The way things were

[Rhys]

I was going to call this topic something like look atta da porno pix but somehow I thought that might get it nuked.

Anyway...

I was thinking about the way things were - photography shops selling film, lenses, cameras, chemicals and paper. You remember when camera shops looked like this?

Well, as you all know that's a blast from the past.

These days camera shops don't seem to exist in any meaningful manner. They've been replaced largely by big box stores and the internet. It's a crying shame.

A long time ago a chap who ran a photography ship, Mike Collier, told me that he thought the digital darkroom was the best thing ever to happen to photography. He said he could do in minutes what would take him hours with a conventional darkroom. It was so true. I recall him printing a custom order for a client of their son's yearly photos, taken each year in a circle around his graduation photo. That meant a dozen or so different exposures on one piece of photographic paper. Given that there must have been quite a few rejects and copious notes taken to ensure it was all correct, it was not surprising to find it had taken him a couple of days. We can do something very similar in photoshop in under an hour. At the time, he wasn't convinced by digital cameras although he did agree that they were improving. At that time, the press was still using 1.3mp zoom compacts.

Our digital photography revolution is probably a bigger revolution than the Daguerrotype (which introduced photography) or Fox Talbot's rolls of paper film (which popularised photography). Digital has meant everybody can take at least a half decent photo. It has also meant most people that want one have a camera in the phone/computer. Photography has never been so available and has never been so inexpensive.

 

[[JR]]

Digital has meant everybody can take at least a half decent photo. It has also meant most people that want one have a camera in the phone/computer. Photography has never been so available and has never been so inexpensive.

If you want to stay in the cheap end of the spectrum, sure. But cellphone pictures don't have much of a "wow!" factor.

Photography is actually very expensive... look at all the different lens for different shots, some of them are over $3,000. That fancy 85mm with the lovely bokeh will happily drill a burning hole in your brand new leather wallet, and that's not covering the cost of the camera itself.

All we're seeing is cheaper cameras that are now more available, compact point and shoots. They're fine for snapshots and the occasional good shot, provided you have the composition right... cheaper "cheap" gear isn't all that bad, it gets more people interested into a hobby which is quite addicting.

 

[Rhys]

Quality will always improve. The quality from most P&S cameras is already better than from most film SLRs, years ago.