B and H PhotoVideo: The Most Reliable Online Photography Equipment Vendor in the World

My last post was about my upset with UPS whose business practices surely result in hundreds if not thousands of complaints a day ... they seem to be about minimizing their expenses by minimizing their services and self monitoring in order to maximize profits. At the other end of the spectrum is B&H Photo Video of New York City whose word is their bond. I have been a customer of B&H for over ten years, starting back in the days of Usenet. Even back then they believed in Customer Service, dealing with complaints of customers right out in the open for all the world to see and doing one damn fine job of it. And even back then, it felt as though most of the complaints brought to them were about the poor delivery services of ... wait for it ... UPS, where they explained over and over that they had no control over the abysmal practices of UPS.

But you remember that most recent package of mine that they lost? Well, I did have to initiate the complaint rather than UPS stepping up and owning their failure, but it entailed a simple online query about what to do sent to their customer service department. And I got a reply that said essentially that they would look into it and ship another shutter release when the ten day "waiting period" elapsed. And that's what they did without wasting any more of my time.

Other great things about B&H? They don't sell you something if they don't have it. I won't shop online at Adorama any more because they sell things they don't have and don't tell you about it until you have waited a long time and finally ask! I have the emails to demonstrate this. They are simply not reliable. Another thing is that B&H keeps online records of your purchases if you login before you buy ... which I always do ... and you can look things up online for years after, say for getting tax information about equipment purchases. They will also maintain both public and private Wishlists for you. I use mine to keep track of items that I buy repeatedly such as Epson paper and ink. Also items that I am considering purchasing but haven't decided yet or that I am saving for ... this is a very handy feature. Most places want you to "register" so they can SPAM you but at B&H they only use your information to provide real services! And they'll give you advice either online or over the phone. And finally, since you might want to know when they do get your item in stock, they will let you sign up for a notification of when the item comes in and then you can buy it if you want ... no hassle, no pressure, no SPAM.

They only have a presence in New York so you don't have to pay sales tax if you live elsewhere, although I would urge you to pay it in your home state anyway. But the difference more than makes up for shipping ... and here I urge you to pay a couple of bucks more and step up to FedEx.

And finally, a word about prices. B&H may not always have the lowest price you can find on the 'net! But if you follow the stories associated with many of these other 'discount' vendors, you learn why. There are a bunch of these apparently cheap vendors operating out of New York. They are all the same vendor. They don't have a storefront because they are a scam. They sell you a camera online, but always they must telephone you to 'verify the order'. And when they do, they try to sell you add ons, like the manual, body cover, neck strap, etc. (that all come in the box from the manufacturer but they don't include) and when they can't upsell you such that the total price is actually more than the B&H price, they discover that they are Out of Stock. This is even worse than the Adorama trick of selling you an item, at a good price, that they don't have but eventually hope to have!

I realize that this has been another Rant and I promise to do some useful blogs very soon. But if I can save one person from being ripped off it is worth it.

Travel safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1e

Slot #9: I am one of the few photographers I know who carries a tripod in his case all the time: a Gitzo G0012 (discontinued) with a Manfrotto 484 ball head attached. I have at least two other tripods and various other tripod-like gadgets that I will review later on ... one of which is designed to clamp onto your car window ... very neat! And I have a very good monopod that I will also review even though I do think this item is overkill!

But today it's the little Gitzo that could! I did a quick review on the web and couldn't find one, but they ran about $180. Yes, yes, I know that's a lot of money for this tiny little gadget and that doesn't count the Manfrotto 484 ball head which is only $45 at B&H. But this setup is worth the price and trouble to carry it around all the time even when no one else seems to think so, sigh.

The first image is just the tripod and head. The second image is my 5D with 24-105mm f/4L IS lens. Also note that there is a split ring in the strap bracket. I'll talk about that later when I discuss remote shooting with cameras mounted overhead.

I have made two good uses of this puppy, both using my Canon 5D body. First, at concerts where I have access to the stage after sound check with all the instruments sitting there waiting for the show to start, I often pop a fisheye onto the 5D and put it on this little tripod. I then walk around the stage, setting this assembly near instruments and taking time exposures. I have gotten a number of very interesting images that I just couldn't have gotten without a tripod and probably couldn't have gotten with a fullsize one. The Gitzo has both extension legs (just one extension for about six inches) and the center post extends (for about six inches) although I have very rarely used either ... I did once to shoot a CD cover at a concert.

The other frequent use is at the Chumash Casino Resort "Supper Club" VIP events. These are invitation only buffet/sit down dinners with dinner music and entertainment hosted by Linda Nielsen. There are about a dozen tables for seating and each is elaborately decorated for each event by John Blair and his staff with hand made center pieces and lovely settings. While I have to rely on flash to capture these most of the time, I am occasionally able to use the little tripod for stunning ambient light images. I also shoot some of the handsome buffet lines as I did last night as shown in the third image ... no way to get that in ambient light without a tripod.

The last picture today is Ed Zajac with his percussion setup, including timpani, prior to my last Johnny Mathis concert. There would be no way to get this image in the very dim light available prior to the concert, let alone with enough depth of field to catch that harp in the left rear of the image, without a tripod.

I've also used it to capture bands in small clubs where I have a table with a clear view but that is infrequent ... although when I do manage it the images are unobtainable any other way. So take a tip from a Pro, get and use a tripod ... or two or three!

Be safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1d

Busy, busy, busy, busy! Lots of boxing work and family things. But I am back although this will be fairly brief, to do slot #7, which contains one of my Canon 1D Mark III bodies with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. I have two of both of these items. They are by far the most used combination of body/lens I own. This pair generally sits in their slot as a pair that I rarely take apart.

The Canon 1D Mark III [not to be confused with the 1Ds Mark III which has about twice as many pixels and costs almost twice as much] is a 10.1 MP photojournalism body. It can expose 10 frames per second, has very high speed AutoFocus (recently fixed by firmware update 1.2.3) and a huge number of features that I have barely tapped. I'm not going to go through the feature list as that is on the Canon website as well as many other places on the internet and there are myriad reviews of the body and lens. It is a photojournalism body because of its frame rate and adequate pixel dimensions. I will talk about how I use it for various things after I get through the general equipment review.

The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS [IS stands for Image Stabilization, a very useful feature for us old shaky people] is probably Canon's most often seen lens. When you see the newspaper 'togs lined up to shoot some celebrity, a large percentage will be shooting with the 1D Mark III and a large percent of those will have the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. It is just one fine combination. It comes in a non-IS version but that isn't nearly as useful. It also comes in an f/4 version.

Well, that's it for this entry. I promise things will get more interesting along the way. :-)

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: Part 1a

I'm going to back up for a second and talk about Pelican cases. First, they come in a huge variety of sizes and shapes and purposes. They are guaranteed against almost everything almost forever ... see the warranty here. I have five Pelican cases in three sizes. The one shown in my last post is a Pelican 1610 and is my primary case of which I have only one. I will also be showing my two Pelican 1510 cases and two Pelican 1660 cases. I bought all my Pelican cases from B&H in NYC. And I'll stick a quick disclaimer in here: I have no relationship other normal customer with either Pelican or B&H, but I am a customer because they deliver and are totally reliable for me.

I have two bits of information that are the core of today's post: (1) Pelican is very responsive to case failures, which do happen, and (2) the Pelican 1510 is a masterpiece.

First, yes, Pelican cases can fail. But you need to consider that they are designed to be waterproof and to withstand huge pressure changes. [Please note that this is my understanding and I am not guaranteeing anything personally ... you must verify this yourself with Pelican.] They have gaskets that need maintenance and replacement and they have pressure relief valves. Amazing stuff, eh? Yes, I had a failure on my Pelican 1610. This case has four latches. All the Pelican cases have more latches than minimally necessary. The left front latch on my Pelican 1610 broke upon opening one day. The other three latches were easily adequate for continued use. I filled out an online form at Pelican. Next business day I got phone call from a marvelously pleasant young woman. She asked me to describe the latch and it's failure. She assured me that I could easily replace the latch and she was sending me a latch replacement kit. She did. I did. And I have an extra latch, which I think will fit any of my cases as the kit contained two latches. No charge.

Second, and this can be VERY significant these days, the Pelican 1510 is within the size limits for carry-on luggage for continental and intercontinental air travel ... check the Pelican 1510 link above for details. Last summer we vacationed at Club Med in Cancun, Mexico. I wanted to take camera equipment but am unwilling to check it. So I loaded up my Pelican 1510 with my 5D and some lenses and Epson P-2000. In fact, my wife liked the case so much, mostly because of the wheels and handle, that I loaned her my second one for her carry-on. While one of the flight stewardesses thought it was too big for overhead and it did require some wiggling, it comfortable fit into the overhead luggage racks of four different aircraft. And it sure is nice, when your flight connections fail and you have to walk miles and miles in the airport, to simply pop the handle and roll it. There are also handles on two sides so you can carry it in the portrait or landscape mode. :-) And you can sit on them ... the 1510 was perfect for my then 5-year-old daughter to rest her weary bones.

The cases I have all have the option of inserts as shown in my 1610 image, or pick-a-part foam inserts or nothing. I believe they also have lid pocket inserts available but I don't use these so I am not familiar with them.

So that's it for now.

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: What I Have & How I Use It: Part 1

I've been promising for a while in various places to explain what equipment I have and how I use it so I am starting a multipart series on just that. The way I am going to do it is to work my way through the several Pelican cases I use and then go to other equipment. I will do my best to include explanatory photographs.

So, here is my primary Pelican case and it's contents. This is a Pelican 1610 with dividers. I have labeled the compartments with both contents and numbers. I will use the numbers to talk about the contents. You should be able to click on the image here to see a much larger version where you can actually see the equipment and read the labels.

For this post I will just enumerate the equipment and in subsequent posts I'll talk about how I use it and give additional images as needed. #1 in the upper left corner has Eclipse Fluid for cleaning sensors. [Sensor Swabs for use with the Eclipse are in #18.] Under the fluid are a 1.4TC and 2.0TC in their provided cases. Finally there is a quick release clamp for my Bogen 3021 tripod.

#2 Contains a 1D Mark III body.

#3 16-35mm f/2.8L lens. The white booklet to the left is a 1D Mark III manual.

#4 Two slots that used to hold 1D Mark IIN batteries that are currently unused.

#5 CF case. There's CPF in there, too, where I usually have an Epson P-2000.

#6 Filter case.

#7 1D Mark III w/70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens.

#8 Some Ziploc bags. One has Etymotic ear plugs. One has Dynatech Gray Card. One has DEMB flash diffuser.

#9 Gitzo tabletop tripod.

#10 300mm f/2.8L IS lens. This is my very favorite lens although not my most used ... but I'll talk about that later.

#11 Rocket blower to get dust off sensors.

#12 Spare loose rechargeable batteries for my 580EX II and a battery test meter.

#13 Stack of business cards in Ziploc.

#14 580EX II. What you can't see because of the Ziplocs is a Canon Compact Battery Pack CP-E4 and two CPM-E4 battery holder inserts each with 8 rechargeable batteries in it. The holders slip into the Battery Pack. I'll talk about how I utilize these later.

#15 Trifocal glasses. I only use these for shooting and for that they are essential. Oddly I can't seem to get used to using them for anything else.

#16 Leatherman Charge tool in case.

#17 Canon 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens wrapped in lens cloth on top of Canon 14mm f/2.8L lens wrapped in a lens cloth. I haven't found a better way to keep them both in there.

#18 TC-80N3 remote release. Flashlight. Sensor Swaps and lens fluid ... this lens fluid is not used with the Sensor Swabs.

#19 Several Mark III batteries that can be used in my two 1D Mark III's and my 1Ds Mark III.

#20 24-70mm f/2.8L

So that's it. That stuff goes with me almost anywhere I shoot with a few exceptions that I will discuss in subsequent posts. Please feel free to ask questions. I'll talk about each of the items in here and then move on to my other cases.

Be Safe!

Dwight