Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/11/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Martin, I have never understood how digital is convenient for a P&S application. My wife has asked me about buying a digital P&S, as have a couple of friends. I ask them to imagine what happens when they go on a two-week holiday with their camera (this is when point-and-shooters tend to take the most pictures). Either they would have buy a bunch of extra storage cards, greatly increasing the cost of their outfit; or lug a portable computer along to download the pictures from the camera to the hard disk occasionally. Keep in mind that these are people who would not dream of getting into any kind of photo manipulation (darkroom, Photoshop etc.). Today they drop off their films in the drug store or supermarket and pick up the pictures a couple of days later. They do not understand or care much why some pictures "come out" and others do not. This is the type of customer that 95% of the P&S market is composed of. I just do not see how digital can attain the level of convenience and simplicity that these people require. Note that I have not said anything about image quality here. I do not believe that this is an issue for this market; I am sure that already today, many people would be perfectly happy with 4x6 prints from, say, the Leica Digilux or its equivalents (although those cameras cost 2-3 times as much as a good P&S--until that difference disappears, I do not see a big market). Nathan Martin V. Howard wrote: > SNIP > Digital is advancing rapidly, and while it has a long way to go before it > over- > takes chemical photography, I'm sure that there are areas of application > and markets which will adopt digital technology wholeheartedly in the > near future. P&S digital cameras is one such area which looks as though > it has great potential.