Buying Online
In this day and age there are a lot of specialty items that are purchased only by means of the web. This is especially true of some photographic equipment if you don’t exactly have a well-stocked local retailer. Some smaller retailers cannot always stock an abundance of several items. The web brings a lot of these retailers small and large to consumers from all over the globe. Chances are if there’s a niche to fill for your hobby or profession you can find it on the web.
When an abundance of sellers and consumers flock to the web to obtain their desired equipment they do not flock alone. A large number of scammers follow that flock. These scammers can make online buying experience a nightmare for even the most cautious of consumers. This article is written to give you some weaponry for your mind as you set out to not only research what you need to purchase but also how to avoid most of the common consumer traps.
Before you set out immediately to online retailers it helps to actually understand if the product is right for you. Some may already know exactly what they need, but will want to catch some key points. For this photography review sites are a dime a dozen, but I am going to list some popular ones and their benefits in my opinion on each.
Digital Photography Review
Dpreview.com has to be one of the most popular photography review site specifically oriented on the digital photography market. Many reviews conducted by the site staff themselves are very long and very well conducted. The reason I like DPReview is that it allows me as a consumer to look at the product step by step and make my own assessments based on the provided data. I usually do not skip right to the conclusion page as 99% of the time the products are either “Recommended” or “Highly Recommended” and do not offer much face value for whether its not it is for you. Best way to approach this site in my opinion is to follow each page particularly photographic test and make your own judgment on what is most important to you. Do not rely only on the conclusions of the reviewers.
Luminous Landscape
luminous-landscape is another very popular photography oriented site, and not just for digital photographers. While they are not too much of a review site they do offer a lot of interesting information and insights. Some of the articles can get very technical such as comparing why a bumblebee cannot fly against how film is binary compared to digital. It is also one of those sites to satisfy our curiosity on products we as average consumers would never be able to afford, such as comparing medium format digital backs to the highest end digital 35mm SLRs. This site may be a good approach if you do not mind a lot of technical discussions into understanding what features truly are important to you.
Fred Miranda User Reviews
Fred-Miranda user reviews are another possible resource. While they are not usually concise as the other reviews conducted by the site staffs, they can offer a more personal insight on the product. It is important to understand that many users due to their animosity can be very one-sided when commenting on a product so it works best when reading these to take most with a grain of salt and combine the findings with the judgments you’ve made from the review sites. The FM user reviews pretty much averages each user’s numeric ratings and allows you to read pros, cons and comments from each user. Something you might find in a user review but not in a site-run review may be as simple as if a lens felt too heavy by many of the users.
Utilizing websites such as the above will also help give you an idea of the typical selling price or suggested retail price. This is important because it helps to know whether you are being grossly overcharged for an item, or if the price seems immediately too good to be true.
It may not be a bad idea to check some of your favorite message boards or photography community sites. Your own peers can offer you some of their own advice, and message boards are like combining several heads into one which can be both good and bad. Either way a community forum can be a handy resource to obtain some information.
