I have always been curious about what makes the Average Joe go out and buy the most expensive digital camera on the market and all the accessories that go with it.
We have been to a few family functions recently due to the holidays. On these occasions, there is always the big camera guy who whips out his $3000 camera and 6 foot lens to snap a few family pictures of uncle and aunty cutting the birthday cake. We are not looking for a portrait that should be hanging in the National Gallery but a snap that captures the moment. I was amazed how bad some of the pictures turned out–blurry, framed incorrectly, useless…. Thank god for iPhoto to help clean up some of these mistakes. Others, many others, ended up in my trash can.
I learned to take pictures with a 35mm film camera my parents both for $50. Which to this day I still have and enjoy taking the occasional filmed photograph. Outside of the cost of development I would still use it today because I think it captures the true essence of color of your subject. The ease and use of digital makes it easy for people to take pictures but to be honest it makes it almost too easy. I have delete hundreds of bad pictures from wannabe photojournalist. I did take the occasional ooops picture but I was more careful when I pressed the shutter. However, with technology today it makes it too easy to take worthless pictures. Technology makes it too easy for the casual amateur photographer to think he is the next Ansel Adams.
If you are going to own an expense camera, a very expense one at that, it should come with some type of requirement for you to learn how to use it to take proper pictures. Or at least tell your family that of the 600 pictures you have just taken of Uncle Fred cutting the cake, 400 of them will need to be deleted.
A CIO's Voice 
I believe part of the problem with these masses of people running around with expensive cameras is that it all starts with one person in circle of friends who can take amazing pictures and that person has an expensive SLR/DSLR and knows how to use it. Everyone then wants to mimic/achieve the same results and they go off and buy an expensive camera too not realising that in the world of digital photography from amateur to professional there is a lot of post production work that goes on once you’re back home.
Thanks for the comment. Very true! The cardinal rule in technology is to work your way up not jump directly into latest best device out there.