Early adopters, Beta testing, and pound-power

Early adopters, Beta testing, and pound-power

One of the running battles in photography at the moment is between the die-hard DSLR users and those of us who have found new possibilities in mirrorless cameras – but this is just one skirmish in the war between change and the status quo. There are plenty of others, over the years.

For instance, although many French cars used front wheel drive from the Fifties onwards, the Mini was regarded as eccentric by the big, American-owned car companies in the UK. Into the Eighties, Ford and Vauxhall regarded the British Leyland stable of cars as a technological wrong turn, which they were not silent about. Then, one by one, new models appeared that owed more to the Maxi and Maestro than to the Viva or Cortina in their engineering.



Camera shops in the Eighties were full of last year’s brand as user after user read a new review offering a few more lines per millimetre or an extra mode and ‘upgraded’ – to an extent this continues today, making a year-old camera a very attractive proposition: just run in, and with 100k more actuations in it, or more.



And sometimes, there are disasters when a new model has a basic design flaw in it, or there’s a missing feature. Much as I love Sony’s Alpha 7 range, I’d tend to suggest that new users buy the first generation, with their lack of image stabilisation and relatively-undeveloped ergonomics. Similarly, Canon users will find the original EOS R a less attractive proposition than its later siblings, because of – erm – the lack of image stabilisation and weird ergonomics…



In computing, there’s a thing called Beta testing – this is where users can volunteer to use the latest hardware and software in return for helping to find and iron out the problems with it. It’s a good deal until you get rid of the old hardware and then the payroll doesn’t run just before a bank holiday.



Occasionally, companies are guilty of getting the ‘early adopters’ – the geeks and fashionistas who must always have the very latest – to do the Beta testing. In the Sixties and Seventies, it was conspicuous that many savvy motorists waited a year or so after a new model hit the market before they’d consider buying one. Nowadays, this may be addressed by big deals with hire companies or other large-scale buyers.



And hire is the reason that the technically-superior Betamax videotape system died on the vine in the UK. For whatever reason, the big rental companies plumped for VHS, and the market veered away from the Sony system. Eventually, steady development made VHS work just as well, I think – and then DVDs happened. You have to laugh…