I say, "Hear, hear!" And I offer my services.
JohnP
> Kelton, it is very nice how you write about this, I prefer the 'teacher'
> side of the matter. A friend was a photography collector, a very big one,
> and he had thousands of prints in drawers and perhaps 10, at the most, on
> his walls. He and I always argued about this, he bought prints from me
many
> times and I always made fun of him: "so you can put them in your
drawers".
> He agreed it was not a very good situation, he actually said that
collecting
> was a way of killing.
> So I vote for a book. Partly because a book is so much nicer to read,
than
> a computer to look at. Mostly because, if done well, a book can have so
> much more than we see on the different sites. All the info on the sites
is
> great and it would serve as a base of your book. A real writer could
create
> something from it all that would be a practical guide, sure, but also
> something that would touch the 'idea' of Olympus, which to me is:
Maitani;
> a camera (as I believe Hans says) not for snobs; systems (Pen and OM)
> designed to be of high quality, but not for an elite; and probably many
more
> things that the list will come up with.
>
> My opinion is that the key to this is to find a way to hire someone who
can
> do this, shape everything available to a living object, the book. And to
> find a way to get the philosophy across. To just do a compilation of the
> sites (no matter how good all are) will not work, it will be quite boring.
> (I am not applying here, will never have time for this, nor the editorial
> skills).
>
> Hoping others will follow up as well, you collect everything, ha! and when
> you feel you've got something, you find a way to structure it all.
>
> Machiel
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kelton Rhoads <krho@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Olympus List <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 9:30 PM
> Subject: [OM] Collector's Guide.
>
>
> > Catching up on past digests, I was curious to see if the list thought
the
> > idea of a published, bound volume for the OM (or Pen) collector had any
> > merit. I only caught one response - I think from Acer - who said that
> > basically we already HAD a collector's guide if you combined all the
> > great OM websites there are. True, but I'd contest that OM is never
> > really going to be recognized as a bona-fide collectible category until
> > there's a paper-and-ink book out there on the subject, sitting on the
> > shelves of camera stores alongside the Nikon, Leica, and Pentax guides.
I
> > think that the websites are largely frequented by "insiders" and don't
> > really drive interest in OM; they cater to people who are already
> > interested and are looking for the information. A published book sitting
> > on a shelf does something more, it says, "Here's a collectible category
> > that's hot enough to warrant a book." (This starts to drive interest
> > among those who would not have developed the interest on their own.) A
> > standard practice among antique collectors is an attempt to corner the
> > market on a particular item -- take your pick, 19th centure pickle jars,
> > or whatever -- and then to publish a book (not a website) on the item.
> > The book appears among the other collector books, defines the category
as
> > collectible, everyone jumps into the act, and the original
> > collector/publisher sells stock as the prices rise (are you taking
notes,
> > Tom?). Publishing a first book for a category usually makes values rise.
> > But that brings up an interesting question: do we WANT prices to rise?
> > And that depends, I suppose, on the size of our 'want' list compared to
> > the size of our 'have' list. I become somewhat fearful when thinking of
> > what a bound priceguide would do: I think of all the lenses and bodies I
> > don't own that would be pricier than ever. On the other hand, it would
> > take my entire collection and enhance its value considerably, which is a
> > good thing. But, completely divorced from the economics of the process,
> > I'd love to read an in-depth treatment of my beloved OM. Great bedside
> > reading. And I worry, sometimes, that we'll lose our storehouses of
> > knowledge somehow. I read the stuff that the heavy hitters on the list
> > write about and realize that these guys and gals know *so much* about
the
> > OM system, it's staggering. You'll have to forgive my burning desire to
> > have this information captured in a book! Imagine being able to read
> > about the radioactive Zuikos, or the different internal variations of
the
> > OM-1MD, or the bokeh of the 100 f/2, or the quantity of 250mm
production,
> > or the evolution of multicoating, or the sharpness of the 90mm compared
> > to other manufacturers . . . all this good OM lore that exists in our
> > heads or in bits and pieces on the web. I'm conflicted. The collector in
> > me says 'no' to a collector's guide, but the teacher in me says 'yes,'
> > find a way to spark the flame in others--and a collector's guide would
be
> > one big step in that direction.
> >
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> >
> >
>
>
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