I find it remarkable that people whom passion is photography are still willing to provide the ultimate tools for photographers in a time where less is considered as good enough.
Best regards,
Thierry
Theirry,
I don't know why you find this remarkable, your customers have the same commitment.
I hear this on this section of the forum all the time, talking about the ultimate image quality, if any photographer uses anything less than camera type A, or Brand B, they just don't care about the quality of what they deliver and that is 180 degrees from the truth in almost every instance.
I can run you off a list of about 20 good photographers that have drastically slowed down in their use and purchase of specialty cameras and spend more time with dslrs and it's not because they lack the will or the inclination to invest and produce the very best work possible.
There is a huge amount of downward pressure on photographers and not just this year, it's been coming for a long time.
Few projects go through without estimate revises, few estimate revises are set in stone, so every photographer I know is working double speed for less than a few years ago, sometimes triple to quadruple speed and regardless of this they don't have the luxury to look down at little lcd's that are non readable, shoot with cameras and software that is temperamental, constantly stay abreast on what software works with what operating system with what camera back, or get caught out with 3 to 4 images with pattern moire that takes a lot of money in post work to fix. They just can't take the chance, not when your moving large crews to three locations a day, shooting a dozen or so set ups on each location.
I'm sure the good hard working people at the specialty camera companies care about what they produce but it's not just Sinar, Leica, Hasselblad and Phase that puts pride in their work. I'm sure that extends to Canon and Nikon workers also, but I can promise you without a doubt it applies to photographers.
The photographers I know don't do this as a "job" and none I know get a weekly paycheck. They do this with a passion and spend every waking moment and most of their "expendable cash" on their careers. I don't know a photographer, stylist, makeup artist, model, set builder, gaffer (this list can go on for a week) that doesn't routinely reschedule vacations, miss funerals, birthdays, anniversaries, (this list can also go on for a week).
The photographers I know, have absolutely no desire to produce anything beyond "ultimate" image quality, but the ones I know that work a lot will not spend a single penny on anything that is not complete today. We've all been down that road of pdf promises, waited around for things that never happened and today the only response I have is call me when your really ready, not almost ready.
I've know a lot of camera companies, shot for a few, talked to most of them and all I can say is they may care about their product but most (actually all of them) would rather hear what is good about their product and few want to address what is even close to a negative, because in the realm of specialty camera companies if that wasn't true, their would be 900,000 pixel lcds, in camera jpegs, software that didn't take a class to learn and better prices.
Actually the price thing is what throws most photographers. We went along for years thinking digital backs had to be a certain price with a long list of limitations, then Hasselblad cut the prices across the board, everybody followed suit and I don't know what most photographers thought but I know the first thing that raced through my mind was great, I paid way too much.
Photographer's that are the target market for digital backs and specialty cameras have been asking for the same thing for years and the response 99% of the time has been more megapixels. Period.
The one single exception to this was that Sinar HY6 package with the good lcd that processed in camera jpegs and rotated on an Hy6, though I guess that is long gone but with all these pdfs, announcing new Sinar companies, I can't tell if it is still actively sold . . . can you? . . . will there ever be a 35mm and 110 mm lens for that camera that autofocuses because I can't tell . . . can you?
If medium format companies really knew their market every one of them would have a medium format equivalent to a Canon 85mm lens, but only one, Hasselblad has an up to date lens that falls within that range. If you don't think that's important try shooting portraits, retail fashion, anything full length in a modern interior location and you'll find 80mm stretches and doesn't compress enough, 140mm to 150mm just doesn't allow you to fit within the space.
But let's get down to where the rubber meets the road. In the last 6 months would you personally have spent $26,000 for that hy6 31mpx camera, another $10,000 for lenses knowing the lenses and accessories are over a year late, knowing the software was 8 months late, knowing that the company was laying off people?
Since you previously worked for Sinar and to keep this post relevant, the truth is sinar made good product and had a good professional name, but also had some of the worst marketing on the planet. Getting instant information from a website is almost impossible, finding the right person to talk to was even harder and most of the Sinar dealers were not that well informed and even the dealers that knew their stuff would admit that on a lot of items and questions they just had no answer.
So regardless of what the camera companies, their respective reps, dealers think no photographer worth their salt wants to shoot with anything but the best, but no photographer that works at any decent level of production doesn't know that the most important thing they do is capture the shot, do it professionally, deliver on time and stay on budget.
A friend who is a great lifestyle photographer sent me a jpeg yesterday from a large production lifestyle shoot. Really good photographer, really great shot and it's done with a 5d2. Now this photographer owns medium format, can easily afford newer more expensive cameras, but if you could see this series of photography and tell me what is lacking or was missed by not using the "ultimate" quality camera, then you got a lot sharper eyes than me.
Keep in mind the people that post here, the ones that invested in medium format had no desire to move to other platforms as long as the equipment kept up with their client's demands. If it did then I'm sure they bought a higher resolution back. If not, well you know the answer to this.
IMHO
BC
P.S. I apologize for the long post.