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What would Asian and European women think?

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I would be curious to know how many of the responders to this thread are actually female. I suspect we are just a bunch of old bears growling about something not meant for us........and we don't want, anyway.
 
tt321 said:
Tom Caldwell said:
There is also the point that manufacturers sell “cheap” dumbed down gear quite deliberately to the entry level market who have no ambition to progress very far.

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Tom Caldwell
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If they did that, which they seem to have done for years, should they not also tune the prices accordingly? Unless, of course, the cost of making the dumbed down versions is the same or even higher than that of making a more normal version. For all we know they could be full fledged versions with artificial disabling.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiafei/
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Good point, I suppose certain things with every camera sold are much the same. Basic design, tooling and assembly, plus warehousing and marketing. Where it might be different is in the qualtity of R&D needed and the cost range of major components.

The latest sensors, good evf and lcd and (say) lots of magnesium and metal in the construction would add to the price quite considerably - as would high quality wheels, etc.

In the case of ultra small bodies e could possibly add tricky assembly issues which might add to the build cost.

But there is a spectrum of marketability. At the low end the product price can be squeezed a bit higher because the market is used to paying. At the top prices the margins an be squeezed by the market willingness to pay and the volume sold.

A good example of all this was the GM series which obviously was the result of a lot of R&D and made with high quality lasting construction in mostly metal - I belive that it had a magnesium internal body frame.

To a great extend the RRP is some sort of juggle between the cost of the product run and jut how quickly it will sell. Both the GM1 and GM5 hit the market at quite high RRP and probably did not sell particularly well until the price was reduced to what the popular market was willing to pay. I suspect that Panasonic did get their R&D investment back but very likely did not make as much money as they would have liked from it. I suggest that it was not a loss making exercise - just not as profitable as they would have liked.

After finding out the hard way about how much money the market would pay for a camera of this type/size they quite cynically made the camera for that price slot where they could get the profit margin they expected - it continues as the annually made over GF7/8/9/10 which gets almost zero extra R&D, a few flim flams to difference it from the previous model and a cheaper plastic construction (which no doubt is robust enough) - being a little larger is only a necessity brought about by use of more plastics. Furthermore it uses many common parts designed for the GM series. But there can be no doubt that the GF10 is a much cheaper product for Panasonic to make and give a good profit margin. The GF10 could be sold for quite a lot less and still make as much for Panasonic as they ever did at the reduced price market for the GM series. But Panasonic resolutely only makes annual runs of the made-over GF series and does not discount other than selling off earlier models left over at slightly reduced prices.

There is no need to discount as the market accepts that the GF7/8/9/10 is priced at what is reasonable for an entry level camera to be. A sort of win win for both consumer and manufacturer. But not necessarily best value, best lasting construction, or best technology.

It is just a pity for GM fans that what they would like to pay for one of these little gems will only get them something very like a GF10. Or an E-PL9 I suppose. Almost zero R&D investment.

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Tom Caldwell
 
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bobn2 said:
Tom Caldwell said:
I might wonder why women form any part of the world would wish to have a camera tool that was any different from a man with a similar level of interest in photography.
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The marketing of technology for women based on stereotypes has been full of amusing pratfalls. One could take the whole Nikon 1 system, which was said to be targeted at the 'soccer mom' as an instance. I remember one time I was working with the automobile industry, and a survey was done to help design a car targeted at women. It was a tiny thing which came in all kinds of pastel colours. The survey showed a big preference amongst the women surveyed for huge SUVs.
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Yes they feel “safe” in a SUV - until they meet another wild woman in an even larger SUV. An SUV has more room for a pram as well - so they just buy bigger “SUV prams”.

And of course the blokes are fair game as well as they get their macho rocks off thinking that they are going to take this pristine leather seated, carpeted, scratch-free SUV off the bitumen one day ..... bullbar, lights and schnorkel will in the meantime obviously help wife to find (terrorise) her way in and out of the shopping centre car park :)

Ban power steering in SUV types and the attraction would wither pretty quickly.
 
brentbrent said:
Tom Caldwell said:
I might wonder why women form any part of the world would wish to have a camera tool that was any different from a man with a similar level of interest in photography.
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I have no idea other than this, that most women carry purses, while most men do not. I suspect the compact size of these cameras might appeal to some women who want more camera than a cell phone provides, but would like to be able to carry it nearly all the time in their purse rather than buy a big camera that would require a second bag. For men who will be carrying a camera bag as their only bag, it might not matter as much if it is somewhat bigger.
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brand name too. when i went to southeast asia last year, fuji was popular with the locals i hung out with. even casio compacts were selling (because it was small and cheap and offered beauty effects). if m4/3 can undercut the fuji, it would sell.

i think olympus is popular in japan. depends on the country.
 
Most women I see here in the USA use either a point and shoot or an APS-C/DX DSLR with kit lens. The girls use smartphones.
 
Thanks.
 
Thanks for the explanation regarding costs and R&D. I still do not understand why Olympus did not try to adjust the price accordingly (based on what is being offered by the epl9, i.e. not much when compared with other similar cameras and being the last to announce it and therefore knowing others' prices). Those unused 16 MP sensors would be worthless if they still can't get rid of them quickly.
 
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JimSocks said:
brand name too. when i went to southeast asia last year, fuji was popular with the locals i hung out with. even casio compacts were selling (because it was small and cheap and offered beauty effects). if m4/3 can undercut the fuji, it would sell.

i think olympus is popular in japan. depends on the country.
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Olympus sounds classier to me too. Fuji is like industrial, heavy industry, and Fujifilm (film!) sounds so backward. 😉 I do understand that some buyers look at the brand names and buy on that when they are not sure and do not bother at look at details. Fuji would do well changing its name to something more in line with the modern world and more international.
 
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kcdogger said:
Hey, guys. How about finding a few women and asking them?Peace.
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All the women I know use their smartphones are are really NOT interested in cameras. Yet, they all love it when I go somewhere with them and take photos with my cameras, and later send copies to them on their smartphones. :-P
 
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