Guru
Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: AustraliaPosts: 1584
| Posted: 08:02am 14 Oct 2021 |
I am also amazed at storage prices and Capacities.
When I got my First Digitial Camera in 2000 I bought an 8 Mb card to go with it. that was as far as the Budget would stretch. Was almost $300. Well heeled mate bought a 16 mb ( yes MEGA byte) card. Not many shots and I'd have to download onto the laptop.
Still, it was wondrous and Marvellous.
I don't have any super sized Cards or USB's. No need now.
I have a 256GB SD card that holds something like 8000 Low compression images which blow out to over 50 Mb ea in my Cameras. Way more than I need for anything.
I was buying USB's by the thousand at a time a while back. Was doing Volume work with up to 1500 Clients at one gig. I'd get them from Chynaah and get a design for the boys, one of the girls and a neutral one. I was putting photos on them and we changed from doing CD's which took almost 3 min to burn even if they only had 50 Mb on them and that was a long time when you have a que of people waiting.
I bought some USB's from orifice works as a test marketing exercise and added $10 to the price as an option when they were costing me just over 5. USB's would download in 10 Sec so were a Huge time saver. I gave a Box of a dozen to my girls and told them to offer them as a $10 extra option and " Lets see how loud they scream at that".
Next day they rang me and asked if I was coming over that day? I was working another site and they would follow me doing the selling the next week. I said I left everything you will need yesterday. They said yeah we know but we sold out of the Usb's nearly straight away. I was stunned. They said people are saying " You get the USB in the price?" They would say yeah but you can have it On CD for $10 Cheaper.
6 out of 10 took the USB option.
We made huge time savings, used to tell people there would be plenty of space to put other pics on them and they were wrapped. I bought them in bulk locally and got the price down then I got the stylised ones from Chynaah for a Buck each. Was getting 1000 for the boys, 1000 for the girls and 1000 of the non descript ones which would last about a month as we were doing printing at the time as well and did about a 50/50 mix. Got them in 8 gb which was huge for what we needed but smaller ones were cents Cheaper so went for the impressive factor and it worked very well.
What fascinated me and I'll always remember was we used to get a lot of complaints about the price of the CD's. People would say things like " They only cost a Dollar, how can you charge $30". I'd say I bet a $100 note only costs the Gubbermint 2C to print but they are worth a lot more aren't they?
With the USB's and the price Jacked $10, not one single complaint did I ever hear. Even with the plain ones. People were stoked they got the images on a USB and thought they were getting a great deal.
I didn't have to buy and print the CD's, buy and print the cases and slicks, just made a promo image with some sample pics and contact details which we pasted into every usb when we put the other images on and that was that.
My daughter works for an electronics retailer so gets me cards Dirt cheap. I don't bother much with USB's now, I put everything on cards as everyone has a reader and laptops and printers have had them built in for years.
A lot of the time I just pull a brand new card card out the packet, ( have at least half a dozen in my bag) and shoot on that and hand it to the client at the end. Don't have to stuff around then posting or downloading, just hand it over which they think is great. I keep the 2nd card for myself and usually get 3-4 Shoots on one 32Mb card which I what I usually get and then down load them and throw the card in a Box.
I have read a lot to the contrary but I have cards and USB's that are 15 Yo and read like the day they were first used. They have been extremely reliable in my experience. Only reason I stop using them is because they get too small to bother with.
My Daughter brought me home a 128 GB Micro the other day to put in my tablet. So much info on such a small component. I store a lot on the card because I use it for business purposes and it's great to have samples of your work and documentation handy wherever you are. I can also Wifi images from the camera to the tablet as another backup and then upload them to clients or insta or whatever. Did a family Reunion last year and tapped into the bluetooth on a TV in the venue and ran a slide show. People didn't notice at first but were stunned when they did. Nice tip in that one!
I remember when the 100MB Zip drives came out. Man they must have sold LOADS of those. CD's were still expensive especially for a one off use and print places would have piles of the things stacked up as everyone seemed to use them for information storage.
A Good friend gave me a 1 Tb USB years ago and they were worth many hundreds then. I was reluctant to accept such an expensive Gift. It was given to him by a Company wanting to win his favour as a corporate gift but he had a few already and generously
passed it on to me. Wasn't I king ship flashing that thing around!
I'd take it to the lab or wherever and make them download it and then give it back. Didn't trust it not to go " Missing". Still have it in the desk draw here. The leather strap that secures the stainless cover is a bit dry, must put some Dubbin on it but it still shows what a big dollar thing it was in the day with the leather and stainless it's wrapped in.
I don't even know what the Biggest card or USB is now?
I know they are far bigger than anything I'd ever need so became a mute point a long time back. The biggest are always the worst bang for the buck though and stupid expensive. You can usually buy about 4 half size ones for the same price as rthe largest.
How times and prices have Changed.