Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/05/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Agreed. I just graduated college, have some loans to pay even though the GI Bill helped me out (but no, did not pay for my entire education as most Americans think it does) and just last week I had the pleasure of moving out of my apartment because I couldn't afford rent. But I didn't move into a new place of my own, instead I had a few friends help me store the items that I kept and now I'm couch surfing. Still unemployed and I apply for jobs just about every day and follow up on the ones I've applied for as often. Job hunting is my job now. I still have an M9 because I'm holding out hope that there might be a job somewhere in the nation that I can find that will be in photography. The GI Bill paid for that camera as my one big educational write off, that's why I have it. I don't think I'll be able to live long without being a photographer. Sure, some will say my priorities are messed up being homeless and owning an M9 but this has come on kind of quickly and in the case that a media type job does come along then I have to have a camera. There are less expensive alternatives, yes, but I'm not selling my entire Leica kit of a few beat up and scratched lenses plus my M9 so I can buy an older Nikon or Canon DSLR and lay out a few thousand on glass needed for work. I'm either in or I'm out, no in between. My case as a journalist is one that we're reading about more and more. College graduates, post grads and PhDs taking jobs in entry level retail, wait staff or the like just to keep feeding themselves. I just applied to work at a bakery and I'm going to an open-call interview tomorrow for an $8/hr job that I'm competing for against recent high school graduates. So no, I don't see how many folks in my generation will be able to invest in a Leica kit down the road. The economy of this country and of the world is completely different from before 2007 and vastly different from what it was more than a decade ago, let alone 40 years ago. 10 years ago most would have bet that Leica would have gone under before Kodak, that's why I mentioned Kodak. Kodak failed to keep up even though they were at the forefront of technology in digital capture. They just didn't market it well. But I never thought I would see the day that Kodak would go under. Meanwhile Leica is still around but somehow is bringing out cameras and a standard lens at prices higher than a year's tuition at almost every public college in the US. Leica can still fail. So there are people out there swinging the value of my education or Chris Crawford's two degrees around their shoulder. Now with the monochrome version we know that most of the users will be rich hobbyists or professionals that can afford to have several M9 bodies, one color, one B&W. But Leica is further alienating themselves from their future market because more and more people are starting to have to live like me. $8/hr part time at a bakery is the job I'm really hoping to get right now because it's available. Here. Now. The world is a different place now but luckily we're living longer so we can work a decade or two more and maybe save up for a used M9 and a legacy computer in our twilight years. Yeah, I'm angry. Phil Forrest On Thu, 10 May 2012 22:01:20 -0400 Chris Crawford <chris at chriscrawfordphoto.com> wrote: > You have your head in the sand if you think that, Doug. The world has > changed, and my generation will never be permitted the decent lives > our parents had, no matter how hard we work. > -- http://philipforrestphoto.wordpress.com/ http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/philforrest