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Forum: General Photography
05-12-2019, 11:11 AM
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Serious photographers must be such a tiny share of the total ‘all photographers’ set as to be rendered nobody. We’re on a serious photographer Forum; and in the context of those, we are associated with a rather insignificant brand. Consequently we pretty much qualify as nobody.
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Forum: General Photography
05-11-2019, 06:06 PM
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50 years ago an Instamatic was in virtually every household in America. In High School I had one. My grandmother had a YashicaMat and a Yashica rangefinder and a Polaroid Land camera. My father had an Argus for years, then an SX-70. After college I had a KX and K50/1.4. My younger brother had an OM-1 in High School (my father’s income went up a lot in the 70’s).
I kept the KX and even added an MESuper but In the 80’s I also had a series of automatic film cameras because they were convenient. I found a Canon, a Yashica and a Minolta in a box a couple months ago.
By the 90’s most people were throwing away the compact film cameras and buying compact digital cameras in plastic clamshell packaging hanging on end-aisle displays at Best Buy. Just like they bought Instamatics at Target in the 70’s. Despite the advances of Canon and Minolta, SLR sales were moribund by 2000.
Then soccer moms and the digital camera kit happened (at Target and Costco), the internet became workable and Apple took first-mover advantage in June, 2007 - just 12 years ago. The problem with the digital SLR explosion is the capital cost of the plants has yet to be recovered, but the soccer moms have moved on - their soccer children have grown up. They’re embarrassing their children posting smilies in text messages and Liking their Instas now.
We make a big deal about improved phone cameras but they’re wasted on 99% of the people who replace their smart phones. They might as well be Instamatics. Instagram might as well be InstamaticGram. The half-life of an Instagram post is only slightly shorter than that of a print from One-Hour Photo in the grocery parking lot. I don’t think the better phone cameras have changed anything. I think because the internet works, what we take pictures of and what we do with the images has changed, and a camera in a multi-function device that’s always in your pocket or purse is better suited to the change than an ILC.
ILC sales will settle down to whatever level suits the enthusiast community. A few more brands will disappear (Panny? Oly? Pentax? or - earthquake - Nikon?) during the next recession when capital costs can’t be met. Pentax will either survive because the capital costs might be low enough or Theta profit might be high enough - or Pentax might be sold to the Chinese next quarter.
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Forum: General Photography
05-11-2019, 04:29 PM
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Heh. My nephew spent 45 minutes discussing our components and why we have what we have. We passed. But he’s sound engineer for a small college.
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Forum: General Photography
05-11-2019, 11:26 AM
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I gave my daughter two of those speakers for Christmas. They fill her living space with pretty good sound. She has no other audio playback gear, unlike my house where I have a stack of components, tower speakers, secondary speakers and hidden cabling. Just for listening. And my Amp pairs with Bluetooth devices and WiFi. I will say the digital output is better heard in Direct Mode than profiled.
Then there’s the AV. :o
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Forum: General Photography
05-11-2019, 04:32 AM
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Do they make flip phones? ;)
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Forum: General Photography
05-11-2019, 04:10 AM
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Did you read my post about the impossibly awkward ergonomics and interface of a smartphone? It doesn’t matter how good the camera is if I can’t comfortably hold it and control and use it. They suck as voice communication devices and keyboarding / messaging devices, too. They don’t do anything better than what they replaced except inadequately emulate several better dedicated devices in one portable package.
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Forum: General Photography
05-10-2019, 05:50 PM
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I can’t hold my current smartphone, so I don’t imagine I could hold the super duper new smartphones. But I can surely hold a giant-sized FF dSLR.
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