The other day I went with my brother to the Best Buy store in Dupont, PA. It was crowded with holiday shoppers. My brother wanted a tripod and an Eye-Fi Mobi card. He's just getting into photography, and he enlisted me to tag along as a consultant of sorts. In fact, he just bought my old K-5.
The camera department wasn't very crowded compared to other areas of the store.
The thing that struck me immediately and most significantly was the truly extensive and impressive array of GoPro Hero gear on display. This definitely is the year of the GoPro, without a doubt! But even though I enjoy camping, downhill skiing, and swimming in big waves at the beach, the GoPro cameras have little appeal to me. I guess I am just not very "extreme" but there certainly appears to be a market for those who are! Are there really that many radical bungee jumping skateboard surfers out there seeking to "relive the glory"? Who knew? And the salesman gushed on about the GoPro's 4K video, and how they can withstand being accidentally dropped to the ground while parachuting, and how you just turn them on and don't have to know anything about photography to get awesome, radical footage, and so on. I can't believe that despite all the highly evolved features packed into the latest cameras by the leading brands, at this present time, a tiny, simple small-sensor camera with only two or three buttons is the biggest seller of the day! And selling, I might add, for hundreds of dollars, no less! The GoPro Hero "Black" goes for $500 base, and you'll need a bunch of accessories to round out your kit! And people are snapping these things up, to be sure! I'll bet they're scratching their heads in dismay over at the legacy companies!
There also was a drone on display. I was not aware that a drone can be purchased at Best Buy. Or that they are powered by four AA batteries. The drone's camera seemed kind of weak to me. But I don't think camera specs matter much to its buyers. The sensor size debate going on elsewhere does not appear to be a consideration in consumer drone imaging as yet. And I really wonder if these things are going to become very common, because I am not sure how I feel about that. Can I declare my backyard a no-fly zone, and be within my rights if I shoot one down?
Nobody at all was looking at the strictly Canon and Nikon DSLR gear in a big, locked glass display case. Or the smart looking, dedicated Sony alpha mirrorless display. Or the handful of super zooms and tiny point-and-shoots securely tethered to a countertop. A few people lingered around the video camera showcase, checking out the offerings from Sony, JVC, and Canon. The big question they all seemed to have was if these "other" video cameras are as good as a GoPro! (Gee! I really don't know! Are they?)
I don't think I saw anything from Olympus or Fujifilm. There weren't any Panasonic camera offerings that I could see, either, nor, of course, anything at all by Pentax. A salesman told me it's because Pentax is considered, "pretty high end" which I took to mean that Pentax doesn't belong or sell well in a mainstream store like Best Buy. But I think that was an uninformed guess on his part. The two-lens K-50 WR kit ought to sell just fine in a store like this, I should think. Or the K-S1 or the K-500, for sure! No? Well, the Target store in my town does carry the Pentax XG-1 and the latest WG model, to its modest credit.
The Sony alpha display featured a big testimonial by a Pultizer-prize winning photographer (whose name escapes me) who claims alphas are so great that he now shoots exclusively with Sony mirrorless. The ads surrounding his picture describe mirrorless cameras as "the next DSLR's." From the way people were totally ignoring the DSLR's, I'm not sure if Sony should make such a claim! It would appear most Best Buy customers want tiny, rugged, ultra-simple GoPro videocameras, certainly not DSLR's!
LowePro dominated the carrying case department. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just saying it. There must have been thirty bags of varied size and configuration on display, plus a few $60 Canon and Nikon logo bags.
Most accessories including filters and batteries and the like were by third party brands I've never heard of.
There was a variety of flash units made I think by Duracell, which surprised me for some reason. Not SunPak, Metz, or Yongnuo. Duracell? Really? Well, what do I know? Maybe they are pretty good.
My town used to have its own camera shop. I kind of wish it still did.
My brother ended up buying a decent Manfrotto travel tripod and a 16GB Eye Fi Mobi card. He figures he'll be in a hurry to upload. I didn't offer my take on that matter.
There was a long line at check out, so I decided to go ahead and wait for him in the car. I was thinking about how not one of my four cameras was for sale at Best Buy, and only one descendant of one of them, the Sony NEX-7, was represented. I also asked myself what I would buy if I was somehow made to buy something at that particular store. I guess it would have been the D7100 and a 50mm f/1.8G. I mean, like if I had to buy something from the limited choices there. Or maybe the a6000.
And sitting in the car I noticed that although I live 100 miles away, we have all the same stores in my town as that mall in Dupont.
The sameness disheartened me.
