Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This morning I was at the counter of the camera store I give my slide film to for processing when a man walked in with a simple digital camera and asked the owner, Mike, "How can I get prints from this camera? I just returned from Europe and got 800 shots". Mike, shocked, told him, "Digital prints are $0.60 apiece." The man said, "WHAT? That's $480.00". Mike said, "Yes. Why didn't you instead shoot with a film camera? The cost would have been far less per exposure." The man said, "I bought this digital camera at Costco and they didn't explain anything to me about its nature." Needless to say, the man is horribly mad and frustrated. Mike showed him an incredible Provia slide I shot with my R8 and 180 f/2.8 APO lens and the man said, "I feel like I've been ripped off." This, in my opinion, shows one result of the camera manufacturers seducing the American public with full-page newspaper and magazine ads pushing digital cameras rather than rangefinders and SLRs. In fact, after the man left the store, Mike told me he just learned Minolta has laid off scores of film camera sales reps because digital sales have hurt film camera sales immensely. This seems to indicate the camera manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot, especially since the public appears to be mostly purchasing the lower-priced digital cameras. Caveat emptor! Terry - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html