----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Re: Hurrah for Shel Disrobing the Emperor
The question that we want the answer to is "What do most of the persons in the street want out of photography?" because they way forward for many of us will be based on the companies' answer to it. There are quite a few answers. Some of those answers lead to dead ends. It will be interesting to see what, er, transpires in the next few years.
It doesn't matter what the person on the street wants.
They will be told what they want by the marketing divisions of the corporations that make photo equipment.
Consequently, what they want is what is good for big business.
We are seeing a bit of a bump right now, our film processing is actually up a little bit. This bodes well.
I am seeing people again who assured me they were done with film and film processing, bringing film to the lab again.
They have tried digital, and found it to be wanting.
The camera industry (Canon in this case is the lead spokesman) still wants to get away from film. They can release product after product based on exactly the same components, with minor tweaks to the software or cosmetics to give them a new model.
This, they feel, will keep customers buying.
The problem with this theory is that they have already trained the consumer to only look at one criteria, and they have already hit somewhat of a brick wall with improving that criteria at a price point that allows them to keep pricing where the consumer is comfortable.
One thing is certain, digital is a big PITA for most consumers. They can't just point and shoot anymore. They have to think, and they aren't very good at doing that.
People aren't archiving files, they make a set of prints of the files they want, and either dump the memory card or forget the files on their hard drive.
The % of copy prints I make from lab prints that have a file extension on the back printing is astounding, considering how young this segment of the industry is. You wouldn't think people would have a chance to lose that many files.
Batteries are still an issue with most people, as they can no longer just buy a battery off the shelf, drop it into their camera and go play for a year or two. Now, batteries are relatively expensive proprietary items that require a lot of maintenace.
To a certain extent, cellular phones have gotten them used to having to do battery maintenace, but it is still one more thing that non technical consumers can, and will, screw up.
One downside of digital is that we are losing the ability to make optical prints. Scanning film to print is the great quality equalizer, as it makes film look just as bad as consumer digital, sometimes much worse, depending on how the film scans. Some films scan better than others.
William Robb
