Anyone dealing with photography in the days of digital is being screwed by the big companies. And it takes a well practised and iron willed tightwad not to give in and spend a fortune one doesn't have.
There are about six companies out there at the moment. Hasselblad at the top with cameras up to and above $50,000. The Leica would be next with a camera and lense system coming in at $12,000.
Next you have Nikon and Canon, the two main companies. Both play off each other and have by far the lions share of the market. And then you have Sony, Fuji, Ricoh and a few other very small companies. Samsung I had hopes for a while back but they moved out of the camera market.
What I had hoped was that the companies would lower the price of the cameras so everyone that wanted could afford a full frame (equivalent to the old 35mm film in size). But since about 2012 the companies haven't really improved the offering but have put out camera after camera each touted as being such a machine you couldn't live without it.
Then in 2015 Sony put out their A7 series at a price point that fit with their competition. However what Sony has done is keep the older models in production while putting out a camera every few months. First it was the A7, the A7R and the A7S . Then they put out all these in a second iteration, and just now a third. Each awesome in their own way. But the one I have, the A7, is still an excellent instrument and now selling for about the $1000.
Oddly, in general people are beginning to see Nikon and Canon are fleecing them and it's only because Sony and Fuji are offering such excellence at half the price point. But they are also aware they've been sweated these last years, and when you take this and the quality of the phone images Nikon and Canon are really feeling the squeeze.
Today for the first time in years I had to shovel snow to get to the car so I could run it for a bit.
There are about six companies out there at the moment. Hasselblad at the top with cameras up to and above $50,000. The Leica would be next with a camera and lense system coming in at $12,000.
Next you have Nikon and Canon, the two main companies. Both play off each other and have by far the lions share of the market. And then you have Sony, Fuji, Ricoh and a few other very small companies. Samsung I had hopes for a while back but they moved out of the camera market.
What I had hoped was that the companies would lower the price of the cameras so everyone that wanted could afford a full frame (equivalent to the old 35mm film in size). But since about 2012 the companies haven't really improved the offering but have put out camera after camera each touted as being such a machine you couldn't live without it.
Then in 2015 Sony put out their A7 series at a price point that fit with their competition. However what Sony has done is keep the older models in production while putting out a camera every few months. First it was the A7, the A7R and the A7S . Then they put out all these in a second iteration, and just now a third. Each awesome in their own way. But the one I have, the A7, is still an excellent instrument and now selling for about the $1000.
Oddly, in general people are beginning to see Nikon and Canon are fleecing them and it's only because Sony and Fuji are offering such excellence at half the price point. But they are also aware they've been sweated these last years, and when you take this and the quality of the phone images Nikon and Canon are really feeling the squeeze.
Today for the first time in years I had to shovel snow to get to the car so I could run it for a bit.
I cannot imagine paying $50,000 for a camera, but then to each their own. We all have our extravagances, I guess. But still.... when obsolescence begins the moment you take it from the box....
ReplyDeleteYou know that last shot is my favorite! She's so cute. :)
Yep, what I called her it was all very teenage whaaaaaaat, I'm having fun in this stuff.
DeleteThe 50 is with 36k for the camera and the rest for the lenses. And oddly the obsolescence isn't as bad with cameras since 2010/11 than with other electronics. But they've tried to build it in one way or another.
Interestingly, all these brans built there name on film cameras! Where is Pentax these days (I loved their old 6x7 camera). I had a friend with a rangefinder Lecia back in the 1980s and it had incredible lens. What is suprisingly is the with the great shift from film to digital, no new company entered the scene.
ReplyDeleteExactly. The 35mm makers transferred to digital. But before the shift you had an explosion of point and shoot film cameras that people bought for the special occasion and the odd holiday. This market took a while to change to digital and was priced at $400 ishy from about 2003 onwards. But this market was dead by 2010 because of the Smartphone.
DeleteHowever why the traditional makers could continue to hold the price of 'good' was the glass. They had years of legacy lenses that would fit to the cameras. But, and here's the rub, but, when the sensors became more and more detailed -Nowadays it's not unusual to see 40 megapixal camera sensors.- requiring more and more elements in the lenses. So new glass, not legacy. This allowed a few serious makers in, like Sony.
Your camera discussion is over my head but those prices --- wow!!!! And I love these pictures, especially, like Kelly, the last one!
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob. She's a little cutey.
DeleteI think most electronics have us coming and going as far as price and quality go. But as I think I’ve mentioned, my Sony (before my canon) took amazing pictures, plus the lcd screen was big and clear. When I got my canon, Sony wasn’t there yet as far as what it could do, but it sounds like they are now.
ReplyDeleteLove the snow pics! As much as I miss winter, I don’t miss shoveling!
The thing for me is that there are a lot of people that might be further along but for the big corps pricing as if in a cartel. Yes, you little Canon is still a very good instrument, even now, and well suited to what you do and where you do it, normally. You cannot really blame it for Scotland :-).
DeleteSnow is shit. And I've never had the grá to visit the Alps. And watching the few sports on the Winter Olympics was like viewing a sports day for the Waffen SS, so blonde and blue-white were the players.
I would suspect the reasons the prices don't decline is because cameras don't go obsolete as fast as most electronics do. The old Canon 35mm SLR I had in my youth would still take great quality photographs today if not for the film. The digital Canon that replaced it still takes beautiful photographs even now a dozen years later. The only thing that really changes are the options of what to do with the data it captures.
ReplyDeleteSo with people like us hanging onto cameras and not "buying" into new technology, the companies must retain high pricing to recoup costs associated with coming out with all those new options.
My eyes gravitate towards the top two pictures. My body always steers me towards deserted lanes like that and hiking them to see where they lead.
Yeah, noooo, the game the companies are playing is to have a 'new' release that has little if any useful newness to it. But the 4 year old, still perfectly useful is removed from the line.
DeleteThe thing is that anything issued after 2010/11 is still good, maybe not great, but still very useful.