Well this post idea came after playing with the new, here in Europe,
Panasonic mobile phone with an integrated photo camera.A fun object to play
with, that alllows image capturing and sending it over the mobile phones
network. Good colors and focuses at 3 inches!
Currently it is the best of the lot, thou i did not care to ask for specs
(though the last one (Nokia) boast a 0.11 Mpixels resolution).
the issue i'm trying to raise is...
does the general public/consumer settle for ever decreasing photographic
quality?
i mean we have started with medioum and large format ages ago, and finally
we have settled for the 135 size, and while the camera analysis for the
digital crowd grows evermore, the average consumer does not care for more
the 3 MPixels and the occasional digital manipulation and sorting.
Actually, i think things have not changed much, 4x6" prints are still the
consumer standard - at least here in Greece - and the mass market is still
the captured moments photos. wonder how many digi camera owners have ever
accessed the special features that are in there.and i bet the digi consumer
does not even backups his photos
it is only that the medium has changed...
BUT
if we consumers settle for an ever decreasing photograph standard
(1-2 MPixels or even the 100s of Kpixels of the mobile cameras), and we feel
it is OK, how are we gonna apreciate and estimate a pros work?
Is there the chance that the average consumer will not care for quality in
capturing and printing, and furthermore will not be willing to pay for it?
Is there the chance that the PF pro members are paid not for their
proficiency to make artistic, worthy and presentable images, but just
because their clients cannot take the pics themselves or are just
questioning their own abilities and go for a paid for pro, that will
absolutely not loose frames or even the whole film.
i was observing the "photographic" efforts of a fellow female agronomist
while we were walking throu a already photographicaly familiar to me
scenery, and what i extrapolated was that the crowd either cannot take any
good photos, so will ask someone more proficient (obvioulsy) to, or that
there are those that will insist to fool and flatter themselves (a good
Greek word for it is: vavkalizete) and boast for their assumed photographic
abilities.
this cannot be news to us, there are all kind of people around, hence all
kinds of photographic attitudes and tastes, but still it was always the mass
that formed the market.
returning to the original question:
will marketing lower quality gadgets as "good to buy, 'cos the are fun"
effectively lower our living standards?
will good quality sometime loose its ground?
and what about the real artistic quality in a picture? is it loosing ground
itself, or had never any ground to stand to in real life?
my feelings are mixed...I feel that things do not change that drastically as
it appears, only the medium and apprearences change, but i know for a fact
that civilizations have their ups and owns, and i am scared we may be
running down down down....
so what do YOU think?
cheers, kostas
===============================================
so... no matter what, CHEER UP MY FRIENDS! Life is too precious to jump the
other side of the fence...
kostas papakotas / clenched teeth photography
http://groups.msn.com/clenchedteethphotography/home.html
'COS SOMETIMES IT IS BETTER WITH CLENCHED TEETH!
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