I agree, and am fortunate to have a legit edu connection. That said, companies vary on their proof requirements. Apple, in my experience, will give you the edu price by just saying you are a student/teacher/buying it for one. I've seen them sell a Mac at that price to grandparents, etc. Pretty decent policy. MS just requires a .edu email, but then again technet is so cheap that the edu discount pales. of course, with technet using the software in a production environment is a license violation.
Right, and 9 times out of 10 the Apple Specialist will just give you the discount just so he/she can attach Mobile Me and Applecare and whatever else . . . . . oh that was just me.
😀
Seriously though the requirements for that EDU discount are just as you said, nothing more than mentioning it or purchasing it through an online store. At the end of the day, you will OWN your EDU copy of a software title rather than some garbled up binary from a torrent made to look like a piece of software.
Oh ya. I have several pieces of glass that individually cost more than the body. People complain about software lock in; MS / APPLE ?Adobe et. al. have nothing on the camera manufacturers and their proprietary mounts.
True! That Nikkor 85mm 1.4 I am drooling over is going for $2200, far more than the price of my $1200 D7000
(which trumps the D2xs it replaced in so many ways).
I agree - of course, just as digital cameras have put some sophisticated tools in the hands of amateurs, design software has done the same thing - which makes everyone with CS think they are now a "designer" just as everyone with a pro-grade dSLR thinks they are a "professional." In the end, it's the brain behind the eye that makes the difference.
Of course, the proliferation of "pros" willing to work cheap drives done prices - that's competition. Of course, when you go cheap, you often get cheap.
The difference here will always be just that, the final product. To a lesser but still kind of important extent it will also be turn around time. I see it every single day here at my uni job. . . students and amateurs will always be LATE. Even myself, now that I am out of the freelancing for the most part, can't get a fast turn around time on most projects.
The cheapskate amateur/pro may even do good work, but if it can't be in the clients hands on time and on budget because the Pro was busy working at his/her day job then the client will be pissed! If anything, the way the tech world is now should let the real pros know that you don't need a separate studio with $10k in lights $8k in a computer rig and another 5k in software.
Still Shooter Kit
A 17" Macbook Pro $3000
A Nikon D7000/Canon 7D $1300 ($5k in lenses still
😉 )
A 27" ACD $1000
A Drobo S for backup and scratch $1000
A Drobo FS for offsite $1000
A pack of Strobes and pocket wizards ($2000)
The world is your studio.
Videographers Kit
Take out the D7000 and replace it with or add to it a Canon XA10. $2000