Whilst i agree with Martins last blog where he says to support your local camera shop, in this day and age its every penny that counts and local stores just cant compete with on line shops, The only reason i have used my local store (wolf camera) is that they managed to locate a 600vr when the other big boys could not and for large prints as i needed some large prints quickly, On line prints are much cheaper and companies like Mpix have a very good reputation, Camera gear tends to come from B+H and Adorama although you will have read my last dealings with BH so now Adorama, Amazon and Hunts will be getting all my business, I purchase a lot of books and magazines and these come from either Barnes and Noble who are local and are good to deal with or Amazon, Whilst we are talking books i have just purchased Art Wolfs book 'Edge of the Earth corner of the sky' which is normally $75 and Barnes and Noble is currently offering for a bargain $14-Even Arts web site shows it for nearly $50-something for Xmas, Its nice to get a good rapport with your local shop but at the end of the day by buying gear on line i have saved $1000's,
The new 70-200 should be with me Monday so look for some images from it some time next week
Dave
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Saturday, 28 November 2009
News - T4 Cameras
Had a quick catch up with Bruce at T4 cameras yesterday and had a good old chat about many things Canon and Nikon, as his shops stock both.
Seems like the Witney in Oxfordshire store is now at Canon EOS Pro Store status, so congrats to them on that.
And while I appreciate that it is too late now and they are all full, but they are running a series of flash seminars at the Witney store as the first in a series, so check out their website to follow up. If I get to hear of any future ones, I will flag them up on here.
Like many camera outlets this year, it has been a more difficult trading year for many dealers, much of that thanks to the ridiculous hikes in gear prices as result of the exchange rates and some less acceptable, at least from my perspective, of gear prices from the manufacturers, and by that I am talking about the unbelievable and unacceptable hike by 50% on the RRP for the 1Dmk4. Whatever the final selling price settles out at, a 50% shift in the base price is outrageous.
Looking like it will be January before either the 1Dmk4 and the Nikon D3s hits the stores in reasonable numbers. Although Bruce did get 3 of the new model Nikon 70-200VRf2.8 lenses in yesterday, so we've got them here now Dave :-)
So to all you would be new gear purchasers, please make sure you support your local or preferred pro dealers - the service and support that I have had from Bruce in the past few years has been second to none, and don't always look to the bottom line price as your sole reason to buy from some non de-script 'on-line' only retailer.
Whenever I have bought my larger bits of kit, and certainly those that might go wrong, then I always prefer to deal with a reputable pro dealer and somewhere with a shop that I can walk it back to if I need to - that is why I have bought my kit from Bruce at T4 and will do so for all my future large value bits of kit.
Martin
Seems like the Witney in Oxfordshire store is now at Canon EOS Pro Store status, so congrats to them on that.
And while I appreciate that it is too late now and they are all full, but they are running a series of flash seminars at the Witney store as the first in a series, so check out their website to follow up. If I get to hear of any future ones, I will flag them up on here.
Like many camera outlets this year, it has been a more difficult trading year for many dealers, much of that thanks to the ridiculous hikes in gear prices as result of the exchange rates and some less acceptable, at least from my perspective, of gear prices from the manufacturers, and by that I am talking about the unbelievable and unacceptable hike by 50% on the RRP for the 1Dmk4. Whatever the final selling price settles out at, a 50% shift in the base price is outrageous.
Looking like it will be January before either the 1Dmk4 and the Nikon D3s hits the stores in reasonable numbers. Although Bruce did get 3 of the new model Nikon 70-200VRf2.8 lenses in yesterday, so we've got them here now Dave :-)
So to all you would be new gear purchasers, please make sure you support your local or preferred pro dealers - the service and support that I have had from Bruce in the past few years has been second to none, and don't always look to the bottom line price as your sole reason to buy from some non de-script 'on-line' only retailer.
Whenever I have bought my larger bits of kit, and certainly those that might go wrong, then I always prefer to deal with a reputable pro dealer and somewhere with a shop that I can walk it back to if I need to - that is why I have bought my kit from Bruce at T4 and will do so for all my future large value bits of kit.
Martin
Friday, 27 November 2009
7D Tutorials
I said before about Canon being proactive bringing out a white paper for the 1D MK4 before its even in the shops-now they have some video tutorials for the 7D-Here
Dave
Dave
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Your Santa wish list - Part 1
Posting a bit late tonight as I walked into Stratford-upon-Avon tonight to see the Christmas lights that were switched on this evening, and visit the Christmas market. Nothing tempted me to part with my cash although the Guinness on the way back was good.
With it being less than a month to Christmas no doubt many of you are turning your thoughts to your Christmas lists and wishes so I thought I would put together a few ideas over the next couple of weeks that might help you with your thoughts that you might want to buy yourself, or send your partner on to the blog with a few subtle hints, and with the links provided it will be very easy for him or her to follow :-)
Here are few thoughts from me that might be little tempters. I will catch up with Dave over the next few days and get his suggestions for part 2 next week.
So with the ever upward files sizes being generated by the modern breed of cameras, card capacities and hard drives are being pushed so why not get some more memory cards or extra back up hard drives. I just got myself another 1TB drive. Both Dave and I are fans of Western Digital drives and Sandisk Extreme 111 cards as recording and storage mediums.
On the book front, I have often talked of the virtues of the following books as must haves for the wildlife enthusiast
Finally here are few suggestions for some must have bits of Canon kit for some of your close up work if you haven't already got them.
Next week, I will make sure I have covered some additional stuff you Nikon folk based on Dave's input.
Happy shopping, or lobbying your partners at least......... :-)
Martin
Here are few thoughts from me that might be little tempters. I will catch up with Dave over the next few days and get his suggestions for part 2 next week.
So with the ever upward files sizes being generated by the modern breed of cameras, card capacities and hard drives are being pushed so why not get some more memory cards or extra back up hard drives. I just got myself another 1TB drive. Both Dave and I are fans of Western Digital drives and Sandisk Extreme 111 cards as recording and storage mediums.
On the book front, I have often talked of the virtues of the following books as must haves for the wildlife enthusiast
Finally here are few suggestions for some must have bits of Canon kit for some of your close up work if you haven't already got them.
Next week, I will make sure I have covered some additional stuff you Nikon folk based on Dave's input.
Happy shopping, or lobbying your partners at least......... :-)
Martin
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
The madness of B+H
So today i get a mail from B+H saying that they have the new 70-200 F2.8 VRII in stock-Great so i go online to order it, $2399.95 full list price which is fair enough as its a new product but then i see they want $20 for shipping which Adorama and others offer for free but don't currently have in stock, So i phone B+H and ask the salesman to waiver the shipping to match its competitors and i would order it then and there, i thought that this would be a no brainer but no, after the salesman checks i get a thumbs down and an arrogance as i am told that the lens will sell either way-They didn't get the sale, I don't need one that badly and as i have spent in excess of $20000 with them i would have expected to be treated better, This is the second time B+H have i feel treated me badly and i wont be dealing with them again, I did try to explain this to the sales guy but he put the phone down on me-Adorama have just got a new customer, I have dealt with them before and they have been very good
update-2 hrs later and i have ordered one from Amazon with free 2 day shipping-B+H what a bunch of bozo's-lost a good customer for $20
Dave
update-2 hrs later and i have ordered one from Amazon with free 2 day shipping-B+H what a bunch of bozo's-lost a good customer for $20
Dave
Getting lost in technology PT2
A few blogs ago when i was in NY i said about relying on the everyday gizmos that we take for granted-the laptop and GPS both giving me problems and leaving me stranded-well the bad luck seems to continue and the last few days my desk top has been locking up and blue screening-never a good time when these things happen-thank god that everything is double backed up, I use CA anti virus and a full system check has shown nothing untoward so last night a defrag in the hope that it will sort out the gremlins, Today it has taken 20 mins and 3 resets to get this far so i guess the Dell will have to go in for a check up as its under 2 years old-not a bad spec and i dont want to have to fork out for a new PC just yet
Thank god that its holiday time over here-thanks giving tomorrow and that means that my wife has a few days off so we can try to relax and drop in on a few places to check out for future wildlife visits
So i will make this a short one incase it crashes again and just say to all my American buddies a big happy holidays and to my Euro buddies-get back to work
Dave
Thank god that its holiday time over here-thanks giving tomorrow and that means that my wife has a few days off so we can try to relax and drop in on a few places to check out for future wildlife visits
So i will make this a short one incase it crashes again and just say to all my American buddies a big happy holidays and to my Euro buddies-get back to work
Dave
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
News - A few wildlife stories
Here are few interesting stories that have caught my eye that I thought I would share with you.
Earlier this year, I posted a number of images of Painted Lady butterflies. It has been a bumper year this year, the like of which hasn't been seen for many years. Well here is a story about their migration.
While on the subject of butterflies, this story also got my attention as it is relatively local to me, and talks about the important work creating and managing habitat in Worcestershire. Hopefully this work will pay off next year.
Over at the RSPB site, this story makes for sad reading and follows on from earlier themes I mentioned before here around the random killings of birds of prey - this time it is the plight of Red Kites. Unfortunate situation as they are doing very well in certain areas.
Also check out today's Blue Peter - you will have to look at BBC i-Player by the time you read this. Sea Eagles from Mull, from were I have previously done a number of reports are featured. Although sadly not available for any blog readers from outside the UK. Blame the Beeb not me.
Looking at The Gloster Birder site, it seems like it is a good time to get to WWT Slimbridge at this time of year, with lots of interesting winter visitor arrivals.
If you hear of interesting stories, please let us know via the comments, we would like to hear what is going on in your part of the world.
Earlier this year, I posted a number of images of Painted Lady butterflies. It has been a bumper year this year, the like of which hasn't been seen for many years. Well here is a story about their migration.
While on the subject of butterflies, this story also got my attention as it is relatively local to me, and talks about the important work creating and managing habitat in Worcestershire. Hopefully this work will pay off next year.
Over at the RSPB site, this story makes for sad reading and follows on from earlier themes I mentioned before here around the random killings of birds of prey - this time it is the plight of Red Kites. Unfortunate situation as they are doing very well in certain areas.
Also check out today's Blue Peter - you will have to look at BBC i-Player by the time you read this. Sea Eagles from Mull, from were I have previously done a number of reports are featured. Although sadly not available for any blog readers from outside the UK. Blame the Beeb not me.
Looking at The Gloster Birder site, it seems like it is a good time to get to WWT Slimbridge at this time of year, with lots of interesting winter visitor arrivals.
If you hear of interesting stories, please let us know via the comments, we would like to hear what is going on in your part of the world.
Martin
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