peterm1
Veteran
For me cost is not really the deciding factor. I am not rich but I am middle class so have some $ to indulge my personal pursuits. For me I can only say that digital photogrpahy has made me a much more accomplished photographer. It has given me the luxury of being able to shoot more images and whats most important to me - to learn from this experience, day in day out. Some thing I could never do in film days as all too often half used films sat in cameras for weeks or even months before I could finish the roll to see what was on them. I still have a couple of film cameras but this more than anything is the factor preventing me from using them regularly.
Having said that you gotta admit that digital presents a pretty cool business model for the camera companies - if you can suck people (me included) into buying new cameras every year by adding new gadgets and doodads and software and by clever marketing, then that's about as good as it gets.
OK they tried to do it back in the old film days but most people bought less frequently and lets face it most money went into buying film day in day out week to week. For serious shooters at least.
One of the old camera selling inducement tricks that I really love was with two of the early Pentax cameras the S1 and the S1a (I think - from memory). The S1 itself was an upgrade in that it was a camera that had a maximum speed of 1/1000th of a second. Cool. So it was marketed as a camera for enthusiasts.
Then they decided that they needed to expand their market by having a cheaper camera model for shlubs who did not need such "high end" capabilities. So they took the same camera body, internals and all, changed the shutter speed dial to only have a maximum speed of 1/500th and sold it as a cheaper mass market model. It was cheaper to do this than to redesign the camera internally and have a new production line for it.
This camera still could be used at 1/1000th if you knew the trick - to turn the shutter speed dial one click beyond 1/500th to an unmarked position. Ahhhhh the power of marketing.
OK this is not exactly the same as selling the new camera to the same person who bought the first camera, but it does demonstrate well a creative solution to the problem that every camera maker has - unless they can sell another camera this year they are as good as out of business.
I try to manage my buying by never buying new (unless I really really cant help myself) and by waiting till the model is slightly out of date. Also by buying the best I can afford - my main cameras are a Leica M8 and a Nikon D700. I figure if I cant hang onto these cameras for several years then there is no hope for me at all.
Having said that you gotta admit that digital presents a pretty cool business model for the camera companies - if you can suck people (me included) into buying new cameras every year by adding new gadgets and doodads and software and by clever marketing, then that's about as good as it gets.
OK they tried to do it back in the old film days but most people bought less frequently and lets face it most money went into buying film day in day out week to week. For serious shooters at least.
One of the old camera selling inducement tricks that I really love was with two of the early Pentax cameras the S1 and the S1a (I think - from memory). The S1 itself was an upgrade in that it was a camera that had a maximum speed of 1/1000th of a second. Cool. So it was marketed as a camera for enthusiasts.
Then they decided that they needed to expand their market by having a cheaper camera model for shlubs who did not need such "high end" capabilities. So they took the same camera body, internals and all, changed the shutter speed dial to only have a maximum speed of 1/500th and sold it as a cheaper mass market model. It was cheaper to do this than to redesign the camera internally and have a new production line for it.
This camera still could be used at 1/1000th if you knew the trick - to turn the shutter speed dial one click beyond 1/500th to an unmarked position. Ahhhhh the power of marketing.
OK this is not exactly the same as selling the new camera to the same person who bought the first camera, but it does demonstrate well a creative solution to the problem that every camera maker has - unless they can sell another camera this year they are as good as out of business.
I try to manage my buying by never buying new (unless I really really cant help myself) and by waiting till the model is slightly out of date. Also by buying the best I can afford - my main cameras are a Leica M8 and a Nikon D700. I figure if I cant hang onto these cameras for several years then there is no hope for me at all.
