ebay madness

[shiato storm]

yes...it pays to read the description. there are 2 methods, bid early at a reasonable price and leave it. or snipe out some low priced items at the last second...

either method can work and be equally justified/justifiable

[shiato storm]

its addictive this ebay stuff isn't it - i've found a few lenses at next to nothing, ones which I could do with...
damn this bidding lark!!!

[Tifosi]

I always snipe, if you bid early and don't bid your maximum bid i.e. you revise your bid higher later you are in a sense only bidding yourself up.

Sniping has its advantages that the other person doesn't know that they have competition and therefore sometimes don't bother watching the auction close or if they do by the time you snipe its often too late for them depending how good you are and how fast you connection is.

[ReDOcToBeR]

I always (if I remember) bid in the last 20 sec's which having a fast connection helps alot, damn even my ex rings me up to bid on an item for her as she's only on 56k and gets outbid by the time the page does a refresh.

Made an epic boo boo the other day by putting six ok'ish pc games up in a single lot at 99p start thinking they were bound to go for around £20+ and they went for.....................you guessed it 99p DOH, I've only been using the site since 2001 so you'd think I'd learned that lesson by now, nope because there's nothing like being so cock sure of yourself for it to come around and smack you squarely in the face to remind ones self to put a damned reserve on just in case.

Let that be a lesson (I don't listen to folks) to you

[iMc]

my mate had his phone on yesterday. went from £67 to £99 in less than 30secs. crazy.

[Tom]

what lenses did you grab shiato? remember only L glass completes the weather seal

[Knoxville]

Ebay is super addictive, i swear i've spent in excess of about £200 on there over the past month :s

I'll see your £200 and raise you £520 (needed a new gig worthy bass and the got addicted to the cheap cds that can be found )

[noah]

DOH!

i thought i'd follow the advice on here and found a sniping program to do the dirty work for me, but i got sniped by a sniper!! my prog bidded with 6 seconds to go, but he bidded with 7 seconds to go with the same bid! ROTTERS i was sure i was sneaky enought to win. maybe next time eh

[shiato storm]

what lenses did you grab shiato? remember only L glass completes the weather seal

currently looking at some serious L lenses. I plan to use it for climbing. the 1N has the advantage of a battery pack - apparently it can come off - so have the convienience and sureness of weather sealing. ok its a bit chunky but it'll survive the odd knock. also want to get into wildlife photography a lot...so a seal unit would help there too. basically its going to be a good zoom plus one that tops at around 100 and a wide angle for landscapes - cause we all like the odd landscape don't we.
the 70-200 2.8 L looks a good bet at the mo as a zoom, with an extender can get x2. or may go for the 100-300 (or is it to 400) and then get a midrange like 50-135ish (don't quote me on the lengths). my dad will let me buy his 14-35 sigma (ultrawide baby!!) off him as he hardly uses his slr, so I'm sorted in that area. unless he gets himself a dSLR in which case he'll use his current canon lenes, nothing fancy like L just functional USM ones; 35-80, 70-300 and 14-35
any advice gladly taken

I do plan on getting a dSLR to fit the lenses i get but this 1 series at the price i got it was too much of a bargain to miss - I haven't got an auto focus SLR!! although I love the OM-1 i want to have autofocus, it will help loads for taking rowing pictures too. try focusing on a fast moving boat without AF, I have managed to get publication using a camera like that but an AF would have been nice!
I'll keep you posted on how things go..

there is a 70-200 IS L that I bid 400 for, this morning its upto 500. ok so it costs 1300+ new but i was hoping for a good deal. the camera i just bought was less than 30% its retail price...

[shiato storm]

- looking at 24-70mm in canon (L), sigma and tamron...which can be used in dSLRs. though I hear of problems with the sigma and the 20D. incompatable!

[Tom]

although not weather sealed ive not heard a bad thing about the tamron 28-75 F2.8, at a quarter the price of the 24-70 and some people for whom the price didnt matter chose the tamron

btw the 35-80 your dad has is the macro moddable one

The 70-200 F2.8L IS is an awesome lens, i have used my friends a couple of times and I was reluctant to give it back lol.

You do know that you won't be able to get a 20D or its replacement now? Now that you've touched a 1 series, thats it, impossible for you to buy anything that isnt now

[shiato storm]

well, I'm hoping I'm not that snobbish!! lol. hehe, I won't mind using a dSLR like a 20D, its quality enough. i just couldnt believe it; a 1 series for £350!! ...arrives tomorrow, will pop down to the shops and have a look at the 24-70 range lenses to get an idea of what they feel like... one of the reasons for going for the camera I did was cause it has weatherproofing, sometihng which the 20D doesn't have...perhaps the 'next' canon dSLR at that price point will have (as I said before, mountaineering/wildlife/extreme environments...bit harsh without protection!). So it would stand to reason to go for a lens with dust/moisture protection and in that respect it would seem a worthwhile investment to go for an L lens since it would last and last, and retain its value regardless of the camera body I use at the time being digital or film. to me lenses are more important so if I get half decent ones and over time just change the bodies then 'll be ok, if you see my logic. one other thing is that digital (as is its nature) uses battery power more than film (unless its all become highly efficient and I'm wrong) and I'd hate to be caught out with no battery power!...

will have to get that 50mm mkII either way cause its such a bargain. £55 at 7dayshop...unless you've seen it cheaper?...

[Flibb]

Have bee toying with the idea of getting a dslr for a while, only problem is that the current pentax is a tad arse. I would like to keep using my current lenses, as I have quiet a range, I also should be able to use my dedicated flash. Think im going to wait for a couple of new models to come out.

In the meantime have been looking at getting a minolta A1 or A2 (ebay), its a prosumer compact digital, but has a 28-200m 35mm equiv lens, antishake, and can use dedicated TTL flash. Like the look of this as it seems to be designed for tripod mounting, could be ideal for bolting on the top of my telescope. And is still semi compact, can also take bolt on adapters to change the focal length, and they keep the antishake function due to them being an addon for the main lens.

[shiato storm]

yes, i think dSLRs will be picking up in time but at teh moment its such a volatile market. the 20D is, to my mind, the first and best of the new generation - despite the D70 update to the D70s. it will be interesting though to see how people take to the D50 coming out this summer...

[Tom]

just caught the ebay bug too, lookin at zeiss / other top quality manual focus lenses for the m42 mount and got an adaptor lol

[shiato storm]

hehe!