Pentax Announces Availability Of Designer Pouch

It's easy to dismiss things and ridicule them, but at what point does it become "inverse snobbery"?

Is a Rolls Royce car to be despised? Or to be celebrated as a triumph of Britain's ability to produce the highest quality products? It is what it is, it costs what it costs and if you can afford it and want it, that's fine. It employs lots of people making it as well. Substitue Leica camera and German in that and it's the same thing.

I don't know about Adidas socks, but I thought it was bow ties that were cool....

Ro No way should a Rolls Royce car to be despised. I wouldn't call it a designer car. It is extremely high quality car and therefore has a high price tag. It is also made in England with relatively high labour cost sand not mass-produced like for example a VW . I would not call it a designer car, just a high quality car.
A pair of Armani or Hugo Boss socks however, known as "Designer Socks", have in my opinion an unjustifiable high price tag, even so, they are made in China or an equivalent low wages country. However the price, because of the designer labels is not at all low.
I can guarantee, I can buy the equivalent socks for a quarter the price if the label doesn’t say Armani etc.
I can not by an equivalent quality car like the Rolls Royce for a quater the cost.
Designer this days does not mean "designed", but it is purely high priced fashion statement with out necessarily a very high quality.
What can one design new for example on a pair of socks?
We all know, they have to have an opening to slide the foot in to and then surround the foot with a relatively good fit. What else is there?

Horst

I can hear the expert sock designers groaning in horror...

Modern life has lost the ability to design many things. Even the humble handkerchief is no longer made properly, but it is cheap. I can vouch for this one as I inherited a whole pile of fine 1930s handkerchiefs and they are quite amazing. For one thing, they might double up nicely as fine table cloths. I exaggerate, of course.

As for lenses, we are now rediscovering that many diaphragm leaves is a good idea. Designers knew this 60 or more years ago.

My Armani socks are a cashmere and alpaca mix and were made in Italy.

I have only one formal qualification, a degree in Product Design. I'm keeping out of all dicussions on the 'designer' subject.

I think the Rolls Royce argument is incorrect. There is a difference between 'designer' and 'quality'.

People here will spend £1,000 on a DA* lens because we understand that it has been made to a high specification but most of use would not spend £4,000 on the same lens if it were coloured pink and was a limited edition signed by a 'designer'.

But there are people who will. And that is their right.

Liz has used one of my images from the gallery (The Couple)and printed it onto magnetic paper. She has added the words Newbiggin by the Sea W.I. and sold them as "designer" fridge magnets as part of general fund raising. Demand exeeded Supply and she is having to print more

Another successful designer item from "The house of Fraser"

Once we have a special edition we also have another problem. It becomes a potential collectible. If we use it, we damage the value it will have as unused, boxed, as new.

If we don't use it, what good is it? It's purely an investment. And that might well be fair enough.

I sold my Rolleiflex 2,8GX Helmut Newton Special Edition, one of 500 made, because the shutter release wasn't the soft, gentle release of the 2,8F and resulted in camera shake. Useless as a camera, so I got my money back when I sold it. No profit, but I didn't wait long enough.

The 1975 Spotmatic Gold should be worth something now, but if it's been used then it might be worth a lot less than its potential. Sometimes wedding and society photographers use these sort of things as a status symbol. In some circles that will count for something and might be good marketing. A white Pentax DSLR might be noticed as well, ideal for weddings?

What's that Stan...

That's got rid of those two - quick print another one.

regards
Bernard

Come on Ken you can't keep a low profile

Form follows function, so surplus decoration (designer label) is surely superfluous?

regards
Bernard

She gets 8 to a sheet but it has been suggested she reduce the size further to 10 to a sheet (greater profit margin). The have sexy rounded corners too
Of course we can't really put House of Fraser on them even though we are a house of etc., at 50p a time we don't want to be stepping on toes

Function very often goes much further than the pragmatic or practical.

Very tactfully put.

regards
Bernard

Form is always subjectiveHorst and greynolds have already said all I was goign to say ion teh Rolls Royce analogy and I also agree it is flawed.

As for inverse snobbery, well I am proud to admit I don't like pretentious products that think they are better than they really are. I like honesty and that includes products. A McDonalds Big Mac and a Rolls Royce car are honest as they are both not trying to pretend to be somethign they are not and sit at the opposite ends of the quality spectrum.

A $300 compact camera case is pretentious nonsense in itself. Adding the signature of someone who designs pretentious nonsense that most people have never heard of is just asking for ridicule

I'd never heard of Mark Newson until the K-01 came out. Since looking at his website, I find it really odd that Pentax would get someone who appears to design extremely uncomfortable looking chairs to design a new camera. His specialty seems to be form ahead of function.

My wife. LOL