William Robb wrote: > Digital users seem to need a course in rocket science to get pictures.
Well, maybe they just need a COURSE, period. Who's educating the public about how to use digital? The old paradigm is that the camera stores have knowledgeable salespeople who can serve as the front line for educating the consumer. That hardly works now that mail order and mass-market stores are #1 and #2 in terms of disseminating the devices. Plus, there are literally thousands of schools that teach photography, and about a zillion books that cover the basics (again, and again, and again...). There's no sort of infrastructure for teaching digital. Everybody uses different cameras, everybody uses different image-management programs, everybody uses different computers and picture formats and transportation media. Where are consumers supposed to go to learn this stuff? My local community college doesn't even teach a course in Photoshop because anyone who's enough of an expert in Photoshop to teach it can get a better job than being a teacher. The few books that are out are basically out of date before they see the inside of a bookstore, and because of the lack of standardization they assume an equipment set that few specific readers actually have. True, we have the internet, but that's like educating a sixth grader by dumping a set of encyclopaedias on his head. My Mom owns a digital camera and a six-year-old Macintosh, and she can no more find her way to a digital print than I can find my way to the Powerball jackpot. I've got more than a little sympathy for the digital neophyte. It wasn't all that easy for _me_, and I have just a tad more knowledge about making still pictures than the average bear. --Mike
