Re: [Leica] digital and consumers

["Aram Langhans" <langhans@yakima-wa.com>]

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
>


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