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The ad head reads : "Professional Digital
Photograhy. No Longer Just For The Professionals."
And that's what Canon Europe did by letting its ad agency create
one of the dumbest ads in photographic history. And Canon
obviously approved it as the double-truck ad is showing up in
photo publications all over Europe.
My scan from the outsize United Kingdom's "Digital Photographer"
magazine isn't too great but you'll get the idea. A whole
stadium full of soccer fans (football to them) is holding Canon
EOS Digital Rebel cameras, flash heads up and flashing away.
In the foreground, a delighted photographer is shown checking
his LCD for the perfectly exposed image.
What's wrong with this picture? To be exact, a couple thousand
things. In particular, all those Canon Rebel zealots making
flash exposures of a football match from the stands.
As long as I've been teaching photography - film and digital -
I've told thousands of students to not rely upon their built in
flash in a mass seating situation such as a football game. Call
it the "Janet Jackson syndrome." The lights go down for the
halftime show. Dramatic field lights come on. Janet appears and
thousands of flashes go off around the stadium.
The net result. A perfectly exposed image of the bald guy
sitting two rows in front.
Chances are that in the Canon ad, all those thousands of people
probably counted to three and fired simultaneously. Don't get me
wrong, the Digital Rebel is a great little camera but doesn't
deserve this kind of misguided/unguided advertising. Canon's
marketing execs should have known better.
"Now that it really looks like a Leica, let's charge like a
Leica."
Obviously, the watchword for Leica's marketing team as it
introduced the new Digilux 2.
I loved the first Digilux, gave it highest marks in the Mac
Design Digital Camera Shootout. And much to my delight, the
under $1,000 Digilux became the darling of a dozen or so readers
who heeded my praise.
In the review, I expressed an interest in seeing the
Leica/Panasonic hybrid look more like a traditional M-series
camera, sensing that the very snobbish Leica set would be more
likely to purchase.
Now here comes the Digilux 2 with a design treatment that mimics
the Leica M-7 - a film camera affordable only by lawyers and
heads of state - with nearly the same features as the original
Digilux.
But if paying too much makes you feel more like a true Leica
owner, the Digilux 2 at just under $2,000 should be your next
digital camera. |