----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 1:00 PM Subject: Re: DSLR lifespan (was: Re: Ze Masked Enabler Strikes Again!)
> So I think you are overlooking something. That LCD window. Very attractive to the photographer. So what's to say that someone couldn't buy a digital camera, P&S or DSLR, *without* having a computer? Just for the less destructable storage medium and for that really helpful LCD window? And have their prints made at a lab that is set-up to do so? There has been a fairly major change in the way cameras have been marketed to the consumers since the digital cameras came on stream. It used to be that you went to a camera store, or at least a camera department for a camera. This no longer holds true, and <digital> cameras are being marketed in a large part by consumer electronics retailers. This opens up several situations: Good retailing includes what is called "horizontal selling" and upselling. We've all been subjected to it. Try ordering a burger, no fries, no soda at a McDonald's to get an example. At an electronics store, horizonatal selling involves computer upgrades. Upselling means that the person who comes in to buy a basic product leaves with a more upscale (generally more profitable) product. In the digital camera game, upscale means more complex to operate. Electronics retailers are not especially good at consumer training. They will happily sell you the camera, but won't likely be giving much instruction about how to use it. I see the consequenses of this on a daily basis, as people bring in files that are too small and too compressed to work with for printing. >From the POV of a long time photographer, I dispute your calling digital media less destructable than film. The things that will ruin film will also ruin digital media. Digital media can also be ruined by background radiation, strong magnetic signals, age degradation of the imbedded signal, and I am sure a myriad of other maladies. The LCD, in my own opinion is a red herring of sorts. The image is too small, and too low resolution for anything other than a gross evaluation of composition. As an aside, have any of the photojournalist types heard of media problems (either film or digital) from either the Balkans or Persian Gulf caused by the vast amounts of radioactivity released during the wars in those regions over the past decade? William Robb
