The idea that someone would willingly spend $1,000 on a
camera which they know will be obsolete in one year is absurd.
Chuck
I'll politely disagree. Will this year's camera be surpassed in
quality by next year's $1,000 cameras? Yep, but that doesn't make
this year's camera obsolete. I expect that many buyers of the
current (soon-to-be-released) crop of $1,000 cameras (G2, F707)
will still be getting great pics from their cameras three or four
or more years from now.
Besides, (though I've never done the math) I expect that if I ever
measured 'value' by the number of 'good snapshots' I'll take during
the next year with the $1,000 digicam that I will be buying
shortly, I would probably end up spending way more than $1,000 a
year in film and developing just to get the same number of 'good
snapshots.' (Good snapshot: a 5x7 that I save and put into the
album because the shot is good, not merely because I spent nearly a
buck to get it developed and printed so I could even see whether it
was a good shot.)
Heck, I borrowed an 'ancient' (obsolete?) .8mp oly for scout camp
this summer, and the result was a great success. The day after
camp, each scout and adult leader ended up with a CD containing a
slide show of the hundreds of shots taken (and saved, rather than
deleted cause the scout wanted to look really cool, and that shot
'makes me look like a nerd'). And this cost less than $10. The
troop budget wouldn't have been able to pay for just the cost of
the film and developing for the hundreds of shots, much less
getting a print (or even a negative) of every shot for every
participant.
I'm not blind, prints from any digicam (prosumer or consumer, or
even professional) won't produce 8x10s of equal quality to a nice
film set-up. But I'm going to enjoy the ride till we get there.
Now, I've just got to choose between the 'dark angel' and the G2.
Curt A.