I am starting to wonder if generally, we value anything these days.
Why do I say this? A quick trawl through any of the many special interest Facebook groups will give you the answer, with so many questions along the lines of “what is the best (gizmo) for such and such that is also not expensive”?
Or along similar lines; “I am looking for software / an app / plugin do to (such and such) – preferably for free”.
I saw one just now with someone asking about a wireless mic for a GoPro and they “need good sound” with an inference they have no intention of paying anything near what that would require.
There are exceptions to every rule; a good one is Blackmagic making a free version of DaVinci Resolve available, although to get the full professional functionality you need to shell out some dollars, but in general, you pay for what you get. You cannot have “good” and “free” in the same sentence as a rule.
In the area of software, a person – or more likely a team of people – has spent many hundreds if not thousands of hours putting the program / app / plug-in together and need to be rewarded for that. For hardware such as mics, these are made from physical materials, and you seriously cannot expect companies to sell them for less than it cost them to make?
In my own case, I recently spent over a month putting together a 60 page dedicated e-magazine specifically for GoPro users (based on extensive research that such a mag had a place and people were prepared to pay under $5 for it). But yep, you guessed it; when it was finally released, no-one wanted to pay – but when I removed the price tag, hundreds were happy to download for free.
Will I do it again based on that experience? Not bloody likely!
The bit I don’t get is that people are more than happy to pay a plumber, sparky, gardener, handyman or whatever up to $150 / hour without blinking an eye, but when it comes to advice on tech, that the givers of such advice have learnt over sometimes decades of experience, it is expected to be given freely.
Comments welcome of course! What are your experiences in this area?