Speaking Frankly

From The Keppler Files: March, 1970

Change is inevitable. We all expect succeeding models of SLR's will be different from those which precede them. But within one specific model, do changes occur that most of the buyers fail to recognize? The answer very often is Yes. Yet contradictory as it might seem, I know of very few times that the changes aren't for the better. Surprisingly those big companies making SLR's in the Orient and European Occident have extraordinarily large consciences. Even a highly popular, trouble-free SLR selling quite well will undergo changes when a manufacturer thinks they should be made. Oddly enough, most changes do add to the cost of the manufacture, and more oddly, this cost is very seldom or hardly ever passed on to us, the buyers.

From The Keppler Files: August, 1966

Keep your lens purchases to the necessary minimum. Even if you were as rich as George Eastman and bought one of every lens, you couldn't possible lug all along. And if you turned into a Mack truck and could carry all the lenses, you would spend more time than it's worthier deciding which lens to use.

From The Keppler Files: October, 1993

Being certain that you've captured quick candids that are sharp and correctly exposed requires autofocus and autoexposure. Predictive autofocus is very helpful with action subjects. Manually focusing on moving targets provides the same odds of success as Russian roulette -- particularly if you favor large lens apertures to separate subjects from the background.

From The Keppler Files: August, 1988

Do you want a better-quality, larger-aperture, wider-range zoom? The optical designer can give it to you -- at greater size and weight. But most photographers demand more compact, less-expensive zooms, and they are the real bosses.

How to screw up a self-assignment

I could and probably should have taken my Velbon-343E on my vacation. This 62-inch high (when extended), 17.5 inch (collapsed) economy travel tripod, weighing just under two pounds, had been designed to my specifications and was last seen just before discontinuance selling at major stores for $69.95.

But there in my travel tripod drawer also was an even more ancient Vivitar traveler, lighter (26.5 oz) only 15.5 inches (collapsed) reasonably high ( 51 inches, when extended). I had replaced its original rinkydink one handle three-way head with a compact Slik ballhead.

From The Keppler Files: December, 1968

Do you indeed mean that all Summicron 50mm f/2 lenses are remarkably sharp center and edge at all apertures? Do you mean that they usually are? That a typical example is? Can you really stick a quality label on a whole series of lenses and expect one after the other to perform in precisely the same manner? Are all Meyer Primotars to be avoided or did some technical God in his finite wisdom create one magnificent Primotar somewhere along the line? Since I don't feel it's fair to keep you in suspense until the last line of the column, I'll confide that lenses can be very different indeed even from one sample to the next.