Why are new cameras and lenses so darned expensive?
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Hi folks. My friend Dani who is a photographer in Uruguay posted this question to me recently. It’s a good question that bears some conversation. Let’s start by considering some factors impacting photographers and photography in general.
The volume of photographic work in the market has been negatively impacted by COVID-19 restrictions
Folks who enjoy photography as a hobby may have been impacted economically by the global pandemic
Non-smartphone image capture is on a steep slide down
There are fewer brick and mortar stores with either inventory or competent staff
Product lifecycles are shortening because makers need/want buyers to upgrade to the newest and coolest
Product makers are in at best challenging financial states and at worst leaving the business entirely
Online selling is the defacto standard and more open to grey marketeering and white box breakup
Makers have engaged in price fixing via Minimum Advertise Price (MAP) for years
Smaller volumes for makers would mean less profitability
A reduction in volume increases scarcity and thus higher prices
Effective marketing has convinced existing users that they need/want a newer camera
Most owners of non-smartphone cameras are not using the camera that they own to anywhere near its potential
Powerful messaging exists that it is the camera that makes the image, not the photographer
It is perfectly fair to have an opinion that is contrary to these facts, so long one is ok with faking reality.
Will the newest hottest whatsit make a better photograph? Accurately it will not. It may provide tools that make things easier for the photographer to get a decent capture, including improved autofocus response, better handling of camera shake, better low light or bright light performance and greater dynamic range. These are fine things, but don’t make the image better, all the bullshit about AI software notwithstanding. Photography is a creative art that needs the human eye and brain. Even snapshotting, which I do not consider to be a creative pursuit needs the human.
So in the face of all these facts, why are new cameras and lenses so expensive, even more than the very usable cameras that they replace?
It all comes down to supply and demand. If the availability of a product is greater than its demand, then there is no sense of urgency to buy right now. If a maker limits market availability, through whatever means, be that poor forecasting, or intentional scarcity, demand goes up. This means buyers are willing to pay more money to get the new thing right now, whether it will make a difference or not. Makers successfully appeal to the egos of the buyer so that buyer will have a “better” tool than the next person.
We know that a skilled photographer can make a compelling image with pretty much any device but as the level of skill diminishes, more dependency is placed on automation and algorithms. Those with lesser skill, and perhaps no real desire to improve, outnumber the true creatives by orders of magnitude. Thus makers focus on the largest possible market with new tech in the hopes to convince the buyer that he or she is going to get better results with the newest hottest, which will be replaced by something newer and hotter in a short time.
Makers have also figured out that social media has made “stars” of myriad image makers. Some are truly talented such as Moose Peterson and Joe McNally. They are the exception as the majority of these stars are vacuous incompetents with a propensity to go about partially disrobed, or by convincing viewers that the only way to achieve true creativity is to buy someone else’s presets and slather them over one’s own images to make them “professional”. That this is a bigger lie than the made up statistics reported every day proves to be immaterial in many minds.
Why do the real stars do this? Because it generates income. If a really awesome creative photographer says that he or she accomplished this amazing product using an XYZ camera and ABC lens, that’s more than sufficient for many buyers. The maker makes money and can pay the professional to be one of their advertising modes. I do not blame the pros for taking the coin. They have businesses to run. Unfortunately many buyers miss that no matter what gear that they use, they will never make images like a Joe McNally, specifically because none of those buyers ARE Joe McNally. Talent and skill make an artist. Did anyone ask Rembrandt what kind of brushes he used? Were he alive today, you can be sure that there would ads and videos and forums where there would be ad nauseum bleating out what brush Rembrandt was using this week.
Price fixing, and let’s be clear, that is what MAP is, is a method to stop discounting, which reduces seller margins and impacts the seller’s buying power from the maker. The maker does not make more money per unit, but increases revenue by preventing a seller from making a discounting decision.
Makers do get pricing wrong. In the past, they would adjust pricing down after R&D expenses were recovered, typically in the first year. If they over forecasted sales, we would see a “special” often at their fiscal year ends to convert aging inventory into cash. Such events benefit both makers and buyers, less so sellers, but are becoming rarer as makers more aggressively leverage the principle of scarcity.
Let me give you a non-photographic example. There is a company in the United States called AnalogMan that makes guitar effects pedals. The company is small and very quality driven so every pedal is hand built. One of their pedals called the King of Tone has a wait list of nearly two years. Unlike most makers, AnalogMan has not priced this pedal into the stratosphere. It’s actually quite an excellent deal for the deliverable. However even though AnalogMan limits purchases of more than one unit at a time and on a time interval, it is common to find King of Tone pedals on the musical sales service Reverb being sold as new for FOUR TIMES what AnalogMan charges directly. How does this work? Because the pedals are scarce and hard to get and this means that some buyers will go beyond logic to get one.
The recently announced Canon R6 is now backordered. Canon is very smart when it comes to marketing. Did they mis-forecast this badly? I do not believe that they did. I believe that they are using the principle of scarcity to increase prepaid orders and to encourage buyers to order right now even they do not need the camera right now. Good for Canon and for those who cannot balance need/want, serves them right. Does the R6 have nice features? I’ve never seen one so cannot comment but reviewers say it is. Many reviewers are entertained and provided equipment for review at no cost and will not urinate into the wind blowing back at the makers, lest they be cut off. This has happened when a reviewer did not say “best ever” in a review. If you assume all reviews are fully independent you are fooling yourself and perhaps should stop. In the case of the R6, they are available on resale sites right now for more than the MAP assigned price. Some idiot will pay that price and justify the scarcity model and the higher MAP price to Canon. The maker serves its shareholders, not you or I. Believing otherwise is delusional.
So why are prices so high? Because the makers can make them so and are supported by buyers who continue to buy even at prices far beyond the value return of the device. This is not new. A Rolls Royce is a lovely automobile, but is it completely better than another Luxo barge? Technically no, but that is irrelevant if the buyer thinks that it is.
In conclusion, expensive is defined in the mind (one hopes) of the potential buyer and in a logical world would be based on how the new purchase helps the creative be better and drive more satisfaction or revenue. The world however, you may have noticed, is a very great distance from logical.
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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.
