Tdearing Loc: Rockport, TX

Not sure what started all this, but just getting anyone to show up to do work in a beach town like Rockport, TX or for that matter, the FL Keys, is a near act of God, so I wouldn't turn someone away for their choice in tools - rather their inability to use them. As an analogy, owning a set of Ping golf clubs isn't going to make you a good golfer, I know as a young man having clobbered many fancy outfitted golfers with my inexpensive Northwestern Chi Chi Rodriguez clubs. It's most often the man/woman behind the tool.

w00dy4012 Loc: Thalia, East Virginia

mrova Loc: Chesterfield, VA

True, everything you say! In my woodworking, I can not do what I do with the silly Craftsman woodlathe - wore two headstocks out in those - so I moved up to a high (for me) end lathe and am able to do much more quality and creative turnings, and make money. And just to stay on topic here, I can't take the same photos with a kodak instamatic that I can with my Canon big boy camera, so it makes a huge difference for me. By the way, Gene51, good to meet a fellow cabinet maker. Well, I'm more of regular woodworker.

w00dy4012 Loc: Thalia, East Virginia

Those 18th Century cabinet makers with their primitive (compared to today's) tools sure made crappy furniture.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I am a fan of Japanese cabinetry, and the way they did not use metal fasteners, and yes, it is important to tip one's hat to the forefathers. Thank goodness, however, for not having to mix explosives and set them off in order to make a picture with something that was the forefather of electronic flash. Or even more recently, when as a child, I used to by flash bulbs by the dozens, changing the bulb after each shot. Now that was a shooting workflow that I would not care to return to.

Your point is well made - but so is mine, namely that progress and technology have made certain things easier and faster to do. I recently built a credenza with 6 shelves on full-extension drawer slides, and a barn door front, using doweled joints with dovetails for the drawers (a nod to the old days), and the only place I used metal fasteners was to attach the drawer slides to the drawers and the carcass, and the barn door hardware. I did use a jointer plane to prepare the edges of the top and sides, which were made by edge-joining multiple pieces of 5/4 ash, and of course numerous hand places for fitting and trimming stuff. And I built my workbench years ago before having any real power tools, using nothing more than an auger for holes, and dovetail saw for joinery, and a jack plane, smoothing plane, and jointer plane to get the top flat and straight. It took me a while but it was well worth the effort. I could build that same workbench today with my power tools in 1/4 the time, with most of the time taken by clamping and gluing.

If you want to talk about primitive tech, there is no better example than the masons of the Inca Empire. They used a system joinery that did not include mortar - just gravity - to hold things together. Their work was so exacting that the joints between stones were so tight that one cannot slip a piece of paper in between two stones.

https://thearchitectstake.com/work-news/mark-english-architects/rock-whisperers-the-subtle-power-of-incan-masonry/

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

To a point you are correct. I am a wildlife photographer, to capture that exact timing for a perfect shot the higher frames per second the better.
My Sony a9 can shoot at 20 fps, my Nikon D500, can shoot at 10 fps. Both are excellent camera's. But I am better off, as a wild life photographer, with the a9 vs. the D500.
So, yes I agree in part with you. But there are differences in camera's when it comes to specific uses of that equipment.
Below is an example of 20 frames per second of a Red Shoulder Hawk gathering nesting material. 20 fps does make a difference.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Of course - a good photographer can make good images with any camera, but the better the gear, the better the results. Funny you should mention the Instamatic. I had one of those, but not the cheap one you could by at the corner drugstore. I had the one that was made in Germany with a Schneider lens and full manual controls. It's only relationship to Instamatics was that it used the 126 film cartridges.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

It's no different in Lower Delaware. One HVAC company sets itself apart with the motto they have printed on all of their trucks - "We Show Up"

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

Wasn't it Ansel Adams who said, "A good photographer can get a great picture with a pin hole camera?"

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I would love to see a photo of a bird in flight taken with a pin hole camera.

Canisdirus

I worked for my father's electrical company for a few years after college...and let me tell you...the 'lifers' cared what brand they used.
I just wanted tools ... I cut corners. I learned the hard way. Eventually, I ponied up the cash for Klein tools.
If you use something for a living...you need to have the best you can afford.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I assumed this post would bring folks out of the woodwork.

leftj Loc: Texas

This is an example of creating controversy for the sake of starting a firestorm debate.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

Really? I'm learning a lot...

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Woodwork? Where are folks in the woodwork? How did folks get into the woodwork? And, after they are in, how do they get out? I am confused. And that is pretty easy.