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Mr. Despair posted:The zeikos ones are supposed to be pretty good, especially for the money. I clicked buy .. eh, if it's screwy I can just send it back.
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Jul 8, 2013 17:47
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mAlfunkti0n posted:Any thoughts on off brand grips? I really, really want a grip for my 6D (I shoot in portrait frequently enough). I was looking at one from Zeikos (link below) for $60, seems to have mostly good reviews .. Third party grips are one of the places where going third party is actually a fine way to save money. Apparently a lot of them are "third shift" type stuff, where the official factory closes down for the night but a third shift comes in, changes the brand name (with everything else the same) but that's the only difference. So you're basically getting an official grip in everything but name and warranty but saving over $200. I got third party grips for my T2i and later 60D when I replaced my Rebel. I also bought them with two third party batteries as well which honestly work just as well as the official ones. The brand I bought was Meiki not Zeikos, so I can't comment on that specific brand but I'd honestly say I'll buy third party grips with no fear from now on. They've been nothing but great for me.
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Jul 8, 2013 17:55
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doctor 7 posted:Third party grips are one of the places where going third party is actually a fine way to save money. Apparently a lot of them are "third shift" type stuff, where the official factory closes down for the night but a third shift comes in, changes the brand (with everything else the same) but that's it. So you're basically getting an official grip in everything but name and warranty but saving over $200. Depends what body you get them for, but they're usually not anywhere near as sturdy (the 5d2/5d3 ones) as legit ones. They're usually fine functionally though, but be cautious about water resistance for any magnesium body cameras.
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Jul 8, 2013 17:57
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In fact, I have never seen an aftermarket grip that was a "third-shift" debranded original grip, and I've owned grips for an XSi, 50D and 7D. With that said, aftermarket grips are a fine way to save some money. Canon charges ridiculous sums for its grip.
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Jul 8, 2013 18:13
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Mr. Despair posted:The zeikos ones are supposed to be pretty good, especially for the money. Both my 40D and 60D have zeikos grips. All of the features still work and it hasn't fallen apart despite 3 years of use (on the 40D).
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Jul 8, 2013 20:57
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Why is this refurbed lens so drat cheap? http://www.adorama.com/INK1028WR.html Is it just that no one wants nikon 1 lenses? For that price I actually do want it.
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Jul 8, 2013 21:02
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Ive done off brand grips for my cameras and they have been fantastic. The one on my 50D is currently an adorama brand that I might have paid $40 for and its been solid. Grips are actually pretty simple to produce and dont require much technical engineering so there is really not a lot of reason for them to cost $200-300
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Jul 8, 2013 21:18
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bobfather posted:In fact, I have never seen an aftermarket grip that was a "third-shift" debranded original grip, and I've owned grips for an XSi, 50D and 7D. I think the "third shift" ones are probably made with the same mould but different materials.
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Jul 8, 2013 21:25
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Dren posted:Why is this refurbed lens so drat cheap? http://www.adorama.com/INK1028WR.html Pretty sure it's lack of demand. I've seen nikon 1 lenses marked down to that price at my local bestbuy too.
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Jul 8, 2013 21:28
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Dren posted:Is it just that no one wants a nikon 1 ? Yes.
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Jul 8, 2013 22:05
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Cutie Pie Swag~
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Dren posted:Is it just that no one wants nikon 1 lenses? For that price I actually do want it.
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Jul 8, 2013 22:10
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In Norway we have been brought up on the idea that everything is expensive here, and super cheap everywhere else in the world, and while being abroad in the past that have certainly seemed the case. Eating at restaurants, taking public transportation or taxis, etc, have always been quite a lot cheaper than Norway. I have never really looked at prices for "stuff" before though, mostly because they generally aren't directly comparable (different clothing brands, or what not). However, after being bitten by the photo equipment bug i have been abroad 3 times, and been excitedly going to every photo equipment store i could find expecting to find ridiculously cheap prices for stuff only to find that not only is it not cheaper than Norway, but sometimes a whopping 40% more expensive! I have honestly been a bit surprised about this; if we find camera equipment expensive in Norway when a lens costs 2% of our monthly salary (fictional number), how then do people buy these things in other countries if they are 10-15% of their monthly salary (more fictional numbers). Anyways, on Wednesday I am going to Hong Kong for a few days, before heading on to mainland China. Again i am hopeful that i will find cheap camera equipment, because if it is not cheap there it cant be cheap anywhere, right? Am i setting myself up for another disappointment here? I have looked a bit around on the Internet and found prices for some of the things i am interested in buying, and it is a little bit cheaper than Norway, but not the difference i was expecting/hoping. For example the Canon EOS 6D costs 13000 HKD, in Norway it costs 18300 HKD. Is it possible to barter on these kinds of products in HK? In Norway there is absolutely no bartering on anything, ever. Prices are fixed and consumer rights are very strong (electronic stores give you a 45 day cash back no question asked policy for example). In some cultures bartering is common, even expected, which is very foreign to us. Is there any point in going to HK expecting to be able to barter down that 13000 HKD price down to say 11000? I looked at rolandlim.wordpress.com for prices and recommended camera shops in HK. I don't see bartering mentioned much at all in any of the blogs/web-pages i have read about shopping in HK. Perhaps this is simply just a thing of the past, before information was widely available on the internet, and tourist traps more common.
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Jul 8, 2013 22:20
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Ineptitude posted:how then do people buy these things in other countries if they are 10-15% of their monthly salary (more fictional numbers). A combination of credit card debt, living on a bread and water diet, and neglecting our children.
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Jul 8, 2013 22:27
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Ineptitude posted:Anyways, on Wednesday I am going to Hong Kong for a few days, before heading on to mainland China. Again i am hopeful that i will find cheap camera equipment, because if it is not cheap there it cant be cheap anywhere, right? You can absolutely bargain in HK - that is the way of life there. You certainly won't cause offence by asking what the 'best price' is. However, there isn't a lot of leeway in prices as they are usually priced competitively. You get a better deal by buying multiple items and getting a combined best price and/or seeing what they can throw in for free (3rd party batteries are a good filler) I personally would suggest a chain like Broadway - great customer service/guarantee and you won't get ripped off. The smaller shops might offer better deals but a) likely to be grey imports and b) unless you know then, you don't know how honest they are.
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Jul 8, 2013 23:42
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Arg. So my Zeikos grip came in for my 6D today. It has an issue. If I adjust the ISO using the dial on the grip, my dial on the camera does not work. I have to shut everything off for a few seconds before I can regain control. Just making sure, that is not what the regular Canon grips do .. right?
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Jul 10, 2013 00:36
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mAlfunkti0n posted:Arg. So my Zeikos grip came in for my 6D today. It has an issue. If I adjust the ISO using the dial on the grip, my dial on the camera does not work. I have to shut everything off for a few seconds before I can regain control. Just making sure, that is not what the regular Canon grips do .. right? Yes, the official grip does not screw up functions.
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Jul 10, 2013 00:45
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mAlfunkti0n posted:Arg. So my Zeikos grip came in for my 6D today. It has an issue. If I adjust the ISO using the dial on the grip, my dial on the camera does not work. I have to shut everything off for a few seconds before I can regain control. Just making sure, that is not what the regular Canon grips do .. right? That sucks, especially since I vouched for them. Sorry. The only issue I've had with them is accidentally leaving the grip's wheel in between clicks, disabling the one on the camera until I moved the grip's wheel.
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Jul 10, 2013 02:29
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rcman50166 posted:That sucks, especially since I vouched for them. Sorry. The only issue I've had with them is accidentally leaving the grip's wheel in between clicks, disabling the one on the camera until I moved the grip's wheel. Oh my god, yes. It took me way too long to figure out why my camera's controls weren't working when the grip's dial was stuck in-between.
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Jul 10, 2013 02:54
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No worries, like I said before Amazon has a great return policy so I don't loose a penny. Sad though that I will probably have to snag the Canon grip. However, the Zeikos just didn't have the build I liked either .. it felt VERY cheap, the shutter and dial were very far away from the feel of the ones on the camera. I also found out last night I left my tripod in Dayton .. so, I had to write that one off as a loss. Not a huge loss of cash .. but man that stinks.
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Jul 10, 2013 14:33
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Pixel brand grips have done me nicely for my 50D and now my 5D3, give one of them a whirl before going all-in on the official Canon grip. http://www.amazon.com/Pixel-Battery-Batteries-included-Alkaline/dp/B00AZVNIH6
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Jul 10, 2013 15:31
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Just came across this video as I got into work, and figured I would post it here for all those people who still feel the need to buy UV filters to protect their lenses. Take it with a grain of salt but glass seems a lot tougher to scratch and damage than most people think. http://petapixel.com/2013/07/08/video-torture-testing-the-front-element-of-canons-thrifty-fifty-50mm-f1-8-ii/
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Jul 10, 2013 15:46
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mAlfunkti0n posted:No worries, like I said before Amazon has a great return policy so I don't loose a penny. Sad though that I will probably have to snag the Canon grip. However, the Zeikos just didn't have the build I liked either .. it felt VERY cheap, the shutter and dial were very far away from the feel of the ones on the camera. Meiki rules if you want to roll the third party dice again.
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Jul 10, 2013 22:06
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Verman posted:Just came across this video as I got into work, and figured I would post it here for all those people who still feel the need to buy UV filters to protect their lenses. Take it with a grain of salt but glass seems a lot tougher to scratch and damage than most people think. And even if you do manage to scratch it, you'll probably never notice it in photos. http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2008/10/front-element-scratches
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Jul 10, 2013 23:01
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It would probably fare worse against being dropped on a rock just because of the hardness of the mineral or whatever, but if it's just a scratch then like SoundMonkey said, it's probably not even going to be noticeable.
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Jul 10, 2013 23:08
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I dropped my D40 off a 20-30ft cliff in La Jolla one time. It put a nice dent in the sand.
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Jul 10, 2013 23:26
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This conversation reminds me of this old DigitalRev video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1tTBncIsm8 (and part 2 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWzsXeXCwuc )
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Jul 10, 2013 23:41
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Camera stuff in general does seem to be a bit more durable than people give it credit for. A year ago in France I took a bad fall when I missed a step and slammed my 60D full force into the concrete, the only sign of it was a few scratches on the plastic. The only actual appreciable damage was to the lens, which was an old metal takumar and only had the ring with the f/stop markings come loose. Speaking of takumars, I just got my 135/3.5 in the mail today. It may be old as poo poo, but the glass is nearly perfect and the little bit of futzing around I did makes me very excited, especially since it only cost me $40 including shipping. Does anyone here have experience with the Jupiter 9 85/2 lenses for m42? I was thinking of getting one because they're cheap, but they're not cheap enough to fall into the "disposable" territory like a lot of the weird poo poo I like to buy, so I was wondering what everyone's opinions on it were for general use and the occasional portrait.
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Jul 11, 2013 01:11
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E: Double post.
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Jul 11, 2013 01:11
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I've essentially thrown a D700 and attached 50 1.4 across a concrete parking lot (bag was unzipped, slung it from a car onto my back) and they both had some scratches, no big deal though. I've done something similar to a 70-200 2.8. Some damage to the filter ring, fixed with a pair of pliers. I rented a 200-400 once and was knocked into a brick wall, lens first. It was fine. If you've bought any of the more, for lack of a better term, professional bodies or lenses, you should expect them to put up with a bit of abuse. They're tools, not toys. I wrap my D800e in a shirt and throw it in my pack. If it were ever damaged due to anything other than my falling off a cliff, I'd be yelling at someone on the phone until they fixed it.
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Jul 11, 2013 02:13
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Yeah, my old Panasonic FZ-8 that I used to take climbing got smacked against rocks and covered in wet snow unreasonably often and still works fine. I don't think I dropped it from any height more than three or four times, but I'd be pretty annoyed if a considerably more expensive and supposedly better built dSLR couldn't stand up to at least the same punishment. Although I try and baby that stuff a lot more anyway.
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Jul 11, 2013 02:21
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I'm one of those people that prefers their gear to look a little beat up and.. well, used. Brassing and dings are character  Nothing wrong with babying your gear, but at some point it's going to get a little banged up and that's not a bad thing 
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Jul 11, 2013 02:22
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Verman posted:Just came across this video as I got into work, and figured I would post it here for all those people who still feel the need to buy UV filters to protect their lenses. Take it with a grain of salt but glass seems a lot tougher to scratch and damage than most people think. They're pointless.
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Jul 11, 2013 02:24
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I'll admit to buying a decent B+W for my X100 when I had it. I felt horrible doing it, but that was canceled out by the fear that something, *anything*, could happen to my fixed-lens baby.
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Jul 11, 2013 02:27
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I'm not sure about anyone else here, but I try to keep everything pristine. Bodies, lenses, caps, filters, memory cards, original boxes, CDs, wires, instructions, packaging bags, and even zip ties. The habit came out of when I was first starting. I bought everything used. I kept everything in the best condition I could so when it was time to trade up, I could get the most value out of my stuff on ebay. After being very successful (making a profit on every ownership), I became a little crazy about it. I'm absolutely content with the stuff I have now and don't plan to ever trade it in, but I still have every little thing that came with them. I can't bring myself to throw that poo poo away. A bargainer's curse  .
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Jul 11, 2013 02:41
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Helicity posted:I'll admit to buying a decent B+W for my X100 when I had it. I felt horrible doing it, but that was canceled out by the fear that something, *anything*, could happen to my fixed-lens baby. That's not that unreasonable of a fear since the entire lens block is replaced if anything happens. Also the lens protrudes slightly further out from the edge and back in again on startup and it feels like it floats if you push in on the lens. It's not exactly confidence inspiring but I have smacked the lens on a table edge once with no damage. Ricoh GRDs (at least the IV) keep an internal count of the number of times the camera has been dropped. Since I bought mine used, that and the shutter count were the first things I checked. (It came with 299 actuations, 0 drops and a small number of blurry shots of the interior of Adorama's store for the curious). Edit: Also the user-stored presets for My1, My2 and My3 were loving awful. You can tell that whoever bought the camera first tried to set it up and were like "gently caress this". I can sort of sympathize since I had to constantly reference the manual the first week to figure out the approximately six billion customizable settings you can configure. ThisQuietReverie fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 11, 2013 04:45
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I try to be nice to my gear because I don't want to be stuck waiting for repair centers if something breaks. The glass elements themselves might be tougher than people expect, but that's not the part I'm most worried about. It's all the mechanical workings and veeery precise alignment of said workings that're most likely to cause problems, even on "pro" build lenses. Depending on the MFG sending it out might mean being without that piece for a month--check lensrentals repair data post for some of their average return times: http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/lensrentals-repair-data-january-july-2012
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Jul 11, 2013 05:50
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rcman50166 posted:I'm not sure about anyone else here, but I try to keep everything pristine. Bodies, lenses, caps, filters, memory cards, original boxes, CDs, wires, instructions, packaging bags, and even zip ties. The habit came out of when I was first starting. I bought everything used. I kept everything in the best condition I could so when it was time to trade up, I could get the most value out of my stuff on ebay. After being very successful (making a profit on every ownership), I became a little crazy about it. I'm absolutely content with the stuff I have now and don't plan to ever trade it in, but I still have every little thing that came with them. I can't bring myself to throw that poo poo away. A bargainer's curse CDs? You have brought shame unto us all. Especially with the oddly relevant avatar.
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Jul 11, 2013 08:46
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SoundMonkey posted:CDs? You have brought shame unto us all. I have brought dishonor onto this house *commits seppuku*. But yeah, CDs. Original packaging makes items a lot more valuable on e-bay.
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Jul 11, 2013 21:01
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I'm going to buy new camera bodies and lenses, damage them cosmetically and then resell them with a 25% markup but labeled as "distressed" or "time machine" gear.
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Jul 11, 2013 22:07
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Just me, unpacking the car after a busy day shooting.
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Jul 12, 2013 10:46
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