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SMERSH Mouth posted:Does anyone else here think that KEH isn't as conservative with their ratings as they supposedly used to be? GonadTheBallbarian posted:Try sent me four unusable Nikon 70-200s rated EX/LN Helicity posted:KEH service and grading was amazing to me a few years ago. Last year I had a run of bad experiences and poorly graded items, culminating with me emailing their customer support about the data breach and never hearing back from them. Something may have changed. timrenzi574 posted:They (possibly?) tried to pull a fast one on me the last time I sent stuff in. They downgraded one item from LN- to EX+ , and told me it was going to take like 280$ off the quote they had originally given me. I reran the quoting tool using the new grades they sent me, and the current offer price was actually higher than when I had initially run it with the higher grading. When I pointed this out to the guy, he ignored me for 3 days then suddenly came back and said they had "made a big mistake!" and would give me what the new run of the quoting tool had said. I've been leery since then. alkanphel posted:I wonder if the change happened at the same time they changed their website. Probably. If you check out their Glassdoor reviews you hear that the original owner sold the business to some investment group right around that time. It takes some time for pirate equity types to get their hooks properly deep into an organization, and turn over the old crew, so the timeline makes a lot of sense.
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Aug 22, 2016 04:37
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This is a bit late, but re: traveling with camera bags: This obviously wouldn't work when there's no place on the plane to put a carry-on, but for trips where overhead space is available but limited, I've had good luck with outright bribery. Have cash on hand. Tell the flight attendant it's important to you and you'll hand $20 (or $50 if you feel that's appropriate) on the spot to anyone who gate-checks your bag so your can put yours in the space. It hasn't come up often, but it's also never failed me. You might have to wait until the plane is mostly-empty to move around and retrieve it, but someone always volunteers.
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Sep 30, 2018 22:48
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N'th-ing that Really Right Stuff is Really Good Stuff, but very far from the only company doing what they're doing. This said, I feel obligated to remind people that Joe Johnson is an "equal but separate" kind of guy who donated $16,000 to California's Prop 8 gay-marriage-ban efforts back when that was going on, so keep this in mind if that's important to you. e: I'm not taking a position that it should or shouldn't matter; gay marriage is currently protected (in theory) under Obergefell. But I'd be willing to put a table bet on how he feels about "exceptions based on closely-held religious belief", too, so... just choose where you can live with and your money going. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Dec 5, 2018 |
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Dec 5, 2018 01:28
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um excuse me posted:There's something weird about a company who has so many products not having the capital to manufacture a tripod. It may not even be about capital, as such. There's a small trend in business to use Kickstarter as risk mitigation and market research in one. Why put your own capital on the line when you can put down someone else's? Plus you can gauge the demand for your product: if you blow away your projections you order more extra units as you go (take advantage of the economies of scale), but if you just barely squeak over the funding target maybe you don't order as many.
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May 21, 2019 21:43
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theHUNGERian posted:Is there a recommended entry-level (<$500) bellows (and whatever else is needed) that has tilt shift capabilities? It does not have to be light/compact, but it should work with a Sony E-mount. The cheapest one-stop-shop is going to be one of the Fotodiox Pro "TLT ROKR" adapters, and most likely a medium-format lens to stick on the end for the bigger coverage. They won't be a Cadillac solution like the Novoflex or Cambo setups, but they'll work. If you need the extreme macro coverage that a bellows can give (and not just a light-tight connector), I've also seen this jury-rigged with a Nikon PB-4 macro bellows and a daisy chain of adapters, but this starts being extremely limited in its use cases very quickly. Depends what you want. e: I have to say, Fotodiox standard line stuff is hit-or-miss sometimes, but I have a deep love for their "Pro" line. Their quality is surprisingly good and they will make adapters for just about any batshit weird idea they can get their hands on. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jul 4, 2019 |
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Jul 4, 2019 22:09
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My Spirit Otter posted:I have no existing camera equipment, and my budget is non-existent. I'm going to be buying a used camera and lenses, I just don't know where to start and goons are a great resource. I'd say SLR would probably suit my needs best, but I defer to your guys opinion, as I have no fuckin clue what I'm talking about yet. How non-existent is "non-existent"? We live in times where you can get a Nikon F3HP or F5 (or most comparable pro-grade cameras) for $250 if you're patient (no lens, or maybe a kit 50), and those are basically the Mercedes 300TDs of cameras. The "no money at all" Dorkroom favorite is the Pentax ME Super, but you should drop into the film photography thread and chat with us! We're mostly friendly unless someone mentions Fomapan. I should ask, though, what are you looking for in photography? What do you want out of it, personally? I think this is really the first and most important question you should answer before putting any money down, especially if it's tight to begin with.
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Oct 7, 2019 19:27
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Martytoof posted:Having an internal debate on whether or not to get a Gorillapod 3K for travel. I quite literally don’t do any tripod-setup photography abroad, but I would love a small compact tabletop that I can put on a wall, table, or wrap around a branch to get okay night shots or long exposures and the like. The nice thing about the Gorillapod design is that a razor saw and some rubber cement or epoxy will fix that size issue right up for you.
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Jan 29, 2020 21:44
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kefkafloyd posted:Pretty sure they got bought out by someone. I forget who, maybe they’re subsetting the brand. The original Tamrac company went bankrupt and got bought out by Gura Gear back in 2014. There's been some back-and-forth over which brand the company uses more actively, and for a while Gura Gear just did all its trading under Tamrac. I think they just abandoned Twitter last year; the Gura Gear Twitter stopped updating late last year, too. Meanwhile, the Tamrac Instagram last updated back in April - not "recently" but not a year, either. B&H and Adorama still have a lot of Tamrac stuff listed (and the out-of-stock is "backorder", not "discontinued") so I expect they're still around in one form or another. Maybe it's just in Coronavirus-related hibernation?
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Jun 20, 2020 15:14
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Thom12255 posted:It's weird how people talk about investing in camera equipment but no one says that when buying a car. You should check out the Bad With Money thread. "Truck equity" is a running joke over there.
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Jul 11, 2020 18:37
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ExplodingChef posted:Bought my first DSLR yesterday (Rebel t7 with the kit lens and the 75-300mm lens) and was wondering about extension tubes. I'd definitely like a macro lens at some point for all-important things like capturing pictures of random insects in my garden and toe beans from the cats, but I'm very much in "can't spend more money on new glass for a while" mode. Extension rings work fine. There's a small learning curve, but it's the same way you get macro-level magnification on Hasselblads and plenty of other super-pro setups. Excepting for some corner cases in optical design (and then mostly at the super-serious high end), all a "macro" lens has that a "non-macro" lens doesn't is an extra-long helical coil, so the extension rings let you pre-supply that length. I'm not sure if the T7 keeps you from using non-electronically-coupled lenses, though; you should check. Be prepared to go all-manual on the lens side (the body should still do a lot of compensation for you; don't worry). The 49mm of extension that lens gives you will get you *really* close to 1/1 at the 55mm end of your kit lens (i.e. "the projection on your sensor is the same size as real life") and quite a bit beyond on the 18mm side, so you'll have more macro range than you can shake a stick at. Just go out early in the morning when the insects are still sluggish, and hope the cats stay still.
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Jul 29, 2020 18:34
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Verman posted:I only watched the video because of this post. Given his spending habits, that might make a tidy profit all on its own.
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Aug 12, 2020 21:01
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Splinter posted:A true photographer holds the camera at chest level and focuses solely by looking at the distance scale numbers on the lens. The framing/composition is intuited simply from viewing the scene and knowing the focal length of the lens. Ah, the Brooklyn Beckham school?
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Aug 13, 2020 18:13
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theHUNGERian posted:How is that guy doing? I got a lot of lols out of his posts (assuming we are talking about the same guy). Checking his Reddit history... right now he's convinced he has the technical skills to lead a one-man revolution in phone camera design. He has decided that if he can find employment, he will save up for an EOS R5 and a Panasonic S1R. Dreams of large format still consume him, but he has yet to shoot a single frame of film in any size. His 3200 soldiers on. Also he asked a woman if she would make a custom poop video for him.
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Aug 14, 2020 03:02
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Helen Highwater posted:Note that he's been asking pretty much the same questions over and over for the past two years or so. In every case he lists some gear that he's picked out and then asks advice on some utterly inconsequential part of the set up. Previously he's asked for advice on which lightmeter to get with his large format dreamkit, or which shutter release is recommended. He's never shot a single frame of film and he wants to open a high-end gallery store in a mall selling 72" metal prints of his photos for thousands of dollars a pop. He has posted some of his photos and they are bad. Like, 'pressed the shutter at the wrong moment but uploaded it anyway' bad. I find it fascinating that he has a persistent dream of shooting Velvia 50, despite having a chronic allergy to saturation. Half of his comments on other peoples' photos are "you should print it extra large and sell it for thousands of dollars" and the other half are "it's too saturated". You'd think he'd have looked at some Velvia in all this time. He does know what it's famous for, right?
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Aug 18, 2020 07:08
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bird with big dick posted:Used twice and it broke. Cheap junk. Wow, that doesn't even look like carbon fiber all the way through. Who's that, MeFoto? I'd be a little surprised; mine is aluminum but I've used it for years and it's holding up fine. I assume you've reached out to their customer service; have they said anything?
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Aug 23, 2020 02:52
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theHUNGERian posted:I have not, but I have heard from at least independent people that KEH is ultra-conservative in their evaluations, where bargain = a couple of meaningless scratches that do not impact function in any way. And KEH accepts returns, so there is little risk. KEH was bought out by a private equity group back in 2013 and hasn't been the same since. They're basically honest and their warranty is excellent, but their inspections are neither as conservative nor as thorough as they once were.
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Sep 29, 2020 02:28
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Fools Infinite posted:Conservative grading would add more nice stock to the lowest level of gear, but even a well meaning company would be selling some funky stuff in the bottom category unless they simply refused to buy/sell bad looking but functional gear. Yes, but there's a lot less overall testing in their inventory, too, so once in a while something genuinely broken sneaks through. You can't expect a dealer to do a top-to-bottom test of every function for everything, naturally, but they used to be better about it. These days I'm convinced it's all but strictly cosmetic grading. For example, in late 2013, a friend of mine got an "EX" Mamiya lens from KEH that only fired on one shutter speed no matter what the setting was. It looked "EX", but clearly hadn't been tested at all. A couple years ago I bought an "EX+" Hasselblad magazine that jammed, every time, on exposure 6, and required a half-wind/unmount/wind-again maneuver to keep going. To their credit, in both cases they were quite cheerful about taking the returns and either sending replacements or refunds. The transitional period 2013-2015 or so was rough, but they've gotten a fair bit better since. I should emphasize that they're not bad; they're just "another retailer" instead of "first choice, go here and forget about it".
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Sep 29, 2020 19:12
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birds posted:I have a 907X on the way as an early Christmas present to myself. This is the most expensive piece of camera equipment I’ve ever purchased. Has anyone gotten their cameras insured? I did it through a rider on my renter's insurance. It's pretty cheap, and worth the peace of mind, especially if you plan travel with it (most renter's insurance will have a limit of the total policy on any single item, and on how much they'll pay out if you're traveling, but a rider will sidestep those).
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Dec 2, 2020 20:39
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Crossposting, because he's been a favorite in this thread as well:Yond Cassius posted:Reddit Poop Guy is living his dreams!
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Mar 17, 2021 03:01
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frogbs posted:Edit: Also, can anyone recommend any other made in-the-US camera bags other than Domke and PortaBrace? Tough Traveler? There are a couple well-regarded leatherworking companies making camera bags, too, but that gets really expensive really fast. Seems like mostly a fashion thing, even as tough and well-built as the bags can be.
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Jun 13, 2021 08:28
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Guacamayo posted:Is KEH any good? They used to be pretty much the gold standard of good deals on used kit, but some private equity company bought them out back in 2013, and it drove off a lot of their more experienced people. Their testing/inspection and grading are not as thorough or conservative as they once were, but they're not nearly as bad as they got at the bottom. I've done a little buying/selling recently with them and I wouldn't be any more hesitant about them than any of the other big traders; give your stuff a careful inspection and trial run when you get it and don't be shy about calling them back if you find anything; they'll take care of you on the customer-service end.
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Dec 4, 2021 18:24
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theHUNGERian posted:Can you elaborate? B&H has a history of allegations of racism and sexism allegations. I don't think they've lost any of the associated lawsuits, but they sure do attract and settle a lot of them. e: To their credit, four or five years back I did comment on this in their 'customer satisfaction survey'. I got a personal response from Henry Posner about it, and he even invited me to set up an appointment to talk to him about my concerns. He seemed to take the idea seriously, at least, even if he denied the news reports. e2: They are definitely anti-union though. He was convinced that the worst of the allegations were union propaganda to drive customers away. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Dec 4, 2021 |
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Dec 4, 2021 22:27
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Guess I'll just buy from Amazon then... Right, there's not great options on that front; I think you'll be hard-pressed to find a union-friendly shop. I'm just saying the "All the accusations are union propaganda!" take stuck in my mind. Adorama does get better Glassdoor ratings on employee treatment, though (for example). And out here in Seattle most of the Glaser's employees have been around for many years, which suggests that they're doing OK on the satisfaction front. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Dec 5, 2021 |
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Dec 5, 2021 01:39
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Cognac McCarthy posted:These look really cool and could be really helpful. Are the thread sizes and such standard across all camera bodies, or do I need to be sure to pick one that will fit my camera model? A lot of them list specific models in the product name but that always looks like SEO nonsense to me The thread is almost universal, as long as your shutter has a threaded release at all. In terms of late-model cameras, I think only Leica has their own proprietary thread (and only for a few models, mostly the M2xx series). Even they realized that this was dumb and backed off of it. If you start buying vintage gear from before about WWII, all bets are off.
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May 19, 2023 19:20
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Admiral Bosch posted:Putting this here instead of the film thread since i think my question is more broadly applicable. My gear budget is on a slow timeline - I would like to purchase a reasonably nice 35mm SLR at some point this year. I am happy to take my time shopping, particularly as lens acquisition for said camera body will also probably be slow. I would like to get an SLR that has a mount standard on which I can put an adapter to easily continue to use my LTM/M39 lenses in the interim. Does anyone know off the top of their head what mount standards would fit this requirement? I know there are a lot out there that "can" do that, but I wouldn't be able to focus to infinity for the ones I've (briefly) looked at so far. You're looking for something that doesn't exist. LTM/39 has a 28.8mm flange focal distance, so you need to match that distance from the film in order to get infinity focus. The shortest flange distance ever built on a full-size 35mm SLR was the Alpa, and that one was… I think 37.8mm, 9mm too long for infinity focus with an LTM lens. You would have to mount the lens inside the camera and it would block the mirror. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Mar 4, 2024 |
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Mar 4, 2024 18:47
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