Re: [Leica] UV filters - and other one-sided "holy wars"

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

Bernard-
Working in the camera store, lurking in the lab and listening to the sales
people I have discovered a hoorible fact! The reason so many people put that
$10 piece of glass in front of a $2000 lens is that the people who sell
cameras usually get, at most, $10-15 dollars on the sale of a camera outfit-
usually 500-600 dollars. If they sell a filter, a battery and some film, a
case to put it in, they make almost as much! On a 1000 dollar camera, they
get more money selling an extended warranty than they do selling the camera!
It's simply economics! For the most part, I keep my mouth shut except when I
am teaching one of our staff the niceties of taking a halfway decent photo-
The manager, who went to photography school, will admit that for most cases,
a filter is superfluos, but our job, as he is wont to say, is to sell what
the man has in stock!
Again, if experience dictates, the filters will find their place in a drawer
somewhere, and wisdom will prevail!
Dan
- -----Original Message-----
From: Bernard <5521.g23@g23.relcom.ru>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Tuesday, May 25, 1999 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] UV filters - and other one-sided "holy wars"


>Doug Richardson wrote:
>
>> Reading some of the forcefully-expressed opinions of the anti-filter
>> brigade, I'm slightly mystified by the one-sided nature of the
>> discussion - the pro-filter zealots doesn't seem to suffer the same
>> urge to express themselves so hotly.
>
>Interesting observation! Perhaps it a psychological thing deriving from
>a majority-minority juxtaposition. The majority of camera owners use
>filters to protect their lenses, and they feel the relaxing comfort that
>being part of a majority gives to people (why worry if you do what
>everybody else does; "100 million people can't be wrong"). The
>non-filter lobby, on the other hand, feels hard pressed to explain why
>they do not do the seemingly obvious, i.e. cover their $2000 lens with a
>$10 piece of glass.
>
>> Similarly, whenever a long thread of interest to collectors starts to
>> strain the patience of the users, the latter start calling the
>> collectors "geeks", telling them to get a life and start taking
>> pictures - you rarely see attacks on users by collectors.
>
>Well, it would seem odd even for the most insane among collectors, to
>bash people for *using* a camera!
>
>> Why do we have these one-sided non-debates where one faction seems
>> determined that its opinion must prevail? Can't we all respect the
>> other guy's viewpoint a bit more?
>
>Ego. Ego makes the world go round. Without it, Leica engineers wouldn't
>try so hard.
>
>> After all, much of what is being discussed on the LUG is a matter not
>> of fact but of opinion
>
>Oh, really? Now that's just your opinion.
>
>Bernard
>