robertwright
New member
Capture fees are still pretty common, as are equipment rental fees. When rates don't go up ya' gotta make it somewhere
But seriously I've always felt they reflect real value, the time of prepping files, storage, backup, archiving, balancing exposures, wb, etc. to present to clients and that rental fees reflect the suitability of the equipment to the job at hand- lower fees for dslr's and higher for mf. Calling them "rental" fees was a bit of dodge since you did not have a separate company but I think charging a fee for equipment is completely justified as separate since the creative fee is for the talent, and the usage fee is for the usage.
But seriously I've always felt they reflect real value, the time of prepping files, storage, backup, archiving, balancing exposures, wb, etc. to present to clients and that rental fees reflect the suitability of the equipment to the job at hand- lower fees for dslr's and higher for mf. Calling them "rental" fees was a bit of dodge since you did not have a separate company but I think charging a fee for equipment is completely justified as separate since the creative fee is for the talent, and the usage fee is for the usage.
Oh, I don't think it'll fail. It is too good for that price. Depends on what Pentax expects of it. I know Leica had smaller expectations for the S system at first, but pretty quickly exceeded that.
I'm not sure volume is the way to salvation for photographers these days. I think maybe diversification is.
More and more volume production situations are being brought in-house by manufacturers, and now even smaller to mid-size ad agencies are looking at cataloging type work as a potential profit center because they are also being squeezed. Trust me, they do not pay their photography staff very much considering what it'd cost to use a more experienced shooter.
In past, a studio could pay the over-head with the production work and allow solicitation of higher end jobs with facilities to service that type of client.
Personally, I never shelled out very much capital for MFD equipment. When commercial work transitioned from film to digital, it was common to charge a digital capture fee as a line expense for each job. Usually the equivalent of renting the gear needed. This was actually a bargain for clients because the cost of film, processing and scanning could be $40 to $70 a shot … a 100 piece catalog could easily run them $5,000+.
On average, those fees paid for my MFD kit in about 2 years (sooner for others), then I'd upgrade, and apply the fees against that.
That business model has all but disappeared as photographers cut each other's throat to get work. Only the top shooters get away with it now or bake it into their usage fees, and often actually do just rent the gear.
It's tough out there.
- Marc