Thanks for posting this Bill, interesting read. I am not sure I fully agree with Kirk, and I kind of felt he lost his way a bit, going of on a tangent, about midway through. I guess I couldn't understand why it was important to match digital format to film format since they are so completely different. Whatever.
I am also not too sure he made much of a dent in the argument about what equipment, and which type of product, a photographer should or should not be providing for the client. For starters, the reason the argument seem to be ongoing with no sign of slowing down may be that there is no correct answer.
Photography is a business. A Professional Photographer provides a service to the client. In order to stay in business the photographer has to maintain a profit margin that continues to keep him/her in business. If they don't they will either change their business model or they go out of business, pretty simple.
Now, if a photographer believes that they need to use the best of everything to provide a product to the client that will stand up no matter what the client wants to do with the product in the future, and the client is willing to pay for that, go for it! Everyone likes to use the best of everything if they can.
But, if the expense of using the best of everything exceeds your revenue, then you have no profit. Eventually you will go out of business. If you don't change your business model your business will die. Worse yet, you, your wife, your kids may not be able to eat. The entire reason for the business after all is to support you and yours.
But...all the arguments on all the blogs and forums on the internet, no matter how well written, will not resolve that question. The client can resolve it, but not the forums and blogs.
Finally, to be blunt, a lot of people write a lot of crap on forums and on blogs. In many cases what they say has nothing to do with reality. From my experience the only people making money in the photography business now days are being pretty careful with their expenses.
In my case my old 5D and 1Ds are pretty well depreciated out, but I cannot afford to buy new because I don't make enough money right now. If either of them break, and they will eventually, I will be force to buy something. I would love to buy a new whiz bang Sony but I am pretty sure it will be another Canon. Why? Because it will be a real stretch to buy another body let alone new lenses.
Ooops. Sorry. But that is my reality right now, and probably lots of others as well. So no matter what Kirk feels is the "new digital 35mm", what really matters is what is most practical for my struggling business.
