The Great Digital Swindle...

[Buzzard]

When I first got into computers, I had to have the latest and greatest everything. I felt like I needed to stay on top of things and this also added to my learning experience. I still work in the IT field; but instead of typing this reply up on the latest and greatest quad core PC, I am using a Acer Chrome book that cost me 250.00 dollars.

15 plus years in the IT field has taught me something. if it works and is adequate for that task at hand, why complicate things by getting and spending more?

 

[thegman]

When I first got into computers, I had to have the latest and greatest everything. I felt like I needed to stay on top of things and this also added to my learning experience. I still work in the IT field; but instead of typing this reply up on the latest and greatest quad core PC, I am using a Acer Chrome book that cost me 250.00 dollars.

15 plus years in the IT field has taught me something. if it works and is adequate for that task at hand, why complicate things by getting and spending more?

I've been in the IT field for pretty much the same time, and could not agree more. I value my PC with 16GB of RAM for processing large scans, and fast compile times with Visual C#, but really, for most purposes, I don't need 10% of the oomph it has.

I kind of like the Chromebook myself, and in London, I used one, but here is Oz, I got unlucky with my proximity to the ADSL exchange and don't really have the bandwidth to use so many cloud apps.

 

[Buzzard]

I've been in the IT field for pretty much the same time, and could not agree more. I value my PC with 16GB of RAM for processing large scans, and fast compile times with Visual C#, but really, for most purposes, I don't need 10% of the oomph it has.

I kind of like the Chromebook myself, and in London, I used one, but here is Oz, I got unlucky with my proximity to the ADSL exchange and don't really have the bandwidth to use so many cloud apps.

Way off topic but could not resist. The beauty of this Acer is it 360GB hard drive and ability to work off line. I do have a PC but hardly ever use it unless printing and scanning.

 

[Addy101]

You IT people are just like everybody else, sorry, but it isn't 15 years of IT experience, but the realisation that the upgrade to latest i7 processor isn't as big a jump as going from a 8086 to a 80286. Just like the rest of the computer market, you just realised that you just do internet and a little wordprocessing - you don't need an i7 with a bazillion RAM to do that.

We on RFF only need to realise we need no big camera, our phones are like chromebooks, good enough!

 

[thegman]

You IT people are just like everybody else, sorry, but it isn't 15 years of IT experience, but the realisation that the upgrade to latest i7 processor isn't as big a jump as going from a 8086 to a 80286. Just like the rest of the computer market, you just realised that you just do internet and a little wordprocessing - you don't need an i7 with a bazillion RAM to do that.

We on RFF only need to realise we need no big camera, our phones are like chromebooks, good enough!

Yes and no.

I process large and medium format scans, and I also program in Java and Visual C#. On the Mac, I also use XCode. These tasks needs some oomph.

Also, a fast processor on a PC does not cost that much, nor does RAM, so you may as well get a lot of it just to save some time here and there.

Also, the web, along with it's plugins, HTML5, CSS3 etc. is an atrociously over-engineered mess, you unfortunately do need at least a half decent amount of processing power to run it well.

My biggest jump in one go was a 30MHz Acorn RiscPC to a 167Mhz SPARC workstation, and that was true night and day. I didn't use PCs back in the 8086 or 286 days, rather Commodore 64, Amiga, etc.

 

[thegman]

Way off topic but could not resist. The beauty of this Acer is it 360GB hard drive and ability to work off line. I do have a PC but hardly ever use it unless printing and scanning.

I had a first-gen Chromebook from Samsung, the number of apps which worked (well) offline could be counted on no hands. I imagine things are a bit different now. A 3G/4G one would probably be pretty nice, but I wouldn't get a Pixel at the price it is.

 

[Buzzard]

You IT people are just like everybody else, sorry, but it isn't 15 years of IT experience, but the realisation that the upgrade to latest i7 processor isn't as big a jump as going from a 8086 to a 80286. Just like the rest of the computer market, you just realised that you just do internet and a little wordprocessing - you don't need an i7 with a bazillion RAM to do that.

We on RFF only need to realise we need no big camera, our phones are like chromebooks, good enough!

Not really. The thing you are missing is the fact I am a professional IT person. Not a amateur.

What I have in my inventory is not much different than the professional photographer who has a every day camera and one specialty camera. Neither of which are the latest and the greatest.

Now by comparison, at one time in early 2000 I had no less than five computers running three to five different operating systems. I do not have the time or the memory right now to give you a run down of how many plugins, applets, scripts, and applications that were on all of them.

It was overkill but I did learn from the experience.

 

[Addy101]

Not really. The thing you are missing is the fact I am a professional IT person. Not a amateur.

What I have in my inventory is not much different than the professional photographer who has a every day camera and one specialty camera. Neither of which are the latest and the greatest.

Now by comparison, at one time in early 2000 I had no less than five computers running three to five different operating systems. I do not have the time or the memory right now to give you a run down of how many plugins, applets, scripts, and applications that were on all of them.

It was overkill but I did learn from the experience.

You may believe what you're writing, but the fact that you're "a professional IT person" has nothing to do with it. The five boxes you had running, weren't there because you were "a professional IT person", but just because you liked tinkering - I knew (and still know) people just like you. I didn't consider you an "amateur" in IT. My point is that your experience isn't unique and has nothing to do with the fact that you're "a professional IT person". Society moved on and so have you 😀

Maybe worse still, you may very well have realised it was overkill later then everybody else 😱

 

[Buzzard]

You may believe what you're writing, but the fact that you're "a professional IT person" has nothing to do with it. The five boxes you had running, weren't there because you were "a professional IT person", but just because you liked tinkering - I knew (and still know) people just like you. I didn't consider you an "amateur" in IT. My point is that your experience isn't unique and has nothing to do with the fact that you're "a professional IT person". Society moved on and so have you 😀

Maybe worse still, you may very well have realised it was overkill later then everybody else 😱

I used those boxes to learn my trade. The overkill was upgrading the hardware and software constantly. Now that I know my trade, I no longer have a need for that many computers or the lateest and the greatest anything.

I think that is the difference between a professional and a amateur in IT and Photography. We know we can get our results without listening to the marketing hype and upgrading our systems constantly. Experience has taught us that.

My Chrome Book works just fine for company web mail and online conference calls. If I need IE compatability or a Windows tool like RDP, I can always fire up my desktop.

I am trying to apply my IT experience in that regard to my wanting to learn photography. Instead of spending 500.00 or more dollars on my first good camera, I spent 200.00 dollars on a Koni Omega. A real camera no doubt, but far from being the latest and the greatest by a very wide margin.

Disagree all you want, but its the average consumer who is more likely to buy ( marketing works better with the less experienced/informed ) the latest and the greatest, not the professional.

 

[Pioneer]

I am not real sure why those in this thread feel we are being swindled. If you purchase a camera that doesn't work properly and the manufacturer fails to honor their warranty, than that perhaps could make you feel swindled. But to blame a manufacturer when you are frantically upgrading your equipment every year, that seems more like your choice, or your own lack of control, not the fault of the manufacturer. We are eager to claim credit if something we do turns out well, but I think it has become way too easy for most to blame others for their own poor choices rather than to accept that credit as well.

 

[Buzzard]

I am not real sure why those in this thread feel we are being swindled. If you purchase a camera that doesn't work properly and the manufacturer fails to honor their warranty, than that perhaps could make you feel swindled. But to blame a manufacturer when you are frantically upgrading your equipment every year, that seems more like your choice, or your own lack of control, not the fault of the manufacturer. We are eager to claim credit if something we do turns out well, but I think it has become way too easy for most to blame others for their own poor choices rather than to accept that credit as well.

There is a unwriitten five to ten year rule in IT. Every five to ten years systems and applications have to be upgraded. And its not because they all of a sudden quit working; but its due to the software company no longer supporting it.

I think the swindle part that the OP is talking about is how marketing makes the average consumer feel like they need to upgrade much sooner that that.

 

[Pioneer]

There is a unwriitten five to ten year rule in IT. Every five to ten years systems and applications have to be upgraded. And its not because they all of a sudden quit working; but its due to the software company no longer supporting it.

I think the swindle part that the OP is talking about is how marketing makes the average consumer feel like they need to upgrade much sooner that that.

But that is the marketer's job. He was specifically hired to convince people to buy the product. Salesmen are hired to sell it. I would hesitate to guess how long that has been going on but I suspect for a very, very long time.

It is my responsibility to decide whether I need or want that product, be it a camera or something else. Sometimes I buy things I really didn't need and I even experience a bit of "buyer's remorse' from time to time. But to say you are being swindled is very misleading and would seem to be an attempt to ease the pain of that buyers remorse by placing the responsibility for that purchase elsewhere. It certainly has to be because of our evil capitalistic society, god forbid that it be our doing.

The company made me do it. 🙂

 

[Rayt]

There was a time when I surfed photo sites on a daily basis and that included all the usual suspects. Now that I stopped and limit myself to RRF a few times a week the urge to buy something disappeared. Know it or not these sites do a great job for these companies when comes to peer to peer marketing.

 

[Pioneer]

There was a time when I surfed photo sites on a daily basis and that included all the usual suspects. Now that I stopped and limit myself to RRF a few times a week the urge to buy something disappeared. Know it or not these sites do a great job for these companies when comes to peer to peer marketing.

+1 on that observation. It is not always easy to exercise restraint when people are talking up the benefits of a given camera or lens.

 

[Al Patterson]

Somehow the cheapness I acquired being out of work for a while drives me to buy last years model on closeout or used for 50 cents on the dollar or less,but since my vintage 2008 digicam still functions, I still use it...

 

[Buzzard]

But that is the marketer's job. He was specifically hired to convince people to buy the product. Salesmen are hired to sell it. I would hesitate to guess how long that has been going on but I suspect for a very, very long time.

It is my responsibility to decide whether I need or want that product, be it a camera or something else. Sometimes I buy things I really didn't need and I even experience a bit of "buyer's remorse' from time to time. But to say you are being swindled is very misleading and would seem to be an attempt to ease the pain of that buyers remorse by placing the responsibility for that purchase elsewhere. It certainly has to be because of our evil capitalistic society, god forbid that it be our doing.

The company made me do it. 🙂

I agree with the bulk of this. I am not looking for someone to blame. I just understand the hype machine which marketing is sometimes called.

I may one day buy a nice digital range finder or dslr. But if and when I do, it will be an informed decision based on information I have gathered at sites just like this. Not based on a glossy ad campaign I happen to see and come to believe in.

 

[Buzzard]

Somehow the cheapness I acquired being out of work for a while drives me to buy last years model on closeout or used for 50 cents on the dollar or less,but since my vintage 2008 digicam still functions, I still use it...

I have almost always been the type of buyer who looked for last years model on closeout. And I have a job!

 

[Michael Markey]

Its this sort of thing which I find puerile.
http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/pentax-k-3-review/introduction.html

It wasn`t so long ago that the Pentax K5 was the leading model ...all of a sudden its now aging.

The new K3 is "mainly" for "advanced" photographers .
Oh ...and enthusiasts .
It fails to make it clear however if you have to be enthusiastic all the time or whether just the odd bout now and then will suffice.

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

Dear Gil,

there's quite a big difference between materialist and consumerist. Personally, I prefer to buy things that work, and keep them. My newest car is 23 years old, and the oldest parts of my house are several hundred years old.

Cheers,

R.

Are you a VOLVO driver ? My two cars are from 1990 and 1991... Both Renault 25 .. the first has over one million kilometres on the tacho...

 

[Roger Hicks]

Are you a VOLVO driver ? . . . .

Good God, no!

Peugeot 309 is the newer car -- about 240,000 km -- and the older one is a 1972 Land Rover. I bought it in 2002 and have put over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) on it since then. And my 1978 BMW R100RS motorcycle, bought in 1982 with about 10,000 miles in the clock, now has maybe 150,000 -- about the same as the 309.

Cheers,

R.