elkhornsun wrote:
Median prices are meaningless. There are very expensive ocean view homes in SLO and these skew the stats. 3 bedroom 2 bath houses in Lehi are listing at $400,000 and up. If the owner of RRS really gave a damn about his employees we would be moving to a much less expensive area but the reality is that he does not.
A Mormon owner of a business with Mormon employees has an incredible amount of power over his workers as he has the church hierarchy behind him. Mormons are the ultimate capitalists as evidenced by men like Mitt Romney who has destroyed the lives of thousands of workers and their families over the years.
But it is easy to blame the high cost of having a manufacturing operation in California than to admit the sheer selfishness of the decision to dump his employees that made his business successful and then to hire cheap labor in Utah. Not at all unlike all the auto companies that abandoned Detroit to make use of cheap labor in the south.
In terms of quality of life no sane person would choose Utah over the Central California coast. People in SLO county are hours from Big Sur, Yosemite, Mineral King, Death Valley, Lake Tahoe, and civic areas like San Francisco. Compare that to Salt Lake City and the difference is extremely stark.
I would expect the quality control to decline with the move and I would hesitate to buy anything from RRS in the future. Nor would I want to support a man like Joseph M. Johnson. ...Show more →
You understand the difference between “median” and “mean,” right? This thread illustrates what is wrong with the internet and our civil culture. Anybody with a keyboard and a modem can spew gratuitously nasty, personal, and ill-informed comments about a successful business and its owner. Count me out.
Wow. I can't believe some of the comments in this thread. Terrible really. I for one think they have great products and will continue to buy their products as long as they stay in the US. I am interested in their new video head, most likely will be out for 2018 NAB. They have a picture of it on their website.
elkhornsun wrote:
....
A Mormon owner of a business with Mormon employees has an incredible amount of power over his workers as he has the church hierarchy behind him. Mormons are the ultimate capitalists as evidenced by men like Mitt Romney ....
....
Exactly right. But only a problem if there is discord in the co. I know one such business with no discord (I was close to the brother of the owner and think I'd hear if there was a problem) - OTOH, it is an electronics engineering co. so who knows what LDS engineers might think of as discord.
The tribalism comments are spot on. A non-LDS employee will be ignored or even shunned in my experience.
All religions are somewhat whacky, and LDS is a LOT better than Scientology.
Also, I'll take Mitt over the last Senator, any day.
In other news - Really Right Stuff, a manufacturing company who makes excellent camera products is moving its operations to Utah to help control operating expenses as a result of the increase in costs of owning and running a business in California.
In other news - Really Right Stuff, a manufacturing company who makes excellent camera products is moving its operations to Utah to help control operating expenses as a result of the increase in costs of owning and running a business in California.
Hope Fred can now lock this thread so that those of us who came here for photography discussion don’t have the political opinions of a few inconsiderate members forced upon us.
CMYK Designs wrote:
Wow. This went from a simple positive announcement to a discussion on tribalism, state economy and government 101. I bet the original poster expected, "Hey that's great news!"..... oh well.
Same thing happened to the dslr silence shutter used in the White House thread in the Sony forum. I don’t click that thread any more....
Man, and I was seriously close to landing on a TVC 34L,... maybe I should research Gitzo, PMG. Or for that matter maybe even Leofoto,... I hear they got a beast of a tripod that's similar in quality and construction, yet half the price, although a lot heavier. But that's ok, I use a neat little garden wagon with huge pneumatic tires to haul my stuff around in. Jeez,... everybody wants to be a Ferengi.
if i were to look today i'd be looking between RRS and PMG. RRS still being my preference due to its variations and execution. but i'm lucky i do have all i need.
how does them moving to another state have affect you choice?
It is ludicrous to think that RRS that is selling as many tripods and ballheads as it can produce at prices that are on average 50% higher than equal quality products from Italy and Taiwan that the move is to insure the viability of the company.
When I read about company moves like this (and Carrier) and the reasons why my BS detector goes off big time. Companies are as profitable as ever but the CEO's and shareholders are too greedy to share profits with the workers.
sjms wrote:
LeoFoto- yet another exercise in original design
if i were to look today i'd be looking between RRS and PMG. RRS still being my preference due to its variations and execution. but i'm lucky i do have all i need.
how does them moving to another state have affect you choice?
Yeah,... just finished reading two pretty lengthy reviews on them. I'll try and find some video reviews later this evening. They do appear to be Gitzo knockoffs. But hey,... if the original design is sound, why re-invent the wheel. Hey, we weren't the original designers of a lot of stuff,... like rocket science. Now we lead the world. Plus,... looks like LeoFoto might have even made improved on a couple of the 'original' designs where Gitzo might have tried to cut a few corners. Most notably the apex,... Gitzo choose to cast their apex and elbows, and LeoFoto choose to CNC their major load bearing parts out of high grade billet aluminium. I've heard of complaints with Gitzo where the level spirit lies worst than trump, and the consensus is it may be due to inconsistent castings and warped apexes. Not sure if that's true, but it sure sounds plausible. I like that the LeoFoto comes with a lot of things Gitzo and the other premium brands are using to nickle-n-dime us,... like the included 75mm or 100mm bowl. Depending on the model you buy.
Not really affecting my choice,... rather encouraging me to look around a little more before choosing.
EricJrSax wrote:
Yeah,... just finished reading two pretty lengthy reviews on them. I'll try and find some video reviews later this evening. They do appear to be Gitzo knockoffs. But hey,... if the original design is sound, why re-invent the wheel. Hey, we weren't the original designers of a lot of stuff,... like rocket science. Now we lead the world. Plus,... looks like LeoFoto might have even made improved on a couple of the 'original' designs where Gitzo might have tried to cut a few corners. Most notably the apex,... Gitzo choose to cast their apex and elbows, and LeoFoto choose to CNC their major load bearing parts out of high grade billet aluminium. I've heard of complaints with Gitzo where the level spirit lies worst than trump, and the consensus is it may be due to inconsistent castings and warped apexes. Not sure if that's true, but it sure sounds plausible. I like that the LeoFoto comes with a lot of things Gitzo and the other premium brands are using to nickle-n-dime us,... like the included 75mm or 100mm bowl. Depending on the model you buy.
Not really affecting my choice,... rather encouraging me to look around a little more before choosing.
elkhornsun wrote:
Greedy people are not exclusive to any one state.
It is ludicrous to think that RRS that is selling as many tripods and ballheads as it can produce at prices that are on average 50% higher than equal quality products from Italy and Taiwan that the move is to insure the viability of the company.
When I read about company moves like this (and Carrier) and the reasons why my BS detector goes off big time. Companies are as profitable as ever but the CEO's and shareholders are too greedy to share profits with the workers.
well they aren't selling them at 50% higher then the Italian models 20% or so yes but not 50%
i guess you know BS well.
sjms wrote:
except they went for RRS's designs. i haven't heard of warping and such from gitzo
Nah,... you're wrong on that one sjms, they're modeling their LN line of tripods after Gitzo. They look and operate nothing like RRS legs. Their apexes are spitting images of Gitzo's 3, 4 & 5 series tripods, except LeoFoto's are CNC'd and Gitzo's are cast. Same with the elbows,... and even down to how the center plate is removed. LeoFoto's own literature even calls their LN-404C legs 'Systematic 5 Series' compatible, and boasts that it comes with a 100mm bowl. Now if you're talking about their Ball Heads,... yeah you're right. LeoFoto pretty much sucked the DNA right out of the bone marrow of the BH-55 head. But their LN line of legs are straight Gitzo knockoffs!
I've never heard of a warping Gitzo either until I started doing research and reading as many reviews as I could find for my purchase. There have been several complaints about a significant number Gitzo's legs with spirit bubbles not being true and accurate. Many have mentioned the inconsistencies of casting parts as opposed to the precision of machining parts. I'm with you in that calling it warped might be a little strong,.. I doubt straight out "warped" would get past Gitzo quality control. I'll try to find the link to the review and thread and throw it up here.
Point is,... if LeoFoto has incorporated enough Gitzo DNA to make a quality product at half the price. Why not at least consider it? Hey,... if it's their mission to sell the least amount of product for the most amount of dollars, then it's my obligation to buy the most amount of product at the least amount of dollars out of my pocket.
