Warning: this is long-winded, amorphous, and almost certainly critically flawed in some way. I still hope it's worth reading, and I'm interested in the feedback.
I'm looking at the plight of the bricks'n'mortar camera store, especially the local shops but also the camera-specific chain stores, and beyond lamentation I think there's ripe opportunity. In the two or three weeks I've been a part of this Pentax forum, I've been amazed at the volume and quality of posts, so the communities will almost certainly continue to exist, notwithstanding fiscal pressures. There are several of us, for instance, still using film in some capacity long after its heyday has passed.
In the photographic ecosystem, we have a few mostly distinct elements:
- camera manufacturers
- camera retailers
- camera buyers
- photographers
The last two overlap some, but not completely, I argue, due to defining a "photographer" as someone--independent of profession--who diligently applies photographic equipment toward some specific creative result. That's overly pompous, but I think it works for now. Since I don't know of a camera-brand storefront, I'm not assuming much overlap in the first two.
So, many camera stores are, or have been, staffed with photographers, photographers who will in the relatively near future cease to be available as walk-in resources for technique and equipment recommendations. Photographers, having or not having worked in camera stores, make up a valuable community for the camera buyers who aspire to become, or even merely mimic, photographers. And camera manufacturers arguably need these communities to maintain the profitability mid-level equipment: professionals who use high-end gear and folks who just want to take a snapshot are two consumer groups largely unaffected by the fiscal pressure manufacturers are feeling. At least, that's my hypothesis. My cousin in the Associated Press isn't going to touch a K-7, nor, probably, a D90; and neither is my mom.
In addition to those concerns are a few others important to me, and I assume, many people on this forum (among others). For instance, I'm a fan of manual film cameras, for practical and aesthetic reasons. That expands the context here beyond the newest DSLRs and P&Ss, and stretches across decades of products and technology-specific techniques.
There's an opportunity here for a new business model. The idea's still nebulous in my head, so I'm posting all this blathering to frame these questions:
If you could join a community that included manufacturers and photographers, in a way that provided some of the benefits of locality (what the bricks'n'mortar stores provided, but which shouldn't necessarily require an old-form storefront), what would you want from it? What might you miss from the local shop, whether it's part of a chain or independent? Where did the camera-store model fail you before, that might be improved upon? Is there something already that fills, even partially, the void of the camera store?
I know there are local camera groups in several cities; I'm in one in Cincinnati, though I haven't had the opportunity to physically attend a meeting. I know there are camera swaps, and there are still, in some places, local, even independent, camera shops with lots of inventory crossing several modes and elements of photography (35mm film, large format, digital, developing, lighting, etc.). Additionally, there are forums, and blogs, and Twitter et al, and they all provide access to information. I think, though, my idea is of a service that eschews storefronts, makes use of technology but is not beholden to only Facebook (ugh), or only a forum, and somehow provides a bridge between the buyer, the neophyte photographer, the experienced photographer, and the manufacturer, in a way that allows the user community (comprised of the consumers and photographers) to exploit greater access to manufacturers, as well as allowing manufacturers to exploit an invested user community.
This isn't a new phenomenon; this is precisely what storefronts provided, harking from days before widespread phone use and to-your-door shipping. Amazon provides the same function, except it ignores the value of the knowledgeable store folks in lieu of reviewers of sometimes-incredible authenticity. There's more that can be done, some curation of the commercial and community interactions. Just as a newspaper is more than a bunch of storywriters, but rather includes editorial oversight, whatever it is I'm driving at seems like it's more than a bunch of people posting links on blogs and sending email newsletters. I'm hoping your points-of-view will help shape this idea into something useful.
That's all for now. Thanks for humoring me. I'm curious to see what you think.
Daniel