[rollei_list] Re: Digital Advice

Marc James Small wrote:
Even without Photoshop or like software, the cost is still prohibitive for high-end work: 

camera          at least $800
lenses take your pick, but at least $250 or more for a single one printer a high-end printer is going to run several thousand dollars dedicated computer $1200 or more (I am running on a 2002 Pentium Four, by the way) specialty inks several hundred dollars, with the need to restock frequrently specialty papers about the same, with usage controlling total price, of course 

I'm going to take the rare opportunity and disagree with you here Marc.
I feed my family with photography (OH! Rodinal for supper again!...sorry.) :) 

From your list above, I have cameras, lenses and a dedicated computer.
Keeping up with the burgeoning DSLR tech is the only exorbitant cost involved so far and even there the prices keep dropping for much better tech. Now that the output from these cameras far exceed the quality that I could produce (for my normal wedding/photojournalism work) with 35mm film, even this constant turn over will now slow down a bit.
I needed similar lenses even with a film camera and have no more need to constantly update them than I did then, so that is a wash.
While my PCs used to be custom built and pretty costly, for the past year and a half, I'm working on a basic $500 old Dell Dimension 1100 at the moment (XPHome) with 2GB RAM ($100) and it is working fine for my usual workflow of ~700 10-12MP NEFs per job. My next 'upgrade' will be a mid priced Mac (with Parallels and XPHome too), but currently I don't foresee needing to do this any time soon. For archival storage I use fairly affordable external HDs (one or two per year, at the moment, 320GB ea. These cost about $150 and like the cameras, the price will only keep going down.) I also use MAM-A Gold DVDs. A year's supply of which costs less than the film used to from one wedding.
It is MUCH more affordable and less hassle in the long run for me to use a commercial printer that someone else gets to pay for monthly, than to print my own at home. With proper profiling, any good lab today (like WHCC.com) will be able to far more affordably print to my specs than buying a high end home printer and keeping it fed with quality ink and paper.
My TIME commitment has gone up considerably since 'going digital' in 2002, but the actual outlay of cash invested in assets and materials has diminished and this time commitment has greatly increased the quality of my final product. 

Carpe lumen,
Michael
-There has not been the death of a man that has not brought joy to another man? 
---
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