Jeremy M. Praay wrote:
> I did enjoy it.  :-)
> 
> Other people apparently didn't. :-(
> 
> My point was simply that these large prizes elevated this competition to a 
> level that we are not used to seeing around here.  The number of entrants 
> was relatively small.

I think quality is more important than quantity.

> 
> We've had a similar turn-out for the IRTC, which doesn't even have prizes 
> anymore.  Sure, I would have liked to have won, and I'm sure that's why we 
> had many of our top POVers competing.  But almost all of those people have 
> also competed in the IRTC, for nothing.  Much less pressure and (when taken 
> as a whole) has produced comparable images.  Something bridging the gap 
> between the two competitions seems ideal to me.
> 

I think that POVcomp has many more images of high quality then any IRTC 
round.

If you look for example to what the winner Johnny Yip did for the IRTC,

http://exether.free.fr/irtc/stills/author_johnny_yip.html

then I think that he outdid himself in this competition. And I think 
that many competitors upped their level with POV here (except maybe for 
Jaime Vives Piqueres, who has reach the top of depicting kitchens some 
time ago :) ).

It seems that for many extra incentive can be beneficial, while some 
others have more trouble handling the pressure.

-Em