[Rondec]

Things that I thought of...

1. Save money for new gear. I do expect a new camera and at least the DFA *85 to be released next year. Those pieces will not be cheap.
2. Take a trip to somewhere interesting and where the light is better. Trips cost money, but they are beneficial and can give interesting photo opportunities. The light isn't going to be great for the next three months so go somewhere where it is.
3. Experiment with different things. Flash, extreme macro, astro photography -- whatever you haven't done in the past -- try it now.
4. Buy an old lens or two and experiment with them. This is often fairly cheap but can be a way to break out of a rut.
5. Experiment with post processing. Most of us get into ruts when it comes to post processing, but it is easy to take a photo you took awhile ago and push it in different ways.
6. Get a meditation app and experiment with that. Probably most of us are way too stressed out all of the time. Making a little place to put our minds into a restful spot is beneficial.

Hope those help. And as Scarlett says, "Tomorrow is another day..."

[James also]

Now what we do is improve our skills with the gear we already have, which is awesom-er than we are....only a small handful of people are actually hitting our gear's full potential.

Couldn't agree more. I find with Sport Gardens House etc there is not enough time to truly master the Camera

Signed "Slave to my K1"


PS and loving it

[biz-engineer]

2. Take a trip to somewhere interesting and where the light is better. Trips cost money, but they are beneficial and can give interesting photo opportunities. The light isn't going to be great for the next three months so go somewhere where it is.

That's best for winter vacation.

---------- Post added 08-12-19 at 20:11 ----------

"We" should stop being such a grumpy old sour-puss, keep a positive outlook, and use the equipment "we" already own to enjoy "our" photography. That's what "we" should do

Me gumpy old sour-puss? That's funny

---------- Post added 08-12-19 at 20:12 ----------

Wait patiently? No, stuff that! Trolling is much more productive....

I'm not that good at trolling, all previous attempts have failed. This is my first successful trolling attempt at it gets the wooping 6 pages of replies (am I fired? )

[StiffLegged]

This is my first successful trolling attempt at it gets the wooping 6 pages of replies (am I fired? )

Sadly, the replies don't count to your posts for the month. I point this out for information only.

[Sir Nameless]

It was a fun thread. There’s that.

[biz-engineer]

It was a fun thread. There’s that.

Sadly, the replies don't count to your posts for the month. I point this out for information only.

Last week end I was walking in front of cameras shops. Above all Pentax, I'm actually more concerned about the lack of really good cameras in the market these days, for me it's either overpriced or low quality, that's sad to see the camera industry failed to modernize in the era of smartphones. The only idea they have found is to make cameras mirrorless because Sony did it, but connectivity is poor, ergonimics are poor, build quality is slightly inferior that it was for DSLRs, and prices have increased. I am not suprised that cameras don't sell well these days, because new camera products have not progressed at all.

[BigMackCam]

Last week end I was walking in front of cameras shops. Above all Pentax, I'm actually more concerned about the lack of really good cameras in the market these days, for me it's either overpriced or low quality, that's sad to see the camera industry failed to modernize in the era of smartphones. The only idea they have found is to make cameras mirrorless because Sony did it, but connectivity is poor, ergonimics are poor, build quality is slightly inferior that it was for DSLRs, and prices have increased. I am not suprised that cameras don't sell well these days, because new camera products have not progressed at all.

With most technology products, progress tails off as they reach maturity. Just look at the development of personal computers from the late 1970s to today. Huge progress was made in the 80s and 90s, year after year, with hardware, operating systems and applications software. Things began to slow down in the 2000s. Now, huge R&D brings only incremental improvements in performance year on year. If we're not already at that stage with digital cameras, we're not far off...

---

Last edited by BigMackCam; 12-09-2019 at 09:26 AM.

[StiffLegged]

I find the same can be said of many threads here and on other forums!

[biz-engineer]

With most technology products, progress tails off as they reach maturity.

No always I'm afraid, just look at how the mobile phone market growth slowed down up to 2007, when Apple introduced the iPhone and the market grow again for a decade. Steve Jobs came in with a fresh thinking, I don't see any Steve Jobs in the camera industry, it seems all camera markers do a poor job at designing their cameras. Some of the Nikon Z7 camera ($3000+ product..) users have the grip rubber peeling off after less than a year of use. I've been using my new note book 2 years and the keyboard didn't fall appart, and I didn't pay $3000 for my notebook, I paid Eur 1400 for 5TB of SSD, 16GB of RAM, INTEL i7-8, 7 hours battery life and high resolution IPS display, and it's been working flawlessly.

[BigMackCam]

No always I'm afraid, just look at how the mobile phone market growth slowed down up to 2007, when Apple introduced the iPhone and the market grow again for a decade. Steve Jobs came in with a fresh thinking, I don't see any Steve Jobs in the camera industry, it seems all camera markers do a poor job at designing their cameras. Some of the Nikon Z7 camera ($3000+ product..) users have the grip rubber peeling off after less than a year of use. I've been using my new note book 2 years and the keyboard didn't fall appart, and I didn't pay $3000 for my notebook, I paid Eur 1400 for 5TB of SSD, 16GB of RAM, INTEL i7-8, 7 hours battery life and high resolution IPS display, and it's been working flawlessly.

I don't know what I can say, or what camera brands can do, that will bring you out of your current funk, biz. You want more innovation, but don't want to pay more for it. You want better quality, but you don't want to pay more for it.

Z7 customers having problems with wear on their rubber grips are unfortunate statistics that don't represent the entirety of customers, just as you are a fortunate statistic with your notebook PC yet almost certainly don't represent the entirety of customers - some of whom will have had problems with that same notebook (the screen hinges on my previous GBP 1,000 HP laptop from 2013 started to break after 2.5 years of use... turns out it was a prolific defect). No product is perfect. As common problems are discovered, they're addressed in later production runs. These things get resolved. It has never been any different.

There's no mileage in worrying about what any of the camera brands is doing. We're better off going with the flow and enjoying our photography. Products that excite us will come, or they won't. And they'll be priced at levels we're happy with, or they won't. Some brands will survive, or they won't. The only influence we can have is with our purchasing decisions... Being worried and/or dissatisfied won't influence anyone or anything

[WillWeaverRVA]

Go out and take some pictures.

But I thought the whole point was to cry about Pentax being doomed? DOOMED!

[Dartmoor Dave]

If a worldwide ban on any further digital camera development was announced by the United Nations tomorrow, meaning that only the already existing camera models would be available for the next fifty years. . .

. . . photographers would still have everything they need.

[FozzFoster]

. . . photographers would still have everything they need.

but.. but it was their 100 year anniversary! I demand new gear! I'm offended so therefore I am right!

[bertwert]

I'm offended

Hi offended, I'm Bert, nice to meet you

[Sir Nameless]

but it was their 100 year anniversary

Mebbe they decided to take a vacation to celebrate their anniversary instead of working thru.
My Pentax gear is still working regardless--just used it yesterday.