rec.photo.equipment.35mm
resources
REV A Updated 2005.09.04
Refresh frequently as minor corrections will not bump the REV status.
What is rec.photo.equipment.35mm?
In a nutshell, the r.p.e.35mm is a usenet* discussion board about all aspects of all types of 35mm camera equipment and accessories.
This includes 35mm SLR, rangefinder and point & shoot cameras as well as some less common configurations such as 35mm scale focus cameras and 35mm half-frame cameras.
Discussions range from questions about equipment on performance, compatibility, suitability and so on of particular equipment to esoteric discussions of design and implementation of specific features. Questions are answered by those who have the same or similar equipment, and often links to various useful resources are posted.
Serious, huh? Yes and no. Good humor and friendly tone go hand in hand with people who take photography and their 35mm camera systems seriously at r.p.e.35mm. Like any collection of people from around the world, there is a mix of character types. You'll get to love them or plonk them like the rest of us do. Below you'll find a section about welcome behavior on the group. It's all common sense and follows the do unto others principle.
Where is it? it is on usenet. Use a news reader to subscribe to it. This link might automatically work on your browser: rec.photo.equipment.35mm If not, then just paste it into your news reader subscribe list.
Does r.p.e.35mm include digital cameras?
Some types of digital cameras are discussed at r.p.e.35mm , such as those systems having body types that are similar to 35mm cameras, that use the same lens and flash systems. P&S digital cameras are not appropriately discussed at r.p.e.35mm. — rec.photo.digital is the place to go for a mainly digital camera group. There is an overlap in appropriate discussion between both groups and occasionally these are cross posted (posted to both groups).
Is r.p.e.35mm just for professionals?
Most r.p.e.35mm participants are not professionals but rather amateurs with a range of knowledge from newbie to highly accomplished photographers and there are semi-professional and full time professional photographers with a wide variety of experience in many areas with many kinds of 35mm (and other) cameras.
But isn't it all about photography?
It really is. However r.p.e.35mm participants should respect the charter (below). There has been some debate about discussions in the NG which are not equipment specific. Per the official r.p.e.35mm charter any discussion of photographic technique does not belong in the NG. This of course is not very practical, one cannot talk about how equipment is designed and made and used without talking about the techniques of using the cameras for their purpose: making photographs. So, discussions about photography are not only tolerated, but often form the nucleus for equipment related discussions.
Can we include photographs with our postings to r.p.e.35mm?
No. The charter of the newsgroup prohibits the attaching of photographs and other attachments (usually referred to as binaries.) However, posting links to photographs is permitted, even encouraged whenever discussion of a particular problem or desired result are discussed.
That ends the general introduction to the newsgroup. More can be learned below as well as by simply visiting the newsgroup! Welcome to r.p.e.35mm!
* (what is usenet ?)
Participation in r.p.e.35mm is open to all
While free speech is the tradition respected at r.p.e.35mm, so is civility. If you are new to usenet and newsgroups, a quick reading of material at news:news.announce.newusers and usenet will get you oriented quickly. It is often a good idea to 'lurk' in the newsgroup and get a feel for the people and the group dynamics before posting questions, replies or comments.
Polite language, on topic posts, minimal cross posting (none preferred).
Snipping post replies for relevance, posting for reading order (bottom posting), use of news reader filters to remove subjects that are not of your interest.
Offensive language, insulting colleagues in the group, links to offensive material, posting via annonymizing web sites or remailers. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Top posting, links to irrelevant material, excessive cross posting, cross posting to unrelated groups, replying to trolls, signatures of more than 4 lines, signatures that are really spam (e.g.: links to commercial sites), use of "makeashorterlink"/"tnyurl" and similar link services unless for very long and unmanageable links.
Recommendation: Google and FAQ: if you have a question that you suspect is quite general, then you might get a quicker answer if you read the FAQs and links below, or go to google groups and search for your answer there. Not that the r.p.e.35mm participants won't answer, but you might get your answer more quickly there.
What's REALLY NOT WELCOME in r.p.e.35mm
Such announcements are prohibited by the charter.
However, these types of announcements are very welcome in the appropriate groups such as:
rec.photo.marketplace.35mm
Warning: FS/FA announcements will be reported to offender ISP's, e-bay, google, etc. as they occur by several NG participants who take this charter violation very seriously.
The ONLY KNOWN AND EFFECTIVE REMEDY for trolls is to simply ignore them and not reply regardless of the severity of the provocation.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) follow these links:
35mm equipment / photography
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/rec-photo/
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/rec-photo/yashica-slr-faq/
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/rec-photo/contax-slr-faq/
(please send me more faq links to the e-mail address at the bottom of the page)
LINKS for 35mm photographers
(This list will be expanded and perhaps moved to its own webpage)
The Ultimate Exposure Computer http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
Betty Sederquist's Favorite, Useful Photography Web sites: A whole bunch of links and metas
The Shoot-in: (or [SI]) http://www.pbase.com/shootin and its rulz http://www.aliasimages.com/si/rulz.html
Scanning blues? http://www.scantips.com
Equipment details, comparisons, user rankings, much more http://www.photozone.de/
Lot's of good stuff, esp. for Canon users: http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/
Nature Photography http://www.naturephotographers.net/index.html
Odd tools for photography http://aliasimages.com/NonPTools.htm
(e-mail at bottom of page if you have link suggestions)
Other newsgroups of interest to photographers
Descriptions of these newsgroups can be found in the charter link, below.
news:rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
news:rec.photo.equipment.large-format
news:rec.photo.equipment.film+labs
news:rec.photo.technique.people
On usenet
Profiles of regular r.p.e.35mm participants
The profiles, written by the participant, contain information that the participant wants to make public about himself. It can include some personal details, photography and other hobby or professional information, links to web sites (his or her own, or their preferred link lists), etc., as he or she sees fit.
If you would like to submit your profile, please e-mail it to me at the address at the bottom of this page. This is not an exclusive club, so submit your sheet if you are, or intend to be, a regular. Profile pages with offensive or indecent material (or links to same) will not be published. Plain e-mail is best. Your profile can also be a link to an existing web page.
CHARTER of rec.photo.equpment.35mm (extract from rec.photo charter)
“rec.photo.equipment.35mm - 35mm cameras and lenses
This group is for the discussion of all aspects of 35mm camera equipment. This includes 35mm SLR camera bodies and lenses, 35mm point-and-shoot cameras, 35mm rangefinder cameras, 35mm scale focus cameras and 35mm half-frame cameras.
All postings made to this group should conform to existing Usenet guidelines (see news.announce.newusers for guideline documents). This group explicitly prohibits the posting of commercial advertisements or other promotional material, whether or not it is in any way related to photography. Binary postings (i.e. non text postings) are prohibited.”
Follow this link for the rec.photo.equipment.35mm charter.
Follow this link for the original-official charter rec.photo charter, including r.p.e.35mm as it was voted into creation
This web page is very new, and will be evolving over the next few months. Please send ideas and content to the address below. This page is purposely lean in design and content to conserve bandwidth.
Web site and contents of this page are © 2004 Alan Browne.
Comments and broken links reports gratefully received at
e-meil: alan dot browne at videotron dot ca
r.p.e.35mm Resource page history.
2004.07.04 - REV A goes public with announcement on r.p.e.35mm.