[Note: The Online Photographer's M.C., majordomo, and Chief Bottlewasher, Mike J., just had his eye operated on and is recuperating. Big rule during recovery: no screens, no reading, lie flat and stare at the ceiling. He got an Echo and is listening to Audible books! Meanwhile, for your amusement and reflection, a few blasts from the past. One will be published every day while Mike's away.]
-
Marketing lenses is a little like marketing beer. Image—pun not intended—is everything.
Independent research shows that most beer drinkers buy the brands they do because of what they believe other people will think of them. Thus, advertising and brand identity become extremely important. The differences between brands of beer are often subtle, and depend less on a greater degree of quality than simply that, well, they're different. Connoisseurs of good beer do exist, who can discern the differences between good brands fairly easily; however, they often prefer brands that the average consumer never hears of. For the non-connoisseur, as long as the beer he's chosen is acceptably fashionable and doesn't taste downright bad, he or she could actually care less which brand is actually "best."
The connisseurship of camera lenses is somewhat similar. Many photographers just want to take pictures, and they don't particularly care which brand of lens they use—so long as their friends don't scorn them for their choice, and they aren't actually confronted with evidence of poor quality in their work. Others, however, switch from one lens to another in a fanatical pursuit of the absolute latest and best, when in fact they wouldn't really be able to tell the difference between the results in a double blind test. Value and practicality, on one hand, and snob appeal on the other, certainly have a great deal of influence over what people buy and use. Reputation, and the perception of quality, is perhaps more important to most consumers than actual performance. Let's face it: Among good manufacturers, the differences between premium lenses are subtle. Most lenses are adequately good these days, in the same way the most beers taste pretty much the same. Despite this, people have strong loyalties and prejudices about the matter and will swear by one marque while needlessly denigrating others.
—MJ, from the article "Top Optics," Camera &
Darkroom magazine, March 1992, p. 62
Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
Amazon.com • Amazon UK • Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany • B&H Photo • Adorama
(Sorry! There are no comments this week—the moderator is also stuck supine staring at the ceiling.)
Comments