Hi William, >Well, no, Cotty. Thats not true at all. The ones that know >diddly squat are also the ones shooting 25kb files that they >want to get 4R prints out of.
Yes. >They don't want to drop them off at the lab, they don't want to >leave their expensive memory card with us, as the camera doesn't >work well without it, and they don't want to buy another one. It >takes us quite a while to download images from the card to our >printer, and if there happens to be several people wanting the >same service at the same time, the lineups get rather tense. I understand. >I don't even want to talk about the idiots that figure they can >come back a couple of weeks later and expect that we still have >their original file on our hard drive, and can we reprint it >please? Yup. >Sorry sir, we don't store em, and you overwrote your card? Well, >we do have a digital copyprint station, and hpefully, it won't >alias on your digital print. I'm with you. >Digital is completely different. You can't go bad a hundred and >twenty years and compare what was done then to what was done >now. Modern consumers have a completely different mindset. They >are no longer even pretending to be self sufficient. They are no >longer willing to take on the responsibility of learning the >rules of the technology they are using. Hmmm, debatable. >They are expecting (demanding) digital imaging to be as easy, or >easier than film, and are also demanding that the quality be >significanly better, because the cost of admission is 2 to 3 >times higher, and the operating costs and price per print is >significantly higher. Yes, I agree - as it stands now. >When they don't get their way because the product is just plain >inherently inferior at doing what it ti supposed to do, they >tend to lash out at the messenger. Hence the dogs ;-) >That would be the people who make their pictures for them. >It's no wonder we aren't sympathetic to them. I understand where your coming from and I do concur - as the situation is right now. What I am saying is that if the situation were changed, if the scenarios played out differently so that anyone taking digital pics could drop of a Digital Film module at the supermarket - heck, even be given another one in exchange - then life for the labs might be a whole lot easier. Here's how: The manufacturer makes a camera that is foolproof. You can't change things like file sizes on it - not in the conventional sense. You might have 2 or 3 ISO settings, 100, 400, 800, perhaps marked a sunny, cloudy, and indoors (and the relevant white balance attached), and that's it! Don't let them be able to fiddle with things. Keep it so simple that any lab anywhere in the world will know just by looking at the markings on the Digital Film module exactly what lies inside: a finite number of images that are known to be able to reproduce accordingly onto paper to a reasonable specification. Sure module will know which camera it is in, and accordingly how many pics it can store - the snapper looks on the back of his camera and sees that it only holds 24 pics, while in his wife's camera it holds 48. He's got a better camera and knows the fewer the pics on the module, the slightly better the quality he'll get. But he's not fussed, as the prints from his wife's camera are perfectly good. She just can't get hers blown up as well as he can on his. The point I am trying to make (in a very roundabout way ;-) is that it all needs to be made foolproof and secure from the interference of the users!!! Once that happens, the confusion will subside, things will settle down and people will understand the concept of taking pics using a digital camera and dropping them off to be processed and printed, just as they used to. Those that want to get their hands dirty and do it themselves will anyway. Just the basic family snapper - 90 percent (or whatever) of the population that uses cameras. Surely this must be something to which the foto industry aspires? Or do you think they are quite happy to leave things the way they are, in a confusing mess? They may have good reason to.... Appreciate your thoughts, Bill. Cheers, Cotty ____________________________________ Free UK Macintosh Classified Ads at http://www.macads.co.uk/ ____________________________________ Oh, swipe me! He paints with light! http://www.macads.co.uk/snaps/ ____________________________________
