I was just perusing the Black's Photo website (http://www.blacksphotocentre.com) - seeing as how it would be one of those "standard" photo stores that someone would bring their digital cards into to get photos produced.
They offer Tech Support (just a pop up with your standard information) which explains sizes and resolution and the sort. While it's helpful to me (sort of - but then again, I know my file sizes/resolution etc.) I can only imagine the little old lady or digital P&S Neophyte trying to understand it. I agree with Bruce here, that the labs I guess are taking a lot of flack for the lack of knowledge on the customers part. I think, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, that this is happens twice, by two different and separate entities: 1) The Camera Sales person - as Wheatfield stated; those new to digital are probably purchasing the cameras at places where they are the cheapest - due to volumes that these places buy - such as Best Buy or Future Shop (in Canada). I know for a fact that those guys at Future Shop no diddly about photography, let alone digital photography. At least at the Future Shop's in my neck of the woods. They only know about "Can I help you choose a camera sir" and "If you need something ask for (insert name here) and I'll help you (so that I can get my commission)". If they were TRUE sales staff, they'd ensure that their customers UNDERSTOOD (mind you, that could take a while depending on the customer) what they were purchasing and how it would work. A happy satisfied customer usually means repeat business. 2) The Camera Companies - I don't recall, in any of the digital manuals I've read - and I've had the old Kodak 120, Nikon 950, Canon S10, Canon G1 and now the Canon S200 - did I ever see any reference to how big of an image you would get printed out if you chose a specific resolution/file size on the camera. If the User Manual doesn't at least try to educate the end user then this is poor quality control that usually ends up frustrating the user and in the end you get a cheesed off client. Then again, there are many times I have to tell users in PC Land to RTFM ;-) Cheers, Dave P.S. Bruce, one last question - did your lab owner ever explain to the lady how much coin she was wasting by throwing those puppies away ? :) -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Dayton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 5:56 PM To: William Robb Subject: Re[2]: Behind the counter with digital William, You were far more plain and lucid in your description of what I am seeing also. That has been my point to Cotty, that the crowds and masses are not having good luck with digital and that labs are taking part of the rap when they are really victims. My lab owner told me of a lady that faithfully brought in her memory cards to get prints back. One time he asked her how she backed up and saved the images. She replied that she threw the card away because it was full and would buy another to replace it. He asked her why she used the camera and she said that her husband had bought it for her and wanted her to use it. So instead of about $10.00 per roll equivalent she was spending closer to $50.00 per roll. Bruce
