New products - getting sick of them?

rayonline_nz · Jan 7, 2015

Currently I shoot Nikons. Do any of you get tierd of all the new product annoucements like lenses and flashes? To me it is like becoming like the smartphone industry but not 1 yearly.

Maybe part of that is I prefer to shoot a manual Nikon and I like to move to medium format. At the end of the day, it does give people more choice, might cost more money, people may have even more lenses to cater to each different shooting environment / job. For myself that is for non-income enjoyment it's spending thousands of dollars to make a couple of prints. I rather go overseas and use my current equipment.

Rick A · Jan 7, 2015

You saying that you are tired of the claptrap and hyperbole of consumerism?

snapguy · Jan 7, 2015

The moral...

"It is immoral to let suckers keep their money...."

bdial · Jan 7, 2015

What new product announcements?

I don't pay attention to just about any photographic product announcement, especially hardware.
I already know it's something that I don't need, can't use or can't afford.

MartinCrabtree · Jan 7, 2015

Not at all. It means more fine equipment for sale cheap as they buy up the "latest and greatest."

AgX · Jan 7, 2015

bdial said:
What new product announcements?

I don't pay attention to just about any photographic product announcement, especially hardware.
I already know it's something that I don't need, can't use or can't afford.

Can't say it better.
Except that I'm curious about new film cameras, but that is not the topic of this thread.

Trask · Jan 7, 2015

Regarding Nikons, the last one I really paid any attention to was the F4...and absolutely no attention to any digital stuff from anyone, as I have no interest in owning one. Why waste brain power unnecessarily?

Stephen Schoof · Jan 7, 2015

Up until 2000 or so I was usually excited about the new products, even if I couldn't afford them. It was fun to think about ways I could incorporate a new lens or camera body in my current system and the new opportunities it might open up. Then the N80 came out with its inability to meter with manual lenses, and more and more of the new lenses were "G" types that wouldn't work on older bodies, and I kind of lost interest in the whole thing. To me Nikon's main appeal was the compatability between its modern and ancient products, and that disappeared. And then of course so did production of most film bodies.

RalphLambrecht · Jan 7, 2015

rayonline_nz said:
Currently I shoot Nikons. Do any of you get tierd of all the new product annoucements like lenses and flashes? To me it is like becoming like the smartphone industry but not 1 yearly.

Maybe part of that is I prefer to shoot a manual Nikon and I like to move to medium format. At the end of the day, it does give people more choice, might cost more money, people may have even more lenses to cater to each different shooting environment / job. For myself that is for non-income enjoyment it's spending thousands of dollars to make a couple of prints. I rather go overseas and use my current equipment.

don,tknow,it goes into spam

JimCee · Jan 7, 2015

I guess you could just ignore the new product announcements. Some, like those in the Nikonians group, follow the latest Nikon product announcements with fevered anticipation to satisfy their NAS. The digital SLR market is really one that pretty much demands new products to compete with other manufacturers (Canon, Sony, etc.).

Personally, I don't need another lens or flash, so I'm not particularly interested.

Jim

railwayman3 · Jan 7, 2015

In my early days of interest in photography (1970/80), I always studied new equipment and kit avidly, even stuff that I could never have afforded (there was fewer makers and less selection in the 1970's). After I built up a decent SLR kit and sufficient darkroom gear, I lost interest in any reading about new products of any description. I still enjoy reading about films, chemistry and processes here and elsewhere, but mostly keep to my tried-and-tested methods....will probably experiment more if I ever have time (along with the dozens of other things I want to do when I eventually retire!).

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 7, 2015

Just face it. All cameras are pretty good these days. But new products make people want to "upgrade". That's why there is what's called "feature creep" with added features with everything including cameras. With digital cameras, there are more and more megapixels, more and more menu items buried within more menus. Camera phones today take better pictures that expensive pro digital cameras a decade ago. The point of consumerism is to make us feel adequate by not having the latest.

pbromaghin · Jan 7, 2015

Having arrived at the edge of old-fartism, there really is no product of any kind that I am interested in buying, other than the everyday necessities or equipment and supplies for my hobbies. My wife, on the other hand, has a heavy interest in anything new that has an Apple logo on it.

DWThomas · Jan 7, 2015

Enh, the oligarchs have to pay for their mansions!

Myself, I am amazed at the proliferation of email advertizing. Maybe it's that we've just come through the holiday season, but it seems the companies which used to send maybe one or two a month are now doing more like one or two a day. I am baffled that anyone could think we need to be reminded of the availability of expensive new high tech toys on a daily basis.

Fortunately, the email package has a delete button. :alien:

Surely my curmudgeonly old self is not a "typical" consumer, as I typically keep and use stuff until it no longer works -- and then I may try to fix it myself if it's semi-reasonable to attempt. (I got 34 mowing seasons out of my first lawn tractor. Let's hear it for duct tape and baling wire!)

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 7, 2015

There is a positive side. I have family that are frequent upgraders. My wife and I got a Jumbotron plasma screen TV this Xmas from my brother that upgraded. Most of the stuff we buy is used. We buy what we need at the thrift store (charity shop) for a fraction of the cost. We try to buy what we need, not what we want.

benjiboy · Jan 7, 2015

The acquisitive capitalist society relies on re- inventing the wheel and making the consumer dissatisfied with what they have and replace it constantly new products and to keep the wheels of industry and commerce turning to keep people in jobs.. If your'e into Nikon I suggest you buy an F or an F 2 have it serviced, and use it for many years.

blansky · Jan 7, 2015

Rick A said:
You saying that you are tired of the claptrap and hyperbole of consumerism?

Exactly. We reach a point in life where we are tired of people constantly trying to sell us stuff.

Buy what you need, and tune the rest out as noise.

I record all my TV and FF through commercials. I mentally ignore all ads on the internet. I junk all spam. I block all telemarketers. And I stay the hell out of malls.

Damn, its nice and quiet around here.

scheimfluger_77 · Jan 7, 2015

DWThomas said:
Enh, the oligarchs have to pay for their mansions!

Myself, I am amazed at the proliferation of email advertizing. Maybe it's that we've just come through the holiday season, but it seems the companies which used to send maybe one or two a month are now doing more like one or two a day. I am baffled that anyone could think we need to be reminded of the availability of expensive new high tech toys on a daily basis.

Fortunately, the email package has a delete button. :alien:

Surely my curmudgeonly old self is not a "typical" consumer, as I typically keep and use stuff until it no longer works -- and then I may try to fix it myself if it's semi-reasonable to attempt. (I got 34 mowing seasons out of my first lawn tractor. Let's hear it for duct tape and baling wire!)

How did the sheep take to the duct tape?

DWThomas · Jan 7, 2015

scheimfluger_77 said:
How did the sheep take to the duct tape?

(Actually, according to the township, I'm short one acre for using "natural mowers.")

NB23 · Jan 7, 2015

Tired, you say?

Yes, the digi industry is pathetic to me. The users also are clueless victims thinking they're experts.
You should read their "recomendations" to new users (while they're new to the game theselves), it's scary stuff!

And the nomenclature!! Xt1, tx1, tx-1, t-x1, 1xt,1-xt,1x-t, then add a 2 in there.

And the lenses!
Look at this: nikon 200mm AF-S VR-2 G N D APO FX

Total bull.

You wanna know when i stopped discussing about photography with people? Sire, when most of them couldn't shoot a good picture to save their life. But especially when a guy came to me and started to enumerate all the letters in his lens' name while comparing it to another lenswhile also enumerating all the letters (af-s, vr-2, g, d, n, fx...). Looking at him spelling all that stuff was enough to turn me off for a lifetime.

I just can't stand all the bs.

blockend · Jan 7, 2015

I recently bought Trent Parke's book "Minutes to Midnight" and was blown away by it. In a digital era one of the best photographic books in a long time was shot on 35mm black and white film.

ic-racer · Jan 7, 2015

rayonline_nz said:
Currently I shoot Nikons. Do any of you get tierd of all the new product annoucements like lenses and flashes? To me it is like becoming like the smartphone industry but not 1 yearly.

Do I live in another world, I don't know what you talking about. Can you point me to any new film product announcement from Nikon. The F6 was announced years ago. I wish they would actually come up with some new stuff. The 28 1.8 is somewhat recent but what else for the F6???

rayonline_nz · Jan 7, 2015

ic-racer said:
Do I live in another world, I don't know what you talking about. Can you point me to any new product announcement from Nikon. The F6 was announced years ago. I wish they would actually come up with some new stuff. The 28 1.8 is somewhat recent but what else???

Nikon 300mm F4.

And of course, generally speaking the in demand stuff that general people get involved ie - the trinity trio's, while they have been replaced in the past that happens each couple of years. That said, the Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 should be in time for replacing soon too.

Sirius Glass · Jan 7, 2015

I listen to them the same way I listen to my ex wife. << insert guffaw here>>

Theo Sulphate · Jan 7, 2015

NB23 said:
And the nomenclature!! Xt1, tx1, tx-1, t-x1, 1xt,1-xt,1x-t, then add a 2 in there.

And the lenses! Look at this: nikon 200mm AF-S VR-2 G N D APO FX

Total bull.

First, a disclaimer: I own two new digital cameras among my vast collection.

However, nomenclature today is no more cryptic or meaningless than in the past: Mamiya Sekor XTL, Exakta VX, Nikon FTN, Canon FTb, Canon QL17 GIII, Minolta SRT, etc.

Today's Fuji X-T1 is probably the one digital camera most people here would actually like: real dials for shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO speed, and you can have as little or as much information you want in the viewfinder. It looks like a camera designed around the time of the F4. Oh, yes, I almost forgot the new Nikon Df, which is highly analogous to the F4 in terms of controls.

As for the lenses, your example was extreme, but many of those designations are useful and meaningful - especially if you put newer lenses on older Nikon film bodies.

As a camera geek, I take some pleasure in knowing I can understand and efficiently operate both film cameras and digital cameras. That task might not be so enjoyable for others.

New products - getting sick of them?

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