Quality is better than ever

Over the years, I have watched the quality of products and services diminish. In almost every case, I can say that it was the result of choices made in the board room. For the sake of profit, companies have cut many corners or opted for cheaper materials when building their products. Sure, they made more money as a result, but the end-user suffered.

While many companies have followed this path, others have taken the higher ground. It is interesting to note that certain products have gotten better, either improving performance or durability while still maintaining a healthy profit.

I have seen this in the fly fishing business where flyrods perform better than ever before and manufacturers use space-age technology to make the lightest rods possible. The same holds true for golf clubs. New clubs perform better than ever and prices have not changed much over the years.

In the photo business we have also seen changes. Camera lenses are getting better all the time. Sure, they are using more plastics and they are getting smaller in size. Performance, though, is increasing and lenses are getting lighter and easier to hand-hold. Now, image stabilizing technology is being added to mid-priced lenses to improve performance even more.

Lenses are better than ever, tripods, however, are not. In the consumer market, I have seen production models change by using flimsy plastic parts where metal parts were once used. A few tripods that were once well-made are now worthless. Even so, Manfrotto and other companies continue to produce excellent products. With space-age materials, like carbon-fibre, tripods can be made lighter and still be durable and stable.

Many camera bodies are made with outer shells of plastic. Take a Canon Digital Rebel, for example. I have an acquaintance with one that dropped it accidently. Even after it bounced and he picked it up and saw a couple of abrasions on the corner, the camera works fine. An older metal-bodied camera might have been twisted and have a light leak after such an impact. But, composite bodies flex and give, which absorbs a bit of the shock from such accidents, so, plastics are not necessarily a bad thing.

The newest digital SLRs are lightweights. They out-perform previous models and can even be flash updated to fix any bugs that might emerge in the field. They use noise reduction technology and allow output in multiple formats. They give you more control options than most people will ever use and they do just about everything better in each generation.

It's interesting that furniture is made of particle board. Kitchen appliances are flimsy and cheap. Clothing falls apart in just a few washings. Our toys, like flyfishing gear, golf clubs, and cameras just keep getting better. For the sake of photographers present and future, I hope that trend continues.