# Pareto principle



## Perio (Jun 21, 2014)

Hi guys! I maybe the only person who has never heard of Pareto principle, but I still decided to share it with you. According to Wikipedia, the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. So, how can it be related to photography gear? Well, the same principle appears to work when we buy expensive including cameras and lenses instead of the cheaper ones. So, with regard to optics, Pareto principle states that you get 80% performance of the optics for 20% of its total cost. The remaining 20% of the performance improvements will cost you 80% of the total cost of the optics. In other words, 80% of the cost of expensive optics refers to the very top 10-20% performance. I think this is pretty close to the differences in the optics quality and cost between 85 f1.8 vs. 85 f1.2L, 200 f2.0L vs. 200 f2.8L, Zeiss 100 f2.0 vs. Canon 100 f2.8L, Zeiss Otus 50 f1.4 vs. Canon 50 f1.4. This is again a very personal choice if you’re willing to pay a premium cost to get the 10-20% improvements of the optical quality. 

Well, I’m sure many of you know much more about this principle and how it can be applied to the photography gear. But since it was new to me, I wanted to share this with you. Take care everybody.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jun 21, 2014)

You get very little improvement for a lot bigger price simply because the lens manufacturers are already pushing the limits of accuracy and materials. Hand selecting and fitting of lenses is already done at the high end, so its necessary to have the best of the best craftsmen grind the lenses to near perfection. This is far beyond the ability to measure the dimensions, so they use indirect methods. Production is low, and that pushes the price up even more. Profits are also much much bigger.
Its the same for any product, a little bit of improvement can cost a lot. Sometimes its just hype, and sometimes its real. Car manufacturers make little or no profit on their low end models, but have a huge profit from the high end ones.


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## e17paul (Jun 21, 2014)

It also seems that 20% of the weight gets 80% of the benefit. Also the law of diminishing returns.


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## sagittariansrock (Jun 21, 2014)

Perio said:


> Hi guys! I maybe the only person who has never heard of Pareto principle, but I still decided to share it with you. According to Wikipedia, the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. So, how can it be related to photography gear? Well, the same principle appears to work when we buy expensive including cameras and lenses instead of the cheaper ones. So, with regard to optics, Pareto principle states that you get 80% performance of the optics for 20% of its total cost. The remaining 20% of the performance improvements will cost you 80% of the total cost of the optics. In other words, 80% of the cost of expensive optics refers to the very top 10-20% performance. I think this is pretty close to the differences in the optics quality and cost between 85 f1.8 vs. 85 f1.2L, 200 f2.0L vs. 200 f2.8L, Zeiss 100 f2.0 vs. Canon 100 f2.8L, Zeiss Otus 50 f1.4 vs. Canon 50 f1.4. This is again a very personal choice if you’re willing to pay a premium cost to get the 10-20% improvements of the optical quality.
> 
> Well, I’m sure many of you know much more about this principle and how it can be applied to the photography gear. But since it was new to me, I wanted to share this with you. Take care everybody.



This is quite a general principle applying to a lot more than photography, as you stated.
This probably also leads to the coinage of the word "satisfice"- what suffices to satisfy you.

However, I don't believe the remaining 20% improvement in performance has mostly to do with the gear. That falls within the easy 20% effort part- it is easy to buy an 85L, or an Otus. Top performance comes with an understanding of light, eye for composition, practice and willingness to sacrifice everything to get the shot- that is the remaining 80% of photography IMO. I find this bit a lot more difficult than investing in a top lens (except practicing enough, which is entirely my own fault).


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## Oceo (Jun 21, 2014)

Pareto developed his principle(s) using whole-country data sets. Those are large data sets. Would-be users of the Pareto principle(s) are specifically cautioned _not_ to use Pareto for small data sets. I'd hazard the guess that the OP is working with a small data set.


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