Ken Rockwell on Photo Economics 101

[venchka]

Like him. Hate him. Ken Rockwell makes for good reading on a wet cold day.

But wait - the initial asking price of 2008's Nikon D3X was so absurd that even Hitler came back through history out of astonishment.

Think about it: you could flush $8,000 down the toilet into a Nikon D3X. A D3X can't even take pictures until you've bought a lens and memory card, and charged the batteries.

For just $8,080, you could buy a brand-new Leica M7, and 28mm, 50mm f/2 and 90mm lenses. You'd have a complete Leica setup for the same price as a stripped Nikon body. You could pay $200 less and opt for the 50mm f/2.8 instead, or save $1,000 and not even bother with a 50mm lens. You also could pay a lot less finding these items used.

You could shoot with the Leica system for years.

In three years, the Nikon D4 should be announced. By then, the D3X body will have a resale value of about $775. Your Leica system? Well, it will still be cranking out great photos, and from what dangerous little I know of Leica prices, with inflation, the same system will probably be worth about $10,000 with inflation, not $775 like the D3X with digital rot.

Leica may be expensive, but it's a bargain compared to digital.

Ken Rockwell

Link to full article.....

http://kenrockwell.com/leica/cartier-bresson.htm

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Wayne

[crazeazn]

i actually like some of the advice ken gives.

[Tom]

Ken is all over the map, but I agree on the D3x. I think this was a big mistake on Nikon's part and that seems to be what I have heard from just about everyone. I'd rather have a 5D2 and some lenses than the D3x.

[lukehng]

Agree... D700/D3 was a great move .... This D3X is not, especially during tuff time.

Would like to see some Nikon fanboy defend this :)

[Scott1970]

I don't follow Nikon at all -- Why was the D3X so expensive? What market were they aiming for? Pro? Prosumer?

[90 5.0]

Originally Posted by Scott1970

I don't follow Nikon at all -- Why was the D3X so expensive? What market were they aiming for? Pro? Prosumer?

Pro, studio or landscape photog, any one who prints large and doesn't need speed or high iso more than max mpix.

Price was aimed directly at the 1dsmk111 which if memory serves was 8k msrp when announced.

[Murph]

Love him or hate him, you have to admit, he gets comments. In this case I think he is more correct than not, and this will infuriate many on the net.

[luis_relampago]

Price was aimed directly at the 1dsmk111 which if memory serves was 8k msrp when announced.

Monkey see, monkey do.

It was a different time when Canon came out with a full frame 21MP camera for those photographers that where switching to medium format (Hassy's or Mamiya's) do to MP count for massive prints. Canon did it first and I think they got away with it till now. The market is shifting to a more accessible way and with the Sony A900 and the Canon 5dII at 3K MRSP, Nikon chose a really bad time to try to pull this one out.

[Dobick]

Any chance that Nikon wanted the prestige of being the most expensive consumer camera on the market?

For those people that have more money than sense and walk into a camera store and ask to see the most expensive camera on the shelf, even though they have never used anything but a disposable in the past???

Maybe they are trying to give it a status symbol feel. Who knows, it may just work?

[90 5.0]

Originally Posted by luis_relampago

Monkey see, monkey do.

It was a different time when Canon came out with a full frame 21MP camera for those photographers that where switching to medium format (Hassy's or Mamiya's) do to MP count for massive prints. Canon did it first and I think they got away with it till now. The market is shifting to a more accessible way and with the Sony A900 and the Canon 5dII at 3K MRSP, Nikon chose a really bad time to try to pull this one out.

I agree, I was just stating there aim...

[SaSha]

Oh Ken and his Hitlerism's.

[photostein]

There is no way Nikon would market the camera if they didn't think the initial purchasers wouldn't buy enough to offset their R&D and other costs of production.

As with Canon, there are those that have to have the latest model.