Is Al Kaplan going Digital?

[les_lammers]

Hang in there Al. We're rootin' for ya. I went digital with a Pentax

43WR a water resistant 4 MP P&S. It can be dunked but not operated under water. I fish from a kayak and it is great for that and general fun snaps. It's not the cats ass but adequate for my purposes. $300 on the bay and $100 more for a 512MB card and rechargable batteries.

[dennis_couvillion]

"Appears the banks think they last longer these days.'

 

Maybe you're right about that... maybe it's because they can fix'em easier by just replacing whole units instead of trying to repair major parts.

 

What I had read one time, though, was that there was a trend of more and more people now buying late model used cars instead of new ones. They depreciate so much early on that you can get deals on one or two year old cars. If more people are buying late model cars, that tells me that there must be an available supply of late model cars. That tells me that some people must be changing cars every year or two... or it could be they simply couldn't make the payments on them.

 

Dennis

[Spearhead]

Get some facts instead of coming up with things out of your head.

 

Here's a hint. Statistics on the growth of leasing. They're out there, if you want to have facts. Most people turn over the car at the end of the lease rather than pay a lump sum. Has nothing to do with the quality of the vehicle Get some facts.

[kevin_mcdonald1]

Al,

 

my mother has had the same troubles since high school, and has been on low-level meds all of her adult life.

 

She also suffers from the same short-term to long-term memory conversion issue. She returned to college as an adult (when I was in college), to try to get an associate degree. I tutored her in math, and she did fine for each quiz and test. BUT, if exams were comprehensive (i.e. covering the entire semester), she had to go back and re-learn ALL of it. Short term memory was ok, she ace'd tests on current material; conversion to long term, no way.

 

The only approach that we eventually found to work was to litterally study everything as the semester went on. Then, surprisingly, she DID retain it (mostly) at the end.

 

Was it a 'math' issue? Nope, she was a book-keeper - and a darned good one. Numbers were her work.

 

The moral?? Do it again and again and again and again and again... it might become long term memory eventually.

 

Good luck.

[al_kaplan1]

Dennis, one minute you're begging a source of inexpensive 16 x 20 trays and the next you're complaining that one year old cars are too cheap. Or were you complaining that new ones were too expensive? I thought that this thread started out as a discussion on digital and now I know more than I needed to about canvas covered canoes, and I'm thinking "Oh crap, what's that 12 ft. Penn Yan canvas covered varnished wood Cartopper worth today, the one I bought used for $120 in '65 and sold for about the same in '73?" You're just trying to get me upset and confused! You probably heard rumors about how much money I pay certain other people here to confuse me and insult me! Just for that I'm gonna charge you a buck apiece for those 16x20 trays!

[eliot_rosen]

Listen to Jeff. He's an expert on everything from photography to who can post comments in the Leica forum to cell phone use and digital camera use in developing nations. He knows it all and is only too happy to tell it to you.

[dennis_couvillion]

I know about leasing. What they try to put you in, though, is a longer lease, like three to six years.

 

But what's the argument? So what if cars are not he best example of a disposable goods mindset. Cars are modular nowadays and they replace entire parts and systems instead of repairing them like they used to. The fact that we have become more oriented towards disposbale products I don't think is disputed by any facts or expert opinions. Just in my lifetime people used to wash cloth diapers; milk bottles and coke bottles were re-fillable; disposable razors even weren't around. You don't hear about people repairing 5 or 10 year old television sets. They buy new ones. Cheaper modern materials, cheaper foreign labor and people on the go have made some disposable things more practical. That's all I was saying. Modern technology has also advanced (and continues advancing) at such a rapid pace some things, particularly electronics, become obsolete quicker. People tend to replace them with newer, improved models. And many products are not made as durable as they used to be. It's just different than it used to be... that's all I was saying. So when you see something like a 45 year old Leica M3 overhauled and still in use it's kind of an anomoly. Again, I'm not saying that's good or bad (although I kinda like it)... it just is what it is.

 

Dennis

[dennis_couvillion]

Al, at least I know why you're still talking to some people here. You just can't remember all the sh*t they've said. ;>)

 

Help me out here, don't you think things are more disposable nowadays? Remember when people would replace the picture tube in their TV if it went bad. Sh*t, now if their TV goes bad they're down at Circuit City in a flash picking out a wide screen something or other HD set. Things aren't like they used to be, Al. Why I remember when we had to walk twelve miles to school in the snow and... nevermind. ;>)

[Spearhead]

<i>Listen to Jeff.</i><p>

 

Maybe you never heard of google, Eliot. It's very easy to get <i>facts</i> on the internet, instead of making things up. There's still no backup for much of what is said on here, some of which, as I have pointed out, is obviously wrong. It doesn't take being an expert on anything except research, and that isn't difficult. Most people don't take the time to find out facts, it's easier to act like they know. I don't talk about things I don't directly know or haven't researched. <p>

 

Instead, people like you and Dennis attack me rather than the information. Much, much easier when you don't do the research.

[kevin m.]

"...or it could be they simply couldn't make the payments on them."

<p>

Dennis is right. It's called a "give up." A vehicle owner turns his car over to a middleman, then reports the vehicle stolen to police and his insurance company. It's such a problem in the NYC metro area that the NYPD have conducted sting operations and outlying areas have set up special offices to deal with the increase in fraud.

<p>

<i>Phony automobile insurance theft claims resulting from automobile "give up" schemes and stolen cars remains a priority for the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor," said Prosecutor Gooden Brown. "It is clear that too many people are willing to lie to government officials and to insurance companies claiming that their car were stolen in order to avoid repair bills or expensive end-of-lease payments..."</i>

<p>

Here's a <a href= http://www.njinsurancefraud.org/release/2004/april/retamar0419.htm>link</a> to the article.

[eliot_rosen]

Jeff. The point I was trying to make was about the nasty way you reply to people in trying to make your point, not about the correctness of the content.

[edmo]

OK, cars are out, canoes are out...what the hell are we gonna use as an analogy?

[dennis_couvillion]

Jeff, calm down. I never attacked you. We were just having a discussion here. Some things are not succeptible to absolute empirical proof. Statistics can be made to stand up and whistle "Dixie" if you like. I think the initial points I made were valid. (Although I can't remember what they were... maybe I have Al Kaplan's disease.) ;>)

 

Just relax, I don't think Grant and I were in total disagreement but just saying similar things differently. I also made it extremely clear that I wasn't passing judgment on any trend or minset... that they simply are what they are. Relax, man... life's too short for all this bullsh*t.

 

Dennis

[stephen_w.]

My friend gave me his digicam a few years ago after he "upgraded". I don't remember where I put it. I am currently not going the digital camera route, although, I did just pick-up a CD from Walgreen's so I could e-mail some pic's, first steps. I spend enough time in front of computers and DCS's (Distributed Control Systems), and SCADA and PLC (don't ask) screens.

 

Al,

 

Is the drug called Dilantin (anti-seizure med)? My Doctor gave me a perscription for it after my brain tumor was removed in 1993 (80% mortality within five years). I checked myself out of the hospital after each operation (two some weeks apart) and didn't even fill it. No seizures, yet. Fight it, Al. Don't take sh*t, don't kiss a$$, be yourself, and live each day as if were your last.

[dennis_couvillion]

"Unless it's in times of economic crunch people don't keep their cars as long as they used to."

 

If I was not entirely correct on this particular statement then I am extremely sorry and apologize profusely. However, that's not a major deal for the point I was making... that we now live in a society with a much more disposable mentality... even with cars because they are now modularly built, and parts and sytems are thrown away and replaced rather than being repaired. And in the area of electronics, technology is advancing so rapidly that what you buy today may be obsolete tomorrow (figuratively speaking, of course) and people tend to replace rather than repair things. There...

[Uhooru]

Trevor, interesting, but what's the cost of 8 X 10 or 11 X 14 and up? It costs me several dollars for a 11 x 14 Noritsu print. But I also feel that using archival papers on the Epson 2200 I'm getting prints good enough that if I felt the photo had merit and someone wanted to buy my prints, I would not have a problem selling. But it takes some work to get the prints dialed in to that level of quality that I would feel comfortable doing it. The paper for 81/2 by 11 is over a dollar a sheet up to $2 per sheet, plus the ink and processing time. It will take me generally several (wide variance, 4 - 8 enhanced matts before going over to the final fine art paper, and then I usually have those by the 2nd or third print at the most, except for some wierd tough one. Its costing about 10-15 bucks a print, at least for the 1st one as a very rough average. I'm just not sure at the end of the day, that the convenience of digital lays in its costs savings if you are printing bigger than 3 x 5s or 4x6's.

[al_kaplan1]

Well Gentlemen, and a Lady or two, that was fun! Thanks for all your well wishes and emails. Yup, it's cheaper to buy a brand new TV than it used to be to get a picture tube replaced. Better picture, better sound to boot. Automobiles are better today, all true. No argument there on my part. Let's all try to get along a bit better, share and trade information, and be friendly with one another.

[jason]

I think Digital Imaging is here to stay. Like wars, famines and broken promises.I am a photographer. The image is everything.

I mostly use Leicas.One has passed 6,500 rolls through! It ain't that much since 1967.I also read about digital.My main objection is the look of the prints and on most cameras, the awful delay in firing.

I do actually have CD's scanned for internet use, for certain pro jobs. My PC at home cannot yet accept the scanner.

Al, sorry about the memory thing. It's plain lousy. I have to carry all the phone numbers I need. I cannot remember even my home number!

I can remember passages from books etc.It is numbers only!

[gerry_szarek]

Al, for TV if you replace a 10 year old TV with a similar sized new one (tube variety), your savings in energy (assuming it's on a normal 6 hours per day) will pay for itself in 4 years or so.

 

I have a friend who had seizure it took him 2 years to recover, the meds were nasty, he is finally off of them.

[brambor]

Al, digital might after all be a good thing for you. Someone can set it up so that you just plug a cable into it and on pops a dialog box asking to copy the images to a directory. You won't have to do any scanning etc and perhaps you'll get a hang of some basic image editing keystrokes that could be yellow stickied on your monitor. Something like ctrl-shift-L, ctrl-shift-alt-L and ctrl-shift-B might be all you need for most images. That will adjust the levels, contrast and the color and off you go.

[travis1]

AL, so are you in or out?

[kelly_flanigan1]

AL; I get 2 issues of "THE <b>BIG </b> PICTURE" magazine a month. The current Feb 2005 issues and a mess of others are covering up my desk at work now. Other "freebie" magazines us printers get are "Signs of the Times" for signage; "Digital Output" : the only magazine dedicated to capture, creation, output, creation.... Another freebie is "digital Graphics, another is "Instant & Small Commercial Printer". Yet another is "Quick Printing". We get more freebies; but this gets abit boring :)<BR><BR>The first several free magazines mentioned are aimed at printers; signshops; digital users of "Large format" printers. The advertising keeps these rags afloat. We get many 10 pounds of these each month; squared aimed to get you to buy the latest printer; rip; scanner; etc. <BR><BR>Al; page 10 in your magazine shows a cool Durst 67 Film Scanner; that scans a 6x7cm neg in 15 seconds; a 75meg file; at a cool 29.7k price. www.durstus.com Looks like a fun toy!

[al_kaplan1]

Yeah, Kelly, I was looking at that Durst film scanner ad but I have a Brooks Veriwide 100 that makes 6x10cm negatives. Also, when when my ladyfriend looked at it she didn't think that the two tone blue color scheme would fit in well with the carpets and drapes that I have in that room. I'm also somewhat concerned about reliability issues when you start playing around with scanners that much under fifty grand.;-)

[summitar]

When you right down to it, the one advantage that film has over digital is the somewhat subjective notion that film provides more pleasing images due to greater range of sensitivity, bokeh, or some other hard to define factor. But digital capability is improving much faster than that of film, and will continue to do so, because that's where the buck are going.

 

I used to be associated with strategic overhead recce. I haven't had a clearance in this area for nearly 40 years, but the Corona program has been mostly or totally declassified. When Corona was active (mostly in the 60s), images were captured on film, and the film was recovered when the Corona ejected film capsules that were caught in midair by specially equipped C-130s. The Corona satellites were limited in lifetime and film capacity, and obviously were not exactly real time. From what I read in Aviation Week, digital technology is now employed, and data are transmitted to earth electronically, meaning long lived satellites and quasi real time data availability. I don't have a clue as to how the quality of the imagery stacks up, but I would be greatly surprised if the customers were satisfied with any degradation whatsoever. I am not totally happy about it, but digital is the wave of the future; we analog humans will have to keep up somehow.

[david_chananie]

CompUSA charges $95 for their technicians to look at your ailing computer. Add on the cost of replacement parts if they figure out that something needs to be replaced. Now notice that Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98, so you probably should replace that as well. Observe that a brand new computer that totally outclasses what you have sells for $500. At what point do you decide repairing your computer is no longer cost effective? It's a puzzle, at least for me.