Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I agree. My brother-in-law is a case in point. Bought a fairly expensive digital camera ($600) and already had the computer. Told his wife they will never have to buy film again. Took shots for about a month and got frustrated. I never did see any real prints ("I'm working on it"). I have not seen the digital camera for months. I do see their old Pentax 35 P&S, complete with duct tape holding the camera door shut, many times. Many great snapshots of their kids and their life. He is NOT computer illiterate, but he is not a dedicated amateur photographer. Maybe 15 rolls a year at Costco and the quality is just what they want. He is representative of the vast majority of picture takers out there. > Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 20:52:06 -0400 > From: "Don Dory" <dorysrus@mindspring.com> > Subject: [Leica] digital and consumers > Message-ID: <007c01c20061$bb1c0a80$6501a8c0@oemcomputer> > References: > > A lot of posters missed the point. For the professional, digital makes a > whole lot of sense, it shortens the cycle time, is easily transmitted, > eliminates film expenses, vastly reduces time and cost to verify exposure > and composition. > > For the amateur who shoots 5-10 rolls of film a year what do you get. You > spend $300 to get the equivalent camera you could have gotten for $100. You > will end up spending $30 to $100 for memory just to take 30 pictures at the > elementary school graduation. You will drive yourself nuts keeping up with > charged batteries. Ok, now that we have a full memory card we get to futz > with the hated Windoz machine and software that put the images in a Windows > temporary file. Our lucky consumer figures out where the files are and > just wants to make a print. You know, they just don't look very good on > copier paper so it's off to get "photo paper". Well you know, the colors > are really off with this stuff so now I get to figure out how to adjust the > color and by the way what is with all the choices for glossy, matte, > semi-matte paper. > > At this point the happy camper wanders into a store to get prints made and > asks for number 6 and 22 on the memory card. Oops, was that in sequential > order or jpg6? Wrong prints again. > > Lets review the situation, consumer A buys a film camera with zoom for > $100, 6 rolls of 24 exposure film for $9 and takes pictures for most of a > year. A brings her film into a Costco and has the choice of two day service > for $2.99 or one hour for $6.99. Lets choose one hour so we have spent $151 > dollars and has 140 some odd prints that can be given away, put on the > refrigerator, hung on the wall. And, they will probably last 30 to 70 years > based on current studies. > > Customer B buys a digital 2 mp camera for $279, a 32 meg card for $25 > dollars, rechargeable batteries for $15, that photo paper sampler for $10 > and spends 30 minutes to a week installing the software and downloading the > images to the computer. Finds out the 2 year old HP printer isn't so photo > realistic and is faced with another $100 to $300 to purchase a new printer. > So, customer bleeding edge b has spent $329 and has nada to put on the wall > plus is pulling down the Excedrin bottle to ease the pain. Lets not even > mention high end Hilda who buys a Nikon Coolpix 5000 and an Epson 2000. > > Most of the members of this list are fairly sophisticated to find and join > this group. Most members of our society just don't have the time or energy > to figure out digital. It is selling because of peer pressure and the cool > factor when you show off the little LCD at a party. However, where are the > prints? > > True story, SWAMBO was building out a ten story building for a subsidiary to > use as headquarters and needed to document progress on such mundane things > as switch closets. I loaned her an old XA, had the film printed, then > scanned the prints and put them into a PowerPoint presentation for the folks > needing reassurance that all was well. There were many digital cameras > present but no results a week later. > > Just another perspective > > Don > dorysrus@mindspring.com > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html