Dear Georg,
that's where opinions differ: if it is worth to do the investment in high-end digital or not.
That question can not be answered and given a general definitive answer. It depends on your loadwork. Here I certainly do not agree with Klaus, that over 10'000.- investment is questionable, simply because it cannot be generalized.
FYI: there is of course an upgrade path, from one product to a newer one. It is in place since years and does allow the customers to upgrade their tool for a reasonable price, although the word "reasonable" is understood differently by some. But it exist and protects your investment.
You do make sense!
Best regards,
Thierry
Hi Thierry!
With the investment-sumof 10k i meant George´s case. It´s not really comparable with the situation of advertising photographers which make the amount of money in one month which George hopefully makes in a whole year . . ;-)
The relations should be balanced i mean. Today you´ll never know what happens the next 3 months. Maybe you haven´t jobs for the next two or three months - and just bought equipment for 40000.-€ . . .
That´s not a very comfortable feeling . . but it happens. The problem is: you never know WHEN it will happen.
btw.:
"- a Sinar Hy6 with eMotion 75 LV (33.3 Mpx) has an enduser price of Euro 24'000.-.
With 3 or 4 lenses this puts the complete kit at about Euro 30'000,-, depending which lenses you choose."
Indeed that depends heavily on the lenses you choose . . ;-)
I see your point very clear! And from a technological viewpoint i agree in parts of it.
In the end there is no way around gigital.
But look at me: i´m a photographer who works 3-4 jobs a month - i don´t need more. And i don´t want more ( i know how it is to work 3-4 jobs a week . . and i hated it).
I don´t like to work 75% of my time to pay an expensive studio, refined equipment and some aides. Most of the time in my career i did exact that!
I wouldn´t complain about that - was funny times after all - but i wouldn´t do it again today.
And i know lots of guys - good photographers - who see it the same way.
Especially young photographers, new to the business have a problem: everyone expects them to have the "modern" equipment. Clients expect highres digital gear. But they don´t want to pay fees that would allow the photographers to get their expensive equipment payed in short times and start to make profit.
In fact there´s a lot of photograpers who will never make profit at all - they got trapped in leasing-contracts, bank-loans and so on.
In other words: they lost their freedom. Financially and in a creative way. They become slaves of their costs.
When i would start as a photographer today - i would buy used MF and LF equipment and work with it and build up a good name as a photographer. Not as a perfectly equipped studio.
Can you imagine anybody to ask Annie Leibovitz or Peter Lindbergh which equipment they use?
I know what they use: anything a lens fits in . . .
it´s the photographer´s spirit that counts.
In the meantime i hear clients say "we don´t care how you do the job - but please make it not looking digital, will you. We want "the edge" - not neccesaryly sharpness or cleanness. Everybody can shoot a clean and sharp picture" . . .
I said it before: who the hell cares about film-grain? They LOVE it . . . (little joke, but in some way realistic!)
Everybody today shoots clean and sharp digital pictures. Do we need all of them?
I think: no.
best, Klaus
