@tk @skylar @sun @mischievoustomato plastic is cheaper than metals but also sometimes mass is being optimized for and it makes sense there.

zoom has been moving to plastic and removing the rubber from those cases also. but the rubber used to disentegrate from handling anyway. and when you're putting recorders on sticks and camera rigs.. mass is important. so i can't really fault them for going to plastic, since that's actually beneficial for pro gear in that context.

apple is known for charging stupid amounts of money for hardware. back in like 2010 someone did the analytics and if they made the entire machine in the USA they would still be charging a 100% margin