Camera Store - The Hell of Retail

The Sales Rep Who Doesn't Know Her Camera

So the other day, a sales rep for a camera manufacturer comes to our store. I suppose I ought not to tell you the name of the camera manufacturer, so let’s call it “Fiji”.

So this Fiji lady comes in, tells us a bit about their new cameras (just lists features and prices, pretty much), tells us about how we can go to Fiji’s site and enter contests to be eligible for prices (and if we say she sent us, she gets stuff too), and so on. Then she tells us about a photo contest that Fiji has for their sales people, and she shows us a couple of pictures she has taken with this hot new 5-megapixel camera they just released. It’s an awesome camera, with a sharp lens, sharp CCD, super wide angle, and manual controls (and a big screen, and AA power, and other features that make it fun to use as well as a powerful camera). She took a picture of this colorful fan-type-thing she has on her garden, the type that spins around when the wind blows

She goes on for a couple minutes about how well-balanced her composition is (quite true), and how sharp the detail is (quite true – although the backdrop is a dirty, dark, and kinda ugly wooden fence, and tall messy-looking grass all over the place, all captured vividly in high resolution). I ask her why she didn’t take a picture of it spinning, since you could see it in sharp detail on the picture, but motion blur would make it a cooler picture. She says “Oh, the digital froze it. It WAS spinning. You know, how digital cameras always freeze the action”. Um, but you have a manual-exposure mode, and a shutter-speed priority mode. “Yes, you do, it’s great, this is a great camera!”. Then why didn’t you use the manual-exposure mode? “Oh, I thought I should take it in auto. But look at how still it looks… Some motion blur would have been nice, but the digital always freezes the action…”

It was pretty evident to me that this lady had NO idea about how aperture and shutter speed work, and would not know how to use the manual mode to take a well-exposed picture, much less a steady shot with motion blur. And I’m supposed to trust YOU with camera information?

To sell cameras, you have to know more than regurgitating what camera has what features. You have to know how to USE cameras, how to exploit what they offer, so you can tell people what to DO with those modes, and how to do it. That's MY opinion anyways.

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PS: I think the Fuji E510 is the best camera you can buy for under $300. This is the one I’m talking about here. It’s VERY powerful. If you know how to use manual settings, you can take any picture that a pro would, with the narrow depth-of-field, macro, motion blur, panning, long-exposure, time lapse, literally anything you can imagine (well, anything that doesn’t require a lens longer than 90mm or so – and the thing does have a lens mount where you can attach telephoto lenses, so you CAN go longer too!). I’m a huge fan of this camera (which is why the Fuji rep’s use of auto mode frustrated me – she did not use the things that make this camera special and powerful). Until we ran out of them, it was the first one I recommended to most people, along with the Nikon 4100 (except for dead-beginners, whom I usually show Casios and older easier-to-use Fujis, and people with a lot of money to spend, whom I usually show Sonys, and people who want a lot of zoom, whom I show Minoltas and the bigger Fujis and maybe Canons and Panasonics. Wow, I just revealed all the secrets to being a digital-camera salesman).

posted by Remus