can be made or a camera crew is at hand.
Russell Means was a B grade actor at best and a media whore – he would have sang I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy for the right price and then attempted to qualify doing so as being heyoka.
As nations our people have fought in every war this country was ever involved in – I know individuals who have done just that that I respect as a person and as an elder.
I know others who have done the same I wouldn’t give the time of day – among them Dennis Bank$ who served in the Air Force, did a tour in Japan, and is now milking those people for every cent he can con out of them.
Dave Hill also served in the military and it is said where he learned the “art” of explosives – which if true stood him in good stead as AIM’s resident bomb maker.
If AIM or any member living or deceased wants or wanted to wrap themselves in a banner as part of the theater maybe it would be more appropriate to fashion a banner with the names of AIM’s murder victims something like the AIDS quilt and wrap themselves in that.
AIM has a history of accepting money from anyone, doesn’t matter who they are, what country it comes from, or what the ideology is.
The CPUSA, CPC, foreign oppressive governments, or even gangs involved in trafficking drugs and guns, it’s all good, it’s coin of the realm, and it all spends.
How much of this went to enhancing the lifestyles of the leadership may never be known, but it’s a save bet to say a good percentage of it did.
Now I believe it’s possible for the rich to have a genuine concern for the disenfranchised and poverty stricken or engage in philanthropy.
But I also believe there are those who do for less than purely charitable reasons – they do so with an eye to public relations and tax deductions.
Call me cynical but I honestly believe that and would say televangelists for one are a classic example.
It isn’t an anomaly for pride, arrogance, and greed to accompany the acquisition of any degree of wealth or stature, nor to devote an increased amount of time in the acquisition of more and concern about maintaining what has been acquired.
The AIM leadership always sought celebrity, it is what drove them above all else – and with that celebrity came the pursuit of the associated trappings.
The more celebrity an individual had, the higher up the ladder they were, the more bling from boasting of only flying first class to owning multiple residences.
A far cry from the reality of the poverty and need they pimped for personal gain.
I’ve never had any respect for the AIM leadership, and if it’s possible I have even less now – if the surviving members could miraculously do a one eighty it would be too little too late, the die was cast and the damage done long ago and then perpetuated.
Marching around waving banners for a thug convicted of murder doesn’t impress me, nor does murdering a diminutive woman by the name of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash or a civil rights worker by the name of Perry Ray Robinson jr.
I’m not impressed by the unmarked graves of AIM’s numerous victims or the sacking and looting that was Wounded Knee 2 regardless of how it is portrayed and not a stretch to liken it to the descent of Quantrill’s raiders upon Lawrence, Kansas though fortunately the body count wasn’t as high.
For all the for profit ruminations of tradition and ceremony the leadership one and all could serve as the equivalent of that old public service announcement of “this is your brain on drugs” requiring only a minor edit to say “this is your brain on colonization”, a philosophical colonization that placed the emphasis on acquisition over that of service…… but then I suppose “this is your brain on AIM” works also.
Since the initial posting of this blog on 9-24-11 Harry David Hill has emerged from under the rock that serves as his home, had a bit part in a movie, and joined up with ILPDC for brief period as kind of a front man.
A brief stint touted by ILPDC as Hill’s mere presence would somehow ultimately lead to a clemency for fellow thug Leonard Peltier – I guess this was to be expected in way, the movie bit part and the brief tenure at ILPDOC considering Hill’s previous acting roles as the B grade Mr.X and hope to die AIM tough guy and “liberator”.
The “wisdom” of ILPDC embracing Hill in their full knowledge X was a lie escaped me and demonstrated they didn’t give a damn about the truth and even less when it came to perpetuating a lie, but apparently the light went on and Hill like Elvis left the building, although with noticeably less panache.
Below the original blog and link to comments made which are informative.
Hill’s name inevitably surfaces in any discussion concerning Annie or Ray-always a shadowy figure with what appears to be an inordinate amount of luck or friends in high places.
Not the sharpest tool in the shed I think with his laughable rendition of the mysterious Mr. X- Peltier’s wannabe fabricated homeboy coming to the rescue. But like the line from Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits:
Harry doesn’t mind if he doesn’t make the scene- He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright………
Avoiding the scene has been a vocation-one he’s been adept at, no interviews, save the comical Mr. X skit, no bragging of deeds ala Peltier, no seeking the spotlight, movie career, or even a book. Not so much as a whimper-just another aged toothless predator who must now lay in wait for something to pass by.
No, the inimitable Hill prefers anonymity, and like Brando in On The Waterfront believes he could have been somebody-he could have been a contender.
If there is any comfort to be found in the midst of this lament perhaps solace will be present in the knowledge that he is somebody-a person of interest in ongoing and newly re-opened investigations.
Chin up “Mr. X”, the spotlight awaits, and along with the original audience a new generation is eager to hear the taking of the Fifth- but it ain’t over til it’s over. The Fifth, that device which to me so clearly speaks to and defines a multitude of things.
No Janklow this time to grant absolution-little if any wiggle room-wiggle room that can only be purchased at the expense of another, not for anything as mundane as thirty pieces of silver, rather testimony to indict others to save ones own sorry ass in that process known as immunity- an immunity from prosecution that replaces the communion wafer and leaves only the admonition to go and sin no more, lending credibility to the concept that indeed crime does pay at times.
I understand this process of bartering information for immunity, I understand that it is often an essential ingredient, a necessary evil- but I loathe the necessity of it. I loathe the fact that all it requires to escape justice is to assist in visiting it upon another regardless of how well deserved it might be.
A necessity created by the unwillingness of bit players, or good people stepping up to do the right thing- The right thing, once a standard, a tradition- now a tradition lost not all that long ago and facilitated by the beast AIM became, the rogues that populated it, and individuals like Harry David Hill, aka Mr.X. who ran in predatory packs that separated the vulnerable, taking them down while nipping at the heels and intimidating others into silence.
Silence IS consent, or as it is said in Latin, Qui tacet consentire videtur- a legal term that translates to giving consent to this thing. This thing of murder, of abduction, of rape, of burnings and bombings, looting, and outright theft and destruction. Of shooting an unarmed man and leaving him to die in a desperate rictus of indifference and being alone.
Silence has led to decades of grief and misery, murders, destruction and abuses on an epic scale-time to end that, time for all the people to remember who they are, where they came from, what it means, and above all to withhold consent, and in so doing resurrect honor and dignity.
How dead must a heart and spirit be to ignore, condone, or excuse such things as these? What degree of detachment, how great a fear, what code?
“Banks was recorded on a Federal wire in or around 2002 saying that he had Cris Westerman, the brother of Floyd bury him by Wounded Knee Creek after he died in the Wounded Knee Clinic. Robinson’s death is recorded in other testimony and interviews with KaMaook Nichols and Bernie Lafferty who observed conversations by Banks, Carter Camp and David Hill while Ray Robinson lay outside the building across from the clinic . According to an interview by Serle Chapman with Madonna Gilbert, (Russell&Bill Means sister), and according to Minnie Two Shoes, Gilbert slapped Annie Mae Aquash around at the WNKLDOC legal offices of Atty Bruce Ellison, wanting to know what she (Aquash) knew about Robinson’s death in WK 73. . -Nfic Paul DeMain-
As anyone who is even vaguely familiar with this blog knows I have stated my belief that an “accommodation” has been reached at some point with Bank’s and others in the AIM hierarchy that provided immunity from prosecution to them.
As the date of this recorded conversation is 2002 then such an accommodation had to have been reached at least ten years ago.
But I suspect it predates the year 2002 by an appreciable amount, and in view of the crimes they have committed it is logical to further assume that whatever information they provided must have been of great value in order for them to escape prosecution.
Presumably this information would exist in the much sought after FOI’s -information not only the Justice Department would have but Obama as well, and why I have said earlier it’s something the Peltierites should be thinking about, unless in their arrogance and celebrity fueled concerts they assume they know absolutely everything there is to know.
My belief is that all within the top echelon of AIM rolled over at some point or another, I’ve speculated it could be related to Peltier-that they gave him up and the cover is their support for him, as all informants have a cover story.
Could be one or more provided critical evidence against John Graham-something more than the public version Russell gave in ’99 and his B grade performance of being overwhelmed by emotion in the news to him that the call to execute Annie was received at of all places, his brother’s house. The vagaries of life huh?
If any of this is true then it speaks clearly of deals made and collusion between the authorities and AIM, something neither side would want known-also something not all on both sides of the fence would necessarily have knowledge of.
What I consider to be an anomaly is the BIA takeover-a federal building taken hostage, government property destroyed and stolen, and the response was to pay a ransom, a pat on the head and to say run along home now?
Doesn’t even sound plausible does it? Then factor in that the AIM leadership laid up in hotel rooms partying and it makes even less sense- no one was picked off as they evacuated as was the case at WK2.
Trudell loves to go on about an “operative” within the movement that created such events-who better than an honest to goodness “warrior(s)”within the hierarchy itself-one or more of those SAC’s -Special Aimsters in Charge-who would be more perceived as being above suspicion?
Who better to point the finger at others to befuddle and deflect the heat-what greater example of their commitment, purity, and dedication to the cause than to order the executions of alleged informants?
When you look at the four plus decades of events that mark AIM’s existence there are a lot of things they could have provided information about-not only that but once having done so could go “rogue” as they may well of felt secure in knowing that to prosecute them would run the risk of exposing deals made.
A sense of security based on and enhanced by the years of brainwashing that everything was about COINTEL-and anything negative said about them, or attempt to hold them accountable was proof of that.
Crafty-but the problem that has arisen is that much of this other than the indictment prosecution aspect has been taken out of their hands, it is now in the hands of people who want the truth, and whether they escape the judicial courts or not they cannot escape the court of public opinion and what is known. By this recorded conversation Banks, by his own words is guilty of at least obstruction and aiding and abetting in his participation to any degree felony murder as well I would think.
Shakira sings a song by the name of Hips Don’t Lie, a catchy tune that seems to set women to dancing as well. We are told to believe that the eyes and words of Banks don’t lie either-I think that’s been show to be a fallacy countless times.
Interesting comments in the original blog if you follow the link.
The passage of a few short years since this blog was posted hasn’t served to dampen down suspicions that the AIM leadership “snitched” as they like to say about the shooter of agents Williams and Coler, and no doubt other things as well.
Currently this belief can only be ascribed to suspicions, but if you walk around it a little examining events as they’ve played out the word strong should be add to suspicions for a number of reasons.
The heat was on and there were plenty of reasons to go after the AIM leadership – any number of reasons from wiretaps to co operating witnesses and assuredly under the federal RICO statutes routinely employed against criminal enterprises.
And yet nothing save for the low hanging and obvious fruit, and even that took years, decades. Nothing as in an “official” announcement by then soon to be outgoing USAG Holder that yes in fact AIM did kill Annie and Ray but the DOJ wasn’t really interested in “old cases”.
Vernon Bellecourt rushing to the feds with what he construed to be death threat shouldn’t surprise anyone, any more than the fact that Dave Hill was willing to make a deal and in fact got both federal and state charges dropped pertaining to an act of domestic terrorism in the bombing of Mt. Rushmore and a state weapons charge.
Are these guys just lucky or what? I think the or what is what it has really been about.
Then we also have Vernon’s younger brother Clyde getting busted as a major drug dealer, gets a light sentence and walks after a couple of years.
Clyde’s defense such as it was is that he did it for AIM – maybe that mollified the prosecutor and court ……. I mean after all it was for AIM and apparently didn’t matter how many lives were destroyed or how many addiction related crimes were committed.
It sure as hell didn’t matter to Clyde or AIM.
Now think about that for a moment – if you or I got busted for the same charge we’d have wound up busting rocks for years if not decades.
If you or I were complicit in the multiple murders AIM committed we would be pursued to the ends of the earth and it wouldn’t matter how long it took.
But not those fearless last real ndn “liberators” and “patriots.”
As crude as it may sound I had a friend who would say it isn’t know who but who you blow when an inequity defied explanation – in this instance it seems to have been who any in the leadership were willing to blow off, as in give up.
The AIM leadership has always been long on talk when it came to “colonization” and “colonial law” even while embracing every aspect of both from the drugs and alcohol, the scams and thefts, and of course “taking the fifth”.
I’ve offered the opinion on more than one occasion that I believe the strategy has been to allow the attrition of time to catch up with the leadership – that in their passing there won’t be anything left to do, no one to prosecute, case emphatically closed – looks to me like that’s the way it’s playing out.
Below the original post and link to comments: Hell of a note for a man to have his pots stolen as has been reported on the net regarding Banks and his syrup venture. Don’t know what the world’s coming to. I thought for sure justice would be pursued in the “traditional way”as the call was floated to do so in the case of Annie Mae-but I must have been delusional to think so. Bank’s has offered a thousand dollar reward and demanded a full investigation-I guess maybe it can be spun as progress that an indigenous person has the where with all to be able to offer a reward in the first place, but since a similar offer has never been made regarding information concerning the murder of the woman he loved so much, Annie Mae, it doesn’t strike me as being sweet. A couple of pots are replaceable-the same can’t be said for Annie.
And so once again I find myself taking exception to lens reviews which as I say are subjective, mine included.
The lens in question is the Zeiss Touit 32mm f1.8 of the Sony e mount variety.
My initial expectation if I were impressionable and accepted various reviews at face value would have been that the auto focus mechanism inhabits the same decibel level as a herd of rampaging Elephants or a locomotive going off the rails.
Not the case at all, more of a tactile experience than an auditory one unless perhaps you have the lens stuck in your ear.
Would it be detectable on video? I expect so, but then if you were breathing heavily that would be also.
The fix? An external microphone that can be of reasonable price or bordering on the criminal.
This is a lens that “hunts” unnecessarily to focus?
Hasn’t been my experience but that could depend on a couple of factors – one being the year manufactured and whether it has a firmware update, whether your camera has the latest firmware, and perhaps the most obvious of all whether or not your camera is set to continuous focus? If so switch to your standard auto focus mode if you’re inclined to use AF.
I haven’t experienced this “hunting” in any situation thus far, even though I prefer manual focus but initially restricted myself for the most part to AF to determine for myself how it performed.
There’s something of a debate about which is the better lens between the Sony 35mm f1.8 and the Zeiss 32mm touit – my personal opinion is that while the Sony is a good sharp lens the touit is the noticeably superior lens when it comes to a number of considerations such as chromatic aberrations, fringing, flare, and vignetting.
The question is is Sony’s OSS worth the trade off? To me it isn’t unless it is a matter of budgetary constraints – that being my personal subjective opinion.
I have a copy of Sony’s 35mm F1.8, the reason I have it is because it’s a good lens and most of it’s issues are for the most part minor and in camera corrected or correctable in post editing, but if the choice were restricted to whether it or the Zeiss would go on the camera then it would be the Zeiss at least nine times out of ten.
Zeiss is on a roll having entered the fray late when it comes to mirrorless lenses be they full frame or cropped, and well worth taking a look at their ever increasing line.
Neither Zeiss nor any other quality lens manufacturer is going to be inclined to make a lens with the optical quality of Sigma’s dn art series for an asking price of $200 – if they did people would probably claim it was heresy and pick it apart.
I’ve said before I believe photography buffs should own the Sigma art trilogy of 19mm, 30mm, and 60 mm – three great lenses at a combined cost less than many primes.
But I’d also say the Zeiss is worth saving for if that’s what it comes too.
Street value is about $600 now, or you might be able to do a little bartering as I have to acquire a copy.
You may have a lens or two you’d be willing to part with.
I’ve seen a few negatives about the touits lens hood – it’s plastic, and my response is so what, it’s the glass that matters and how many other lenses do you have that came with a plastic hood? How many hoods have you purchased that were plastic?
This is the age of hybrid lenses that include both metal and plastic components, so a plastic hood is an issue?
Would I prefer all metal everything? I sure would, but then that would add additional “weight” and people would complain about that as mirrorless cameras are supposed to be all about lightweight and “pocketable”.
And while we’re at it let’s talk about firmware updates – it’s a fact of life for both cameras and lenses …….. period – and maybe rather than grousing about the need for one we ought to be pleased they actually exist from the high end down and remember they didn’t before the digital age.
In the perfect world every lens and every camera would be perfect, no need for updates or even new models, but we live in the imperfect real world pursuing our interests and plying our trades.
I have a DeWalt worm drive saw I use a lot, it’s my daily go to, weighs maybe twelve or fourteen pounds – magnesium foot to lighten the load and a high impact plastic motor housing.
The first circular saw introduced by Skil somewhere in the 20’s I believe it was weighed a whopping fifty plus pounds.
That’s fifty plus as opposed to twelve or fourteen and they both do the same thing, cut wood – now if you had to use one or the other all day which would you select, and would you complain about a high grade plastic component? I don’t think so – I know I’m not.
One of the elements I admire about the vintage lenses I have is the fact that they in the majority are about all metal construction – I like that, but we’re in a different era now and neither the South nor film cameras are going to rise again.
So if a compromise is to be made then that compromise will still be evaluated on the quality of construction and the new generation plastics and metals employed – good metal, good plastic, good construction, not a problem – anything less is a problem.
High end camera slides, monopods, and tripods tout the fact that they are made of carbon fiber and people flock to them.
Why? I suppose due to the weight considerations and quality of construction – now maybe Zeiss and others could make their hoods from carbon fibers and up the market price to reflect that – if so complaints would surely follow.
So take the long view, if you damage a plastic hood they’re inexpensive to replace – do the same with a metal one, especially a branded one, or one that is “optimized” to insure the best performance and it becomes a different story all together.
I don’t feel as though a brand name warrants a free ride for anyone, I also don’t believe every lens ever made by any company is a keeper, but a part of the metric is the percentage of keepers and Zeiss is up there at the top – the 32mm f1.8 touit is definitely a keeper in my opinion.
It’s the glass, first, last, and foremost – add a good quality construction into the equation and nick picking comes across as exactly that.
Due to a job I’m working I haven’t really been able to seek out the photo subjects I usually do, but the weekends coming and I’ll be out and about then and will post an example or two.
If the rest of the Zeiss mirrorless lines like the Batis and Otus or the remaining touits perform as well then I’ll be looking to divest myself of a lens or two with an eye to securing one…… but those Sigma dn art lenses, nope, keeping them.
Some of the photos in the below are stunningly well produced, but they fail to tell the true story of British occupation – the abuses and oppression.
But then came Mahatma Gandhi, “the great soul”, a selfless humble man who inspired an entire nation and led them to freedom.
The world could use a few more like Gandhi in this current day and age.
Just a few days ago, August 15th, India celebrated it’s 70th year anniversary from British rule – perhaps in time our nations will also be able to celebrate independence as a sovereign and self governing people.
I think if Gandhi were alive today just as if any of our great leaders were alive today they would be dismayed by current events within and without their country, their communities.
The latest shooting of black man in Milwaukee by a cop, a black cop, and the resulting “demonstration” is the sort of thing that makes an absolute mockery of legitimate claims that Black Lives Matter.
Where is BLM in the midst of this – besides a perfunctory call to calm down when pressed by the media? No where.
Black Lives Matter so much that apparently if you have a gun to “protect” yourself, a stolen gun loaded with 23 bullets it’s okay to confront a cop.
Here’s the reality check, if someone had a gun that confronted me and I had a gun one of us is going down, and I would make every effort to assure I’d be the one left standing, anyone saying they wouldn’t do likewise is a liar.
This guy was a thug pure and simple, if black communities want to embrace thugs as being characteristic of their communities then that’s on them and they can continue to deal with the reality that the huge majority of black men are killed by other black men – the huge majority of crimes committed upon black people are committed by their own.
They can continue to tolerate every gang related drive by shooting where innocent people, even children are murdered.
They can continue to tolerate every thug, every drug dealer, every thief, and every gangbanger and as they do so will find that they are isolating themselves and the “movement”.
What a profound ignorance to set fires in your own neighborhoods and loot your own neighborhood businesses.
What a profound ignorance to accept such things or harbor and defend those who commit such acts.
There are good well intentioned people in every black community, they need to step up, they need to say enough is enough, they need to take their communities back – the very thing I’ve repeatedly said of our indigenous communities and will continue to say.
I haven’t an ounce of sympathy for any thug regardless of ethnicity, station in life, or if they’re a thug wearing a badge – that I believe should be the norm.
I don’t care if they’re depicted as a “dancer”, “ladies man”, or parent – I don’t care if they’re white, brown, black, red, yellow, or any combination thereof.
There’s been an almost deliberate effort by BLM to delegitimize their movement, to make the narrative lopsided and exclusionary when it comes to responsibility and accountability, an effort propped up by the usual cast of poverty pimps who jet in to pontificate and then retire to the comfort of their homes and cushy lifestyle awaiting the next interview, speaking venue, or photo op.
Anyone, any community that believes they can demand accountability while personally eschewing their own lacks credibility.
Thugs such as this don’t give a damn about what their parents or grandparents went through or did when it came to civil rights – they don’t give a damn about someone like Martin Luther King jr., they don’t give a damn about their communities and making an effort to improve them.
What they care about is being a “gangsta” , posting photos and talking a bunch of shit in an attempt to prove they are.
It’s step up or shut up time on both sides of the fence, and I REALLY don’t care if my saying so is deemed to be politically correct or not – I don’t care whose cage it rattles or who takes offense.
I don’t want to hear about being a victim when you victimize your own people, and if you want to talk about that then let’s get to it.
My people have been victims for over five hundred years – we weren’t taken from our land, we had it taken from us, became prisoners and a hunted prey like we were some kind of game animal.
By the turn of the twentieth century we had been driven to the point of near extinction, while some tribes actually had vanished.
We were slaves across the width and breadth of this hemisphere before black slaves became a marketable commodity in this country.
Our children were swung by their heels to have their heads smashed against rocks, trees, or whatever hard surface was available.
They were stolen from us and sent to “schools” where their culture and language was beaten out of them as they were sexually and physically abused and even murdered to lie in unmarked secretive graves.
Our women were raped, scalped for bounty, and had their breasts cut off to make tobacco pouches, and if that wasn’t enough they were sterilized without consent or knowledge.
Bounties were placed on the scalps of our children and a very real genocidal policy was seen to be “the ultimate solution”.
We have the poorest communities in this country, the highest rate of unemployment, rape, diabetes, high blood pressure than any other demographic and the list goes on and on.
Our life expectancy is among the lowest if not the lowest.
And like other communities we’re not above victimizing ourselves.
Victims? Yeah tell me something I don’t know about that and I’ll tell you that you don’t make victims of your people for any reason.
Black Lives Matter? They surely do but I could give a rip about the life of thug, any thug.
It’s about parenting and being a role model whether you’re a parent or not.
I tend to believe discussions of barrel distortion in a lens can be a little misleading at times – how so?
Well to begin with all lens suffer some degree of distortion – a known phenomenon that has lent itself to firmware updates and in camera corrections that in the main address the issue.
Additionally post editing will do likewise – there may be lenses that distort so badly they cannot be properly corrected, but if that’s the case it begs the question why would you own it in the first?
The human eye is center focus centric and a lens mimics that – when a person looks at a photo their focus is centered on a particular spot, unlike a lens the field of vision can’t be expanded to infinity to bring everything into focus – you as a person will look with a roving eye to take everything in even if you squint or step back.
The casual viewer may not even notice distortion unless deliberate or so exaggerated as to resemble a smiley or frowning face.
Now a person should in my opinion make the effort to produce the best photo they’re capable of, but there’s a difference in that and pixel peeping to then announce such and such a lens has x number of degrees of distortion and this degree is acceptable while another isn’t based on what the interpreter believes – and forgive me for saying so as I do without malice but I sometimes wonder if a few of these pixel peepers moonlight as spell checkers in forums and the like – if they actually take themselves so seriously?
To me it’s kind of like the row about photoshopping models – the same individuals who claim such offense undoubtedly photoshop a tweak a two into the portraits they take, the landscapes they enhance.
This is an age of vanity unlike any other, it’s about being “sexy”, attractive, and smoothing out anything not lending itself to that – post editing is a vehicle that addresses that quite well and predictable it would become a go to much the same as botox and the nip and tuck.
In camera corrections and post editing are a type of sleight of hand – in the huge majority of photos what you see isn’t exactly what was captured, and there’s nothing wrong with that as neither cameras, lenses, conditions, or photographers can claim perfection.
Increasingly the narrative is evolving into a give and take about the “real world” and the world of test charts, graphs, and the like.
Both sides serve a viable purpose in my opinion as photography should be something more than a world of endless pixel peeping, “rules”, graphs, charts, manipulations, and lengthy dissertations.
We live in the real world, or at least a construct we are told is reality – but it’s also nice to have a little information as we wend our way through it.
So, photography like life is best served when a balanced approach is taken and diversity is seen to have a value.
Not everyone hears the same drum, or if they do willing to march to it – the proof of that is the huge number of opinions, consumer products and brand names that are available in every facet of life.
I’ve always advised people when it comes to camera lenses not to rely on internet reviews as gospel since such reviews are in many ways subjective – they serve a purpose but shouldn’t be seen as absolutes.
What works for one person may not for other,what one person finds acceptable another may not.
If possible pre purchase a person should borrow a friends copy or perhaps rent a lens. Most camera stores will allow a grace return period, you buy it, don’t like, no harm no foul, return it.
A friend who shares the same opinion as I sent the below link – in reading it I couldn’t help but nod my head at the part about if you want to go with reviews give a greater credibility to the most recent ones rather than those that appear pre or immediately following release – the reasons for that should be obvious.
If you read the article you will see what I mean.
Now I don’t know anything about Lensrentals or Roger Cicala for that matter but I believe he makes some very valid points worth consideration.
In addition I’ve always felt “unboxing” videos are a complete waste of bandwidth – what information do you actually gain by watching someone take a lens out of box and roll it over and over?
The thrill or whatever it is is vicarious at best – you aren’t the one unboxing, it isn’t in your hands, there is zero tactile experience, and personally I don’t care what a lens or tool looks like only how it performs.
Isn’t that some part of the equation when it comes to a lens – how it feels, the personal experience of fiddling with focus or aperture adjustments, the heft of it?
There are a few lenses I’ve droned on about in the blog, but I also mention that in doing so I’m expressing a personal opinion and encourage people to do the math for themselves.
It isn’t possible to ask in this venue by a show of hands how many people have purchased a lens based singularly on reviews only to be disappointed – if it were possible I’m sure there would be more than few.
People may search and strive for perfection, but the truth is perfection is elusive, and like beauty resides in the eye of the beholder – so it can only follow that perfection is subjective depending on individual perspective.
Some may feel as though the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece and others a whatever – some may favor a particular brand of camera and lenses while others opt for a different brand.
Is this a matter of right and wrong or personal taste and what works for a person?
I personally believe mirrorless cameras are becoming to dslrs what dslrs were to film cameras and readily acknowledge more than a few would be willing to dispute that.
Yet the fact that Hasselblad has recently released a mirrorless medium format camera to me at least lends credibility to my belief and resistance may be as futile as the film buffs original resistance to digital cameras, time will tell.
There is a tremendous amount of hype associated with photography just as there is with any other industry.
Everything from a “king of bokeh” to the latest absolute must have camera, lens, and accessories that will ramp up the users game – maybe so in some instances and maybe not in others.
But the bottom line is that the majority of shooters don’t have sponsors, they don’t have a lens sent to them to review or write a “pre release” review without ever actually had the lens in hand.
Nor do they have a lot of disposable income, so it becomes in some ways a buyer beware proposition – a do the math yourself situation and that’s all I’m basically saying.
Now I’ve been toying with a Zeiss touit lens the last few days courtesy of a friend, reviews alternately rave about this lens as being five stars, some comments going so far as to proclaim it perfection, but I’ve also seen reviews that low balled it.
Low ball ratings that seemed more appropriate for a kit lens, and this is definitely not a kit lens.
Do I covet this lens? I suppose that’s as good a word as any to use, but it isn’t based on reviews, rather my personal experience.
How would I rate it? Too soon to tell but I will say thus far I’m impressed.
Is it a lens I would recommend? Yes I would while encouraging others to do the math.
One persons perspective or experience doesn’t automatically trump another’s – you either like something and it serves your purpose or you don’t, it’s as simple as that.
Some people like asparagus, I tend to view it as being radioactive – am I wrong, are they, or is it merely a matter of personal taste? I’d say the latter.