There will need to be a compelling value proposition before the trend toward $6,000 cameras catches on - by Nikon

It’s not exactly a headline to proclaim that professional photography is changing and those who want to make their living will have to adapt. Professional photography is in a constant state of flux and has been for as long as I can remember.

Cameras get better with every generation, lenses improve, the bar on professional photographers constantly moves higher and higher, which begs speculation about where we’re headed today.

Some trends are already firmly established in photography. Wedding and event photography is going to continue to see a push toward immediate delivery and live streaming of photos. Certainly there are disadvantages and real challenges to real time posting of wedding photos, but that’s where the market is headed and, if you want to stay competitive, you’ll have to learn to adapt. The biggest challenge will be delivering quality photos with a minimum of post-processing magic.

The professional wedding photographers I know do a lot of work in post. Not just color correction and cropping, which are relatively easy, but some of them are using products like Layer Cake Elements to dress up many photos with spectacular skylines, trees, grass, flowers and a host of other elements that can be added to photos with ease. That’s going to leave an odd disconnect between the look of some photos delivered as part of the print package and those posted live. It should be interesting to see how that works out in practice.

It should also be interesting to see how the trend toward $6,000 camera bodies is going to work out. It’s an odd paradox that the price of professional quality cameras has been trending down in recent years that we’re now seeing the high end of the market stretching into new pricing territory. The Canon 1DS MK II and Nikon D3S and the D4 expected to be priced around $6,000.

I’m trying hard to find the justification for spending that much on a camera. What can I do with a D3S that I can’t do with a Canon 5D MK II? What differences in quality justify the price tag? One would expect greater reliability, but I could buy two 5D MK II’s for the price of a D4 and still have money left over.

In the world of professional photography I’m used to seeing eye-popping price tags on high end equipment, but I’m starting to wonder about the justification for some of the prices we’re seeing. Without a compelling argument for value, what’s the incentive? Would having a Nikon D4 get me more business as a professional photographer? Until that answer is unequivocal, I’m not going there.

However it shakes out, it’s going to be interesting to watch.

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