Re: OT: WAY OT - I'm Grumpy, Therefore I Blog

On Apr 6, 3:43 pm, Fred the Red Shirt <fredfigh...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 6, 1:49 pm, Tim Daneliuk <tun...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Charlie Self wrote:

The term 'prosumer' was coined
years ago to signify equipment that lives at the high end of
consumer and/or at the low end of pro gear. It is the best of
former and the entry level of the later.

I hope the term dies away quickly.

Equipment is neither amateur nor professional. Marketing
terms (by intent) don't convey the information about features
that a purchaser needs and merely cloud the issue.

E.g. what is an amateur table saw, a professional table saw,
a semi-professional table saw or a 'prosumer' table saw?

--

Lengthy.

Prosumer. The term was originally applied to what are now called
bridge cameras. (I agree: it made my skin crawl the first time I heard
it, and still does.) Oddly enough, no one makes them any more because
standard point & shoot digitals have caught up on some of the
features, and low end DSLRs have dropped in price to the point where
the "prosumer" is outmoded. I paid just under $1,000 about six or
seven years ago for a Minolta D7i 5 MP prosumer. I did two books with
that, and a couple of articles, but I was never happy with it--try
shooting a horse race with a camera that has the kind of shutter lag
P&S digitals are famous for. Car races are nearly impossible. So I
went to a Pentax *istD, not quite five years ago.It is a 6 MP, but can
turn out super 20x30 prints every time I get it right. I'm using that
and a K10D now, with a 10 MP sensor, which has been the main shooting
camera for my new book. I hope by year's end to see what Pentax's K30D
is like. Currently, they have a 14 MP K20D as top of the line. I don't
expect the new CMOS sensor to be changed, but there are a couple of
features I'd like to see improve before I drop another $1,500 or so on
a camera body (the K20D has just now dropped to about $1,150 at top
dealers; the K10D is under $600 in some places, which means I may buy
a back-up K10D body and sell my *istD).

For my type of pro use, the advantages of digital are obvious. I shoot
some vintage sports car races; I shoot many cars, vintage, hot rod and
custom; I shoot woodworking in several forms. I also fool around and
shoot pleasure shots around here, though not as often as I'd like. I
doubt I'll ever be able to justify anything larger than a 14 MP
camera. That's an APS-C sensor, not 35mm full frame. The 21 and 22 MP
full frame sensors are far too costly for my work, as are most of the
Nikon and Canon offerings, though some of their bodies would do better
shooting races than either of my Pentaxes. Of course, I was shooting
motocross back around '70 or '71 with a Canon F1 35mm, mostly using a
Canon 135mm lens, and Tri-X pushed to 800 on dull days. I used a motor
drive and bulk back with some frequency, and often shot more than 500
frames on a weekend. Now, I go to a race and shoot about 1,200 frames
a day. I don't have to endure the red glow and hypo stink of a
darkroom, making my already sore knees hurt worse. It takes me less
time to process and examine 2,000 shots on-screen than it ever came
close to doing developing 500 shots and printing out 14 or 15 contact
sheets, which then had to be examined minutely to see what was and
wasn't sharp--no AF in those days--and then have prints made, and on.
Now, I sit here, pop the images up on a viewing program, delete those
that didn't work, convert those that did to JPEGs (about a half second
process), and type in a short caption. That goes on a DVD or CD and
goes to the publisher. The mailing cost today for 50 photos to one
publisher is just about the same as the mailing cost back then was for
50 5x7 and 8x10 photos, but the envelope's a lot smaller and lighter.

Oh, yeah. If I blow a shot, get it a couple, three stops off, I can
work with it in Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. It can nearly always be
saved. Same if the color is off.

Another point: my lead camera (a K10D) offers ISO speeds from 100 to
1600. I can change 'film' speed with just a quick twitch or two, and
save some scenes that might otherwise not be possible at all in 35mm.
My *istD offers ISO speeds from 200 to 3200. Some of the more costly
new cameras are said to offer speeds upwards of ISO 25,000.
.