The "New Gear/Willy Waving" thread

hyperst · 12 Mar 2013 at 21:52

My first foray into any kind of DSLR or any kind of SLR, Nikon D3100, hope I can get some use out of it, I thought it was broken at first, charged the battery, put it in, got my Kingston SD 2GB card from my old compact and inserted it and it just threw up an error saying the card may be damaged, so put it back in my compact and the compact will not start with the SD card in, hmmm, think the Nikon killed the SD card.

So a trip to the shops to buy a Sandisk extreme 8GB for a tenner, and it worked, relief

jaket · 13 Mar 2013 at 10:41

Brought a Panny DMC-LX7! I must say its a wonderful compact!!

Ksanti · 13 Mar 2013 at 12:35

Why is it that bags are so expensive? They don't strike me as particularly needing to be given there's next to no marketing done on them and designing them isn't the most involved process in the world.

The Messenger Boy packs were on sale last I saw them so that's actually reasonably tempting as I do need a larger bag when I'm going abroad to take all my gear in one (at the moment lenses, laptop stuff and bodies come in my kata 467 and flashguns, chargers etc. go in a padded insert in my hold luggage but I'll be picking up a few more lenses before my Nikon system is complete so I'll need more room)

Borden · 13 Mar 2013 at 16:11

It's because it's a niche market and they know people will pay. I completely agree with you though, I paid £65 for my Kata 466 and that was painful spending that much on a backpack.

D.P. · 13 Mar 2013 at 16:32

I paid around £350 for my F-stop backpack + ICU,
crazy expensive but a very nice camera pack.

Camera bags are not too bad compared to other things though. Why to this day there are no high quality but reasonably priced tripods and heads I dont know.Yeah, CF is expensive but not that expensive. I don't understand why there are so many tripods made, almost all of them completely useless.

Jase · 13 Mar 2013 at 16:37

Nothing exciting but having used it I love it :

Raymond Lin · 13 Mar 2013 at 16:40

Jase said:
Nothing exciting but having used it I love it :

Jesus christ, how much is that?

Jase · 13 Mar 2013 at 16:55

Raymond Lin said:
Jesus christ, how much is that?

Not too bad really £325 + plates etc.

Raymond Lin · 13 Mar 2013 at 16:59

Total?

2StepSteve · 13 Mar 2013 at 17:04

Hrmm my Sigma 35mm won't be with me today, looks like it landed at an airport in East Midlands, a long way from me!

Jase · 13 Mar 2013 at 17:09

Raymond Lin said:
Total?

Just over £500 but a standard arca plate is £60 so you could be up and running for £385.

Raymond Lin · 13 Mar 2013 at 17:16

What legs are those going on?

Jase · 13 Mar 2013 at 17:36

Raymond Lin said:
What legs are those going on?

At the moment a Manfrotto 057 Carbon Fibre but I'm picking up a new Gitzo on the weekend. I had a look at the Gitzo heads but didn't like them.

In the end it was a choice between this setup and a really right stuff but I couldn't be bothered with the importing (and the wait).

gary996 · 13 Mar 2013 at 19:34

Jase said:
Nothing exciting but having used it I love it :

Raymond Lin said:
Jesus christ, how much is that?

As much as I like nice head

I don't think I could pay that much

GSXRMovistar · 13 Mar 2013 at 21:23

Jase said:
Just over £500 but a standard arca plate is £60 so you could be up and running for £385.

Why so expensive? :eek:

Tysonator · 13 Mar 2013 at 22:09

-Ad- said:
5DIII is ok

These arrived the other day.

Treating the gf to her first SLR, giving her my Tamron 17-50mm to go with it. I couldn't go without treating myself to my first white lens, all ready for the Grand Prix in China next month

I Have this lens and it is great for travel !

Jase · 13 Mar 2013 at 22:10

GSXRMovistar said:
Why so expensive?

The release plates are about £60 each and therefore needed one for my telephoto and camera. The standard plate is flat with a pin in it that locates into the hole under the camera but if you have a grip it does not line up so I also got a plate with a curved back that stops movement as it is shaped to the grip.

You can actually remove the pin from the standard plate and it then fits on the grip no problem. I was worried that without the pin though it may move however in practice it doesn't. So really you could get away with the one plate. I also needed an adaptor for the L Bracket which is why the overall cost was so much.

But as I said above if you don't need the extra bits (which you probably don't) then you would be up and running for £385. That may still sound a little expensive but I'm so impressed with the head, it is really smooth and uniformed and there is no effort at all needed to tighten and hold in place. I tried a few heads before getting this one and it's by far the best I've tried.

D.P. · 13 Mar 2013 at 22:32

^^^, exactly, I tried lots of heads and settled on a Really Right Stuff BH-55. It all adds up but definitely one of my better investments. Made a big difference to my photography, much more enjoyable to use than any previous tripod head and I get better results.

people willingly spend a ton of money buying expensive lenses but skimp on a tripod so are unable to achieve the quality that the lens can provide.

GSXRMovistar · 13 Mar 2013 at 22:58

Jase said:
The release plates are ..

Sorry what I meant was why so expensive over other ball type heads, although looking at manfrotto they have a 'Hydrostatic' ball head range which seem equally expensive. What does this type of ball head provide over the standard types?

Jase · 14 Mar 2013 at 08:55

GSXRMovistar said:
Sorry what I meant was why so expensive over other ball type heads, although looking at manfrotto they have a 'Hydrostatic' ball head range which seem equally expensive. What does this type of ball head provide over the standard types?

The mechanism for locking the ball is much better giving it an even force, better friction and higher capacity. Also on the this head the ball is shaped slightly different giving it even friction whether in vertical or horizontal positions. There would be the normal things like build quality etc to but I think to see the main differences you need to use it. I really couldn't believe the difference between using this and my old mafrotto.