jonnyapple said:
I was remembering this discussion when I read the most recent post on Thom Hogan's site. Here's an email someone named Musa from Kenya sent him:
"I have perhaps a different outlook from many of your readers, since I live in Kenya. Even most professionals here cannot afford some of the cameras that your readers are apparently tired of - most shoot on Canon Rebels or Nikon D40's. I am privileged in that up to a few weeks ago I was the proud owner of a D200, recently upgraded to a D300. It blows my mind that someone would dream of whining about the D300 - it's absolutely fabulous. and 3 weeks ago, I felt the same about the D200. Maybe if they knew what others used they would appreciate what they had and actually get out there and take some pictures instead of blaming the problem on their equipment. As the Swahili proverb goes 'Mtu asiyejua kucheza dansi analalamika kwamba bendi haijui kucheza muziki' - meaning that 'a person who doesn't know how to dance blames the band.'"
A little NAS intervention for the new updates coming. ;-)
really interesting and great perspective, thanks for sharing!
I look at this issue though as two separate issues really, and I'm not sure if I have a problem with any of it.
The first being the technolust. This of course extends are outside of cameras and to nearly any aspect of consumer life. "We" want things, and we want "new" things, and we want "cool" things, and things that do "it" "better". A major part of what you are describing is that. And yes from one perspective this is annoying, and childish. From another perspective however, this is what drives inovation and the creation of new products. If people didn't have this need (justified or not) for consuming new products (dslrs or not) we wouldn't have anything near what we have today. Which brings me to point two...
Being happy with what you have, which is a lot of what you touched on and what you posted spoke about as well. There is a huge distinction to be made here. Wanting more and disregarding what you have, vs Wanting more but being happy with what you have as well. I would venture to guess that 95% of the people here (and elsewhere on the net) who post about feature x, or camera y, are simultaneously very happy with what they have now as well, even if they talk a lot about wanting more.
what you mentioned though Jonny, about "e.g., "I can't believe Nikon still hasn't equaled Canon's HD video!")" , that one really does get on my nerves.
Let's say you have a Wrench (bear with me), you can do a lot with a wrench. Tighten stuff, bend stuff, unscrew things, and if you are in a pinch, use it like a hammer to hammer things. The hammer is a fantastic tool. That being said though I don't see anything wrong with wanting to expand your toolbox. Cameras these days are very much multifaceted machines, and wanting each aspect of them to perform admirably, is fine in my books, even complaining about it seems ok to me. unwarranted maybe, but fine in my books.
