site: early digital marketing (Leaf DCB)

In researching the history of the Leaf digital backs, notably the DCB, aka the Brick, I stumbled on this story by Andy Clarke, of "And All That Malarky", "Taking a Leaf out of an old book", here.

I don't know about you, but I remember, as I was struggling along trying to keep my studio afloat back in the'90s, reading in PDN and all about how I was supposed to invest multiple tens of thousands of dollars in a digital camera. I never could quite figure out how, when I could barely afford a computer, Photoshop a scanner and the first Epson Stylus Photo printer. It always seemed like the industry was totally out of touch with the photographer in the street. The working guy with a gaggle of corporate clients, trying to pay the bills.

I felt a huge disconnect. Either they were clueless, or I was completely out of touch.

Well, this story pretty much explains it... the DCB was sold using a "top-down" marketing strategy. Sell it to the top feeders, the big production clients and do it on a "return on investment" pitch, based on the speed and efficiency of the shoot-to-press workflow. Once the big boys adopt it, you've sold the rank and file photographer.

If, of course, they can stay alive.

PDN was merely feeding their advertiser's marketing strategy, and of course, leaving it's grassroots customer base, uh, me, in the dust.

It wasn't until the Nikon D1, in 1999, that I started to think that maybe there was something for us guys who weren't working with a budget of $50K.

Funny how cameras have progressed... I was installing a Canon 20D (as a web product station) and they had a Leaf DCBII. We did a little quick side-by-side, and this cute little DSLR, at a few thousand bucks, blew that DCBII (at around $40K if memory serves...) clean out of the water.