Mead's camera will come complete with a $10,000-$30,000 sticker price and is targeted at the nation's 60,000 professional portrait photographers.
At best he sells 60,000 units. I am more interested in the multiple millions of average consumers willing to spend a few hundred dollars for a wonderful digital experience and a pittance for an inexhaustible roll of digital film.
60,000 would be a target for the camera while it sits in the $10,000 - $30,000 price range. As you know, all new technology begins at higher price levels and then comes down drastically. Even the initial digital cameras were many multiples of times more expensive than the current models.
If the technology is real, the price will come down drastically over a short period of time.
As far as the investment in either technology goes, how do you invest in wisely in digital cameras? Certainly not the camera makers, it is too competitive....a commodity producer very soon. Does any company own a patent that all these camera makers must pay royalties to? I don't think so. But if Foveon techology is real, and it goes mainstream, they should collect royalties from all makers.
Don't get me wrong, I love the current megapixel digital cameras for under $1,000. They are fine for up to 8 x10's or 11 x 14's, but beyond that they get pixelated. Think about a filmless camera with no pixelation! |
