Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Eric, Happy that you went to photography in France. > And how can an employee live on 12,000 a year? Around here they'd make at > least $14,000 a year and cost of living is much lower! As I said, it's the legal minimum salary. In France, there is between 15 and 20% of unemployed persons. That contributes to lower the salaries. If you were 20 years old and were a beginner in photography, you would not earn more. You are right when you suggest that life is near impossible in Paris with that income. Alas, many people, in particular young people have to do with that. > It was a joke! :-) I did understand that, but I thought that US Luggers would not mind to learn how things are going here :-). Hope I was not that boring. > But I bet if someone gave a better price, they'd process > a lot more than 128 rolls of film a day. Of course, here in one year I > processed 230,000 rolls of film. No kidding! It goes without saying I had a > machine. Maybe you are right. But keep in mind that here local photo shops are slowly dying. There are large chains (groups) like FNAC, Photo Service or Carrefour (hypermarkets) that take the most of the market. Moreover, the market of quality photography itself is dying. Prices are very high; a new M6 costs $3000 (body only) and a roll of Velvia $10. From what I read, a lot of North American amateurs buy high end cameras, accessories, films. Here a typical amateur (I did say amateur) will buy a Canon EOS-50 (I don't remember the US name) with a 28-105 zoom and Kodacolor Gold films at FNAC or Carrefour. He will have films developed at Carrefour (1 FFR, $0.15, the 10x15 cm print) and buy 1 or 2 enlargements a year. In large cities, he will not even know that there is a local photo shop at the street corner. I live in Lyon. Twenty years ago, the biggest independent photo shop was employing 150 persons. Now, they are five.... All the best, - -- Jean-Claude Berger (jcberger@jcberger.com) Systems and RDBMS consultant (MCSE) Lyon, France http://www.jcberger.com