Just sayin'

[Greg McCary]

Back when I joined PR in the town I live in you just didn't see people taking pictures anymore. Unless of course you were at a big event a wedding, graduation, ect. No even with cell phones, most phones didn't have cameras and if they did they it made really bad pictures.
When I finally went digital or could afford it. The E500 was my first DSLR. No one was taking serious landscape pictures in my area. I would go out and never, ever see anyone else taking pictures. The town was mine. I owned it. Sort of, lol
But now it's another place. Everywhere I go it seems someone has a camera around their neck. I really think as much as cheaper digital cameras have helped increase the population so has the cell phone camera. People got interested in it when they already had a camera on their phone and just wished they had a better camera. So they bought one. I think cell phone cameras help the market way more than hurt it. Now the compacts. Just like the Kodak Instamatic people are flocking to them for different reasons, size, ease of use, image quality, flexability ect.
I write this because the world has changed so quick. Like I said a few years back I never saw anyone carrying a camera unless they were taking pictures of their kids. Then it was a P&S or one of those were disposable film ones.
The funny thing is now I carry a compact with me for just going out and around town and leave the big gun at home unless I want to shoot a landscape or have a specific thing to do. I see a few here and there with there DSLRs but rarely see compacts.
Also I never thought I would find a compact that would do everything I needed but with my A77 out for repair I must admit the NEX 7 is close, very close. Not exactly there but if I had to I could live with it, easily. Just a luxury or two missing. Wireless flash issues and a better selection of nice glass in small size ect. My a77 is missed but I could have survived with only one or the other. But I needed a backup and right now I am glad I had one.
I think the paranoia from people getting their pictures taken of them in puplic is just due to the fact they are not use to so many cameras out there. Also privacy is just a bigger issue now that the world has gotten so small due to the internet, Facebook, Twitter ect.
This summer I was taking pictures of my daughter at the local fountian that kids play in and was chewed out by some guy who thought, wrongly, I was taking pictures of his kids. I honestly didn't even notice them. But after a minute of getting chewed out the guys dad showed up. I had worked with his dad for years and he calmed his hot headed son down.
Just sayin' the world has really changed in the 2000's.

[Franglais]

I live in a place (Paris) with a huge population of tourists and a wide variety of photographable events (even for the locals). Can't say I've noticed any change in the number of cameras:

- A lot of people have DSLR's, more than I would have imagined. Most of them have the basic kit lens which they use without a lens hood. As soon as I go out with even a fairly small pro body and a medium-size zoom with a lens hood I get respect. Add a cobra flash and I get awe
- I suspect that a lot of people are using the camera on their smartphone to do photos that would not have done a few years ago. The results go directly to Facebook. It's a whole new (very temporary) medium which never gets transformed into a print
- People with point-and-shoots still claim that they are hopeless with cameras. That hasn't changed
- Hybrids are just starting to appear but I haven't talked to many users yet

And I've stopped doing photos of children (I never found them very interesting anyway). Parents in France have become paranoid after all the tales in the newspapers. It isn't the case in all countries.

[Sebastian]

Greg,

You, and Kodak, directly witnessed the results of disruptive technologies.

[dbutler]

In Beijing, Materialism is rampant (though nowhere as bad as Shanghai or Hong Kong). Money is flashed left, right and center. The bigger the camera, the bigger the lens, the more prosperous you must be. I see tons of fairly expensive cameras constantly being hoisted around. But most folks are still taking snaps. Pity to have so much power in your hands, but not really know how to wield it. That said, there are some amazing photographers out here that I would love to work under.

on a side note, if there is anywhere where an A77 would be useful (with a short lens), it would be here. With up to 500 protests a day going on in Mainland China, the police are constantly fearful that we laowai are spying. So if we go around with our DSLRs, we are often stopped, and a few folks have had them taken away (and a couple of BBC guys last year got their butts kicked). I avoided all areas where there were protests simply because I couldn't afford to replace my D3X if it came down to it.

[dbutler]

In Beijing, Materialism is rampant (though nowhere as bad as Shanghai or Hong Kong). Money is flashed left, right and center. The bigger the camera, the bigger the lens, the more prosperous you must be. I see tons of fairly expensive cameras constantly being hoisted around. But most folks are still taking snaps. Pity to have so much power in your hands, but not really know how to wield it. That said, there are some amazing photographers out here that I would love to work under.

on a side note, if there is anywhere where an A77 would be useful (with a short lens), it would be here. With up to 500 protests a day going on in Mainland China, the police are constantly fearful that we laowai are spying. So if we go around with our DSLRs, we are often stopped, and a few folks have had them taken away (and a couple of BBC guys last year got their butts kicked). I avoided all areas where there were protests simply because I couldn't afford to replace my D3X if it came down to it.

[Greg McCary]

In Beijing, Materialism is rampant (though nowhere as bad as Shanghai or Hong Kong). Money is flashed left, right and center. The bigger the camera, the bigger the lens, the more prosperous you must be. I see tons of fairly expensive cameras constantly being hoisted around. But most folks are still taking snaps. Pity to have so much power in your hands, but not really know how to wield it. That said, there are some amazing photographers out here that I would love to work Ûunder.

on a side note, if there is anywhere where an A77 would be useful (with a short lens), it would be here. With up to 500 protests a day going on in Mainland China, the police are constantly fearful that we laowai are spying. So if we go around with our DSLRs, we are often stopped, and a few folks have had them taken away (and a couple of BBC guys last year got their butts kicked). I avoided all areas where there were protests simply because I couldn't afford to replace my D3X if it came down to it.

In my area the same holds true for trucks. Who has the biggest baddest 4x4. I can't imagine living where my camera was so policed.