The FACzen Image: If someone does NOT want your business...

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

If someone does NOT want your business...

...then I think you should go out of your way NOT to give it to them.

We'll start this tale a little further back, though. John invited me over to play with his D800. I had already decided that I want one, the question was "when?" and whether I should get the D800 or the D800e. Now that I tried it: I WANT IT EVEN MORE! I told him that end of the summer was the most likely time I'd be able to buy it and he told me, "if you get on a waiting list today, you might get one in November!". He was wrong.

Christmas. If you're lucky. And you put down a $600 deposit.

By the way, this camera is OUTSTANDING and as a bonus, I tried my venerable, not-so-sharp (so the reviewers say. I think it is...) Nikkor 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 VR and BONUS! It's an FX lens! I did not know that!

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late!) I decided to raid my D800 piggy bank for the $500 I needed for that new tripod I've been after. I came across this thing on someone's blog a couple of months ago and it seems to be perfect! Carbon fiber, under 4 pounds with the ball head, converts to a monopod, packs up really, really short, and extends to full height. It's just so innovative.

The tripod is called "Brian" (told you it was innovative!) and it's made by 3 Legged Thing in England, and it's sold by B&H here: (link). The manufacturer's website is here, but it doesn't work too well. If you're interested, click here to see the versatility of this tripod.

By the way, I think I got the last one with the blue ball head at B&H, but they have the black one.

I'm slowly getting to the reason for this saga... I wanted a spare quick release plate, but B&H was out of stock. Adorama had it, though so I started to place an online order there.

OK. B&H wants business from Canadian customers. They had some shipping issues a while ago, but they've settled on Purolator Ground and the whole shipping thing cost me $16. Plus taxes, of course. I could have even saved half of that by invoking my NAPP membership, but didn't bother.

When I tried to enter the order at Adorama, it turns out the only way they'll ship to Canada is via Fedex. And there's an automatic $60 to $80 brokerage fee charged ON TOP OF THE SHIPPING AND TAXES. I was ordering a $40 mounting plate, and they wanted me to pay $100 for shipping. Can't be right.

So I phoned them. Sure enough, yes, that's the only way we'll ship to Canada, too bad, so sad. No flexibility, no attempt to solve it. I could ship to a US friend for free and have them drop it in the mail, but like I said at the top, Hell will freeze over before I give them my business. End of rant.

B&H is a nice place to do business. Click the link at the right or here if you want to look through their stuff. I have an affiliate account so I get some brownie points (I have one at Adorama too. Don't think I'll post that link...).

So I guess I'm stuck with my D300 for a while more. Could be worse... it takes good pictures. Here are some more from last time.

The old Brickworks Arboretum. It took a little work to make this shot because there was some construction going on but Photoshop did its thing! HDR, of course.

Distillery Truck. They set this up just for us HDR photographers, I think!

Old Warehouse. This is just across the street from the main entrance to the Distillery District. These shipping doors must have been accessed by some sort of elevator device. There's a sign proposing to tear down this 6-storey heritage building and replace it with a 34 storey hotel/condo.

Faces. These ladies were both at the Distillery District, one the mâitresse d' at a restaurant,
the other a flower vendor. Lighting was great!

Red-winged blackbird doin' his thing at the birding spot in Whitby

And finally, I shot a couple of trillium shots yesterday. The white trilliums turn pink just before they expire, so I guess this is it for another year!