You're in a twisty maze of DSLRs...
I watch with amusement as the Internet forums all explode once again with "I'm switching" messages and thinly veiled pixel envy. In recent months we've gone ballistic for Canon, now for Nikon. Seems like we go through this with every camera launch, so it's time for action from the TSA (no, not that TSA, but rather Thom's Sage Advice squad).
Just a reminder: we've been going at this Product-X-was-introduced-I'm-going-to-switch-to-it game all the way back into late 1980's with digital cameras (anyone remember the Sony Mavica?). Remember, we're dealing with consumer high tech electronics companies, and those companies have one goal in life: to produce a constant stream of somewhat better products that'll keep the current users upgrading every so often and that will eventually attract every holdout by answering their last feature request, requirement, or price point. That's the only way to grow a consumer high tech electronics business, actually. It's one of the reasons why I've harped time and again on Nikon's marketing: it isn't so much the product as the marketing messages that drive demand. If you don't get better at marketing as you roll more and more products out the door, you'll eventually fail, much like a Supernova collapsing back on itself.
I'll repeat something I've written before: as a potential consumer you either need something or want something. Knowing which of those is driving your decision is important. Product marketing's job at a high tech company is to convince some of you that you want the latest and greatest gizmo, and convince the rest of you that its only the latest and greatest that meets your needs. Wants and needs, remember that. There will be a quiz later.
So let's get started. I'm going to break down potential buyers into three basic categories. Since this is a Nikon-specific site, I'll use Nikon users as my examples, but this same logic can be applied to other users, too; just substitute the C word for the N word and the appropriate model names where necessary (or O or S or whatever other brand you might be a fan of).
Group 1: The Unconverted
Believe it or not, there are a large number of folk with Nikon film bodies who've been holding off on going digital. The emails I get from them usually go along the lines of "when Nikon makes a full frame digital camera that uses all my old lenses..." or "I want something simple and reliable like my FM2n..."
How to recognize you're in this group: You don't have a DSLR! (Many of you have a digital compact to play with, though.)
How to decide about a new camera: You had a reason for not jumping on board (for many it was about full frame or legacy lenses), so make sure you know what that reason was and evaluate the new cameras to see whether they have the feature/performance you were waiting for.
What you need to watch out for: You may be equivocating unnecessarily. Many of us early adopters have been producing very nice 13x19" prints for almost a decade now. Sports Illustrated has been running double-truck (two-page) images from DSLRs this entire century (and you didn't notice the switch). The water is just fine; stick your toe in and you'll see.
Group 2: The Twitchers and Switchers
Every time a new DSLR comes out with a feature or with performance their current one doesn't have, it's time to get out the credit card and buy it. It doesn't matter if this means selling all their current equipment and lenses and switching teams. The grass is greener on the other side of the pixels. These people have been convinced that the equipment is more important than the photographs at some point in time. I say that because switching gear, even within a single company's product line, means that you're running into cognitive dissonances when you're trying to take a picture. One of the critical aspects of photography is timing. If even one control slows you down even one smidgen of a moment, you miss the optimal picture. How is that made better by "lower noise" or "more dynamic range" or "more megapixels?"
The Twitcher/Switcher will argue with me on that last point, by the way (and it's one way to recognize you are one, see below). But if you think about it seriously for a moment, you'll note that you shot with the same film SLR for years and years. If a new film came out, it didn't mean re-learning how to handle the camera. The controls didn't move because you switched from Kodachrome to Velvia. The serious Twitcher/Switcher will tell me that they're a fast learner, and any slowdown is only temporary. I'd believe them if they only switched once. But they keep switching, meaning that they're in a constant state of relearning.
How to recognize you're in this group: many symptoms exist, but the major ones are switching brands because of a single feature or performance measurement, owning more than one brand simultaneously, and purchase of every new DSLR that comes out (especially if you justify that with "it'll make my photos better").
How to decide about a new camera: A camera is only a tool. You need to be serious about your evaluation of what it is you need. If you need a different tool, then by all means you should get it. Where most Twitchers and Switchers get off track is that they don't evaluate their work objectively and let outside opinions or messages get in the way of reason. "The stock agencies won't take 6mp images" or "Other wedding photographers have less noise in their images." That first statement is untrue and the second statement misses the point. Sure, stock agencies prefer larger sizes because they can make more money off them, but if you're going to use that reasoning, you should be shooting with the new Hasselblad or the Mamiya ZD. Plenty of stock sales are made with average cameras, as it's the picture that counts, not the camera. And when you start making comparisons with other photographers, you need to be careful. You aren't the other photographer. You may charge less. You may have a totally different style that actually benefits from noise (or you may prefer to shoot with full control of the lighting). You need to evaluate from your customer's viewpoint, but not take that for gospel (customers are as often wrong as they are right).
What you need to watch out for: You're spending too much time in acquisition and learning mode. If you're earning a living off of photography, you should be spending most of your time in selling mode, and any good salesman can tell you that it doesn't matter much what you're selling, but how you're selling it. Get off the camera-of-the-quarter bandwagon.
Group 3: The Upgraders
You're serious about photography, but not overly concerned about equipment. Thus, you want to make sure that your tools are capable and current but aren't obsessed with having the latest and greatest. Thus, you look at your chosen maker's equipment offerings as they're announced, but you probably would prefer to budget upgrades every so often rather than at the maker's whims. Thus, you might want to upgrade every three years, while the manufacturers are upgrading models every eighteen months (on the consumer side) and there's something being announced every six months or so (Nikon in the last four years has had two, four, three, and three new DSLRs, for a total of 12 new models to consider).
How to recognize you're in this group: you've got a budget and a timetable. You've budgeted X dollars a year, and you've allocated that to getting some new lenses and accessories this year and maybe a new body next year. If you've already done one or more cycles this way, you really should be able to recognize that you're in this group!
How to decide about a new camera: The joy is that you don't have to decide right now (unless the alarm went off on your Upgrade Calendar). Let Nikon introduce a dozen more models, you're not going to be ready to buy until late 2008 or early 2009 or whenever you've allocated for that to happen. Indeed, you treat the whole process pretty much the way you treat buying a new car every few years: you casually keep track of what's going on with products until the day of trade-in comes and then you get serious and investigate thoroughly.
What you need to watch out for: Don't get distracted by marketing messages. Yes, 12 is more than 6. Yes, anti-mosquito armor sounds nice. (I'm amused about how many people are so enamored that Nikon put an electronic bubble level on the D3; nice feature, sure, but a bubble level costs US$7 to add to any DSLR you already have. Get real about features, folks.)
You're Known to Marketers
If you've been reading carefully, you'll note that Group 1 is late adopters, Group 2 is early adopters, and Group 3 is the mass of the market. The high tech companies (and Nikon) know that. They actually design products with things that should appeal to each of those groups. Let's look at the D3:
- FX (full frame) appeals to the late adopters. They had legacy lenses and they wanted them to work the way they used to. Moreover, they wanted something that made a statement like the old F3 or FM2n or F4. Note the way that Nikon linked to the F5 and D1 announcements and the words "The D3 provides high picture quality and high-speed image-processing capability that have never been realized with conventional digital SLRs." Nikon is trying to send a message to the late adopters: your time has come.
- ISO 25600 appeals to the early adopters. Nikon has positioned any number of aspects of the D3 as being beyond that of the competition, and the Twitchers/Switchers get excited by those things. Words like "Even in dark conditions in which satisfactory results were almost impossible to obtain before, high-quality pictures can be taken" are targeting this group, and Nikon's usual acronym parade has transformed into marketing babble like EXPEED, Scene Recognition System, Picture Control System, and Active D-Lighting. Hey, your current camera doesn't have any of those, does it? Switch now!
- The FX/DX dichotomy appeals to the upgraders (who may have DX lenses). Here Nikon uses sentences like "To deal with this situation, we have developed the D3 as the first digital SLR that features Nikon FX format to meet the requirements of customers in a flexible way." Still using DX lenses and have a DX backup camera? Well, you can still shoot that way if you upgrade to our most flexible new camera. Heck, the D300 is a blatant attempt to win you over if you don't need FX and just want to upgrade to the latest and greatest DX camera.
I do find it reassuring that Nikon seems to have finally upped their marketing game a bit (only a bit--there is a still much they need to do). But now that they have (and because the other two key competitors Sony and Canon are great marketers) you need to realize that marketing messages can distract you into buying what and when you don't want. Get used to that, it's only going to get worse.
The Quiz
1. Are you buying because you need it or want it?
2. Are you Unconverted, a Twitcher/Switcher, or an Upgrader?
3. Do you really need more help from me? ;~)
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