Status Anxiety: the Camera as Symbol.

Expensive cameras have a few down sides to them. Usually they are heavy on the neck, as they hang from their increasingly flashy and needlessly fancy colourful straps. But they also call for unwanted attention, either from thieves or from museum guards and potential subjects. Camera awareness as such is a bad thing (this is in general true, from any way you look at it, either the photographer's angle or anyone else's) and gets in the way of the making of good photographs. I imagine that the newest models, that will pack a staggering 10 megapixel sensor in a small unobtrusive body, may find a niche in the market for serious travel and candid shooters. Carrying a tripod is also asking for trouble, they are forbidden inside most buildings, where they could be useful, and are obviously a burden on the long walks in the sun, when they are mostly useless.