Cheap Is As Cheap Does

We're lucky here in Australia - we can use the word " cheap " to mean " inexpensive " or " frugal ". Charley Carters, the grocery chain, knew that and we could go to a shop that had oiled wooden floorboards and paper bags and not feel bad about it. This was back when there was Elvis and dinosaurs, but we are still allowed to use a perfectly good English word. In North America it has become a pejorative - " cheap " means stingy or shoddy or small. That's the problem with languages - they can get away from you if you take your eye off them. Well, semantics aside, when we want to be cheap photographers there are still a few dodges and decisions we can tke advantage of: a. Printing paper is cheap enough at the normal rates but watch out for EOFY clearances when box prices can come down. If you don't open a box of the stuff or leave it in a damp place, you can print on it for years with no worries. Beware, however, when buying printing paer from large stationery depots. Some of their stock is excellent - same as the photo stores - and some of it is sold on price and confused packaging. If you must shop there..read that label carefully. b. Memory cards of the slower variety eat smaller holes in your pocket. Judge your own work and see if you need the fast-pack sort of card that will handle high rates of information transfer or whether your slow shooting rate and limited number of images to process would let you get away with a cheaper one. c. One camera model ago - or two camera models ago - things were pretty much the way they are now in nearly every camera maker's inventory. Nothing has become jet-powered, so if you buy a piston-engined camera you'll be getting nearly as much as if you buy the latest off the line. Scout about and wait for the shelf-clearing sales and save a packet of money. d. " Kit Lens " is a phrase that has become derogatory - like calling a lens " marginal ". Funnily enough, many kit lenses are absolute blessed rippers. I know - I have one on my studio camera that I bought as an additional lens. It is so marginal that I've just used it for A3+ portraits for an annual exhibition. Don't believe all the elitist writers on the web - test things out for yourself. Note: You can believe me. I am never two-faced. If I was, would I wear this one? e. Camera bags are surprisingly volatile things as far as public fancies - they come and go faster than haircuts. Haunt the discount and clearance bin in the bag section of the shop and you could score a perfectly good carrying solution that has just fallen out of fashionable favour. A good bag lasts a long time - a good bag cheap is sweet forever. f. Third-party camera batteries can be surprisingly good in comparison to manufacture's regular lines. I have a couple that hold a charge well and seem to do everything that the regular ones do. Club experts can fight about this at coffee time. g. Check to see if the Adobe Camera Raw section of Photoshop Elements - whatever the current variant is - will decode the RAW files from your current camera. If it will, and if you are going to keep that camera for several frugal, cheap, sensible years...the PSE program is a very economical and sensible way to do your image processing. If your fellow enthusiasts laugh at you, take solace in a pint of ale and reflect that the beer was paid for with the money you save on the program. You need not buy them one - If they've got enough for a cloud subscription, they've got enough for a small middy. h. Extremely cheap photographers may want to install oiled wooden floors in their computer rooms and pack their pixels in paper bags.