The question becomes: for how long?
I'm sorry for the shops' owners and staff, but not for the photographers who fondle in real time and then buy elsewhere online. Serves 'em right if they have a local alternative they so abuse and then find they have just killed off their free gropes.
I used to stay with one dealer; it paid dividends in service and in many other little ways - even got a Pentax calendar a few times - still have the Hans Feurer one with girls wearing brilliant, wet cheesecloth...
Even getting E6 processed in pro labs had its pleasures - you met folks you knew and talked a bit of shop. That either depressed you or made you feel smug. At least you knew you were alive.
Rob C
Yea, I agree, but those days are gone, gone and gone.
No much more interaction at a lab or proshop, no more face to face dealings. I't all from the click of a mobile phone.
Through the years I've gone into Calumet in NY, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and rarely walked out with what I intended.
They seemed to go from some stocking pro equipment to small amounts of stock, to calumet brands, to everything is from the warehouse.
It's just a reflection of the economy and competition like Amazon where everybody checks every price online.
I't's also a reflection that professional still photography is marginalized in a stagnate economy.
In a way it's a shame, because a few of the people I knew and liked, in other ways I'm very surprised they lasted this long.
The world has changed and there are few dealers left where you can walk in, talk to someone in earnest about equipment, hold it, try it, test it and buy it.
Yesterday during our lunch break I walked over to B+H to pick up an item and went upstairs to cameras.
I haven't physically been in there in a few years and it just breaks your brain. It's like the world's biggest electronic bazaar on speed.
The semi pro cameras (I guess they're mostly all semi pro now) were just swamped with customers and sales people and they were just banging on fujis, olympus, panasonic, canons, nikons and people were grabbing them one after the other.
It was like those tented shopping areas in Bangkok where people are scrapping over scarfs and fake izod shirts, obviously without the electronic flashing.
Honestly you could hardly tell the difference between any of the camera brands, but once again it just illustrates that the professional vs. the amateur world is 180 degrees apart, though digital has made even the lowest of cameras pretty good.
The Nikon area is the most confusing, because they all look the same with long numbers like 6100, 7100 or something. I honestly wouldn't know or care which one I picked up.
There are gold, silver white, round, square, teardrop reflectors lining every inch of the store, lights glowing, most of the brands I wouldn't know.
Then going back in to the studio with large professional equipment like big bens, clamps, stands, is just a different world.
A decade ago the Calumet stores had a large section dedicated to professional equipment, like what I just mentioned, but that slowly morphed into printers, ink and go pros.
I've kept wondering why the Olympus omd 1, the fuji xti and cameras like that didn't tether and at B+H it kind of hit me that 99.999% of the people in there wouldn't know or care to ever tether to a computer.
Anyway, as busy as B+H is a sales guy told me that in store sales is only 10% of their gross, the rest from internet and call ins.
At the large store in LA, S___s, I don't even go into the store. I buy from a manager in the warehouse.
So if your a pro and you gripe about the prices of specialized dealers like CI or DT, just remember, when you call them you actually get a person that knows about photography and will actually offer professional service.
IMO
BC
