All the very best to your marketing career.
Shug
For the record I think all professional digital cameras are amazing. I never would have imagined 10 years ago to get the quality we now receive from the lowest priced mass brands to the most obscure highest cost products.
Also for the record a lot of people that get called dissenters or negative are actually writing not to complain, but to honestly put in direct terms what they expect when it comes to handing over hard earned cash. I would think some of that information is invaluable.
Forums and blogs are interesting how they change tone. A few years ago everyone said, where are the makers, the reps, the technical people and now we have them. I find some of that good, but I also know that regardless of how forthright and honest most of them are, there is still an agenda to put the best light on their product. It would be foolish not to.
I've seen a lot of photography forums and except for a few rare instances they all center around equipment. Users post thousands of images of walls, fields, buildings, their patio, showing edge to edge sharpness of lenses, just sure that the latest 28mm is the one that does it all. For me this has nothing to do with photography, but I do respect the effort to share knowledge, as long as nobody is looking for a financial return on that sharing.
Talking about equipment I find the least interesting of all the aspects of photography, but it is the safest form of public discourse. If you don't believe me praise the work of Terry Richardson and listen to the responses.
If the forum gains in popularity then naturally here come the dealers, the manufacturer's reps, the photographers with close associations to the maker and the brand warriors that are in love with their one particular camera.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to sell your product, nothing wrong with having pride in the tools you've worked hard to own, or the work you produce. I understand that fully.
But I also understand is the sword cuts both ways. You can't use what is essentially a public forum to advertise products and not take some hard questions. But then again, why is world pricing such a hard question to answer, especially when asked by someone that is a potential buyer? Especially in todays economy, which recent events prove that when it comes to money we are all in this together, like it or not. The dollar is hooked to the Euro, the Yen and the Pound.
There is not a professional photographer in this world that doesn't have to answer price questions daily. Whether you shoot weddings, editorial, or million dollar campaigns, you don't get past the first 2 minutes of conversation until price becomes the discussion. You can't shoot a professional project without money eventually becoming the over ridding topic. Talent, crew, equipment rental/purchases, the prices are asked hourly by clients and producers so why is it so offensive if someone asks how much is a Sinar, or for that matter any piece of equipment if I bought it in Russia, New York or Sydney?
If I sold cameras, I'd look at these type of threads as an opportunity to answer the hard questions. I would use this as an entry to mention great service, better product, clearer pricing and if I didn't have positive answers to those questions I would explain with clarity how I planned to achieve those goals.
In other words I would look for a way to turn the conversation around into a positive message rather than get hurt feelings.
Theirry, or if any of the makers want me to say I appreciate your contributions, ok, I guess I do somewhat appreciate your contributions, but I would appreciate it even more if I knew what is the real out the door costs, what is the typical service turnaround, how available is "the prodeuct " in rentals.
I also believe you should appreciate our responses because obviously you find value here or you wouldn't have logged on in the first place.
If the makers that have recently joined this forum want a theme where people just praise product then there are places out there that offer this. Just run a few ads in the gear magazines and they'll probably say anything you want. Run a 20 ad buy and they'll give you a product of the year award and reprint your press releases until the world goes blind. Then again I can promise you that there won't be much to be learned from that and with that thought medium format will continue to sell thousands, rather than 10's of thousands of systems a year.
The alternative to this is to go to someone like Jake Chessum who is on the editorial A-list and ask him why he shoots film with an RZ instead of digital. Hand him an HY6 and H3dII (I hope I have that right because some of these names get confusing) and ask for an unvarnished, no hurt feelings, no praise the brand response.
Or open up the Sept. 2008 issue of L'umo Vogue and look at those amazing portraits of John Hurt shot by phil poynter and ask how your company can make a color pallet that reacts like that, or if you software has real film presets for color and tone, or allows the introduction of grain into an image without going into photoshop.
Since this thread was based on price and that became objectionable, ask these or other working photographers how they respond when some art buyer, or photo editor screams why is the invoice not clear and understandable.
I doubt seriously if the photographer responds by saying, "I am getting a bit tired to get bashed all the time "
I am positive they will not respond that maybe you should use another photographer if you require more than 10 frames a day.
Again for the record nobody is bashing, or calling a medium format owner daft, but instead just asking questions and not really understanding the answers. Also be clear I'm not in this for the makers, I come at this from the standpoint as a photographer, or as most of the dealers like to call us, end users.
Maybe potential customer is a better term.
BC
