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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