"d'oh!" purchases...

ronnus

ronnus

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Ron
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Everyone's done it... bought some useless camera/accessory/gadget that we've toiled about after getting it home, then realised was a bit pants and consigned to the bottom of the camera bag, or eBay. So what's yours?

I'll start - a grip for my D40. My thinking: I get twice the battery capacity, and a vertical shutter release. Sounds ace... except that the D40 isn't exactly known for being greedy on power, and more importantly, was never designed to use a grip, so the vertical shutter release is a total kludge with a popout remote transmitter, and obviously no half-press focussing.

In short, it's utter crap. Anyone bought anything crapper?
 
My DSLR :(

I wanted professional photo's like all the pro's do at weddings and so I bought a big camera aswell with some pro lenses and now I can't get it to work, I thought you could stick it in auto and away you go and hoping to turn to professional wedding photography within a week or purchase.

:LOL:
 
Mine is also a grip.

I didn't want to spend £200 on a Pentax original for my K-5 but having always used one on my cameras I decided to instead buy a Chinese knockoff.

I have had it a little while now and the lettering has nearly all rubbed off, the buttons are even more slushy than when I first got it and the mode dials are just horrible. Also there is no weather sealing like the original and it all feels a little plasticy.

Ordered the proper thing off Kerso last night .. just couldn't take it any longer. :puke:
 
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Lens hood for my E520, by the time it got here I'd sold the camera!
 
The baron 28-75..bought it for my D700 since the shop don't have the nikkor 24-70 that I wanted..I had to wait for weeks for the nikkor though.. turn out that lens is super crap and I end up selling it at that shop again..sigh..
 
Cheap extensions tubes, when I attach them the lens stops right down.

I do get good depth of field, but I need it when I can't actually see anything through the viewfinder. Oh well for the price of two pints they've been a good giggle.
 
A copy of the Optech Pro strap - looked the part but wouldn't even hold a D70 with the Tamron 17-50 on it. Fortunately I was kneeling down on soft ground when it decided to let go.....
 
Manffrotto mono pod with the three little legs coming out the bottom to turn it into an all most tripod - NOT! Their hardly strong enough to hold the stick up never mind any gear on top. Wobbles all over the place and they rattle inside the stick when not extended.



Does go LONG and STRONG though as just a stick for standing on chairs when looking over the heads of crowds and holding your kit up. :D
 
sigma flashes, and in fact, any offbrand flash. I never bought one, but the jessops one is plastic and goes to sleep after 30 seconds. absolute waste of space.

pt-04 flash triggers. equally crap.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
There's actually a bodge to get them to stay awake.....
Click to expand...

true.... plus, a new bulb for one of my sb800's is costing me as much as a jessops flash ;)

purely curious actually... the sb800 I bought from you, why WAS the front polished? lol
 
itsdavedotnet said:
true.... plus, a new bulb for one of my sb800's is costing me as much as a jessops flash ;)

purely curious actually... the sb800 I bought from you, why WAS the front polished? lol
Click to expand...

To give it an artistic one-off look......


Either that of it was all scratched :D
 
In the past: cheap tripods.
Any time now and in the future: some MF lenses just because they're so cheap as to be worth a punt. Some are really quite good and giving interesting bokeh, some just want to foul the mirror when focusing anywhere from infinity out to oh ten feet away. Some don't know sharp if it jabs them with a pin!
 
Hot Shoe Spirit Level. Frotto 460 head, always moved when tightened.
 
Camera Armour. I thought it would be good to make my camera invincible, which it did, but I had to cut big chunks out of it to make it usable and it ended up coming off so it could put the camera on my tripod (which didn't really work with the CA on) and it didn't get put back on again. Now sitting in my room, utter waste of £30.
 
mastertrinity said:
My DSLR :(

I wanted professional photo's like all the pro's do at weddings and so I bought a big camera as well with some pro lenses and now I can't get it to work, I thought you could stick it in auto and away you go and hoping to turn to professional wedding photography within a week or purchase.

:LOL:
Click to expand...

:LOL:..this should be a ''sticky''................:exit:
 
I have a bag full of junk (bought back in my film days) theres a mirrored reflector things for the cokin holder to give a reflection (works very badly) loads of weird coloured grad filters, cant think when I last needed a green sky? ..... A HUGE bounce board for the metz flash, so big you need a van to carry it around, if it catches the wind you go parasailing. One of those sprit level things to go on the hot shoe (used once) etc etc etc.
 
A monopod which has never seen any photographic use but now lives beside my bed in case of a break in. A pop up LCD shade from eBay which had a tendency to pop up when it liked and almost have your eye out. A Tamrac 8x which was like strapping a suitcase to your back. A Sigma 50-500 that was softer than melted butter. I might add my 135mm DC into the mix if I can't find a use for it.
 
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Following glowing reviews on here a Benro GH1 Gimbal Head .. at £190 probably the most expensive door stop I have ever bought.

A friend in engineering said if I paid more than £10 for it, I had been robbed :D
 
I'd made mroe stupid purchases than I'd care to admit... one recent one was a NEX 3, just hated it and had to get rid of it and go back to a M43 camera. Also a regular stream of compacts for when I can be bothered to lug the DSLR around, not a single one has performed as well as I'd hope all end up sold of shelved... I really should learn.
 
Tamron 18-200mm.

I traded in my 18-55 Nikon lens for this thinking I was getting a great deal - same ish price and more reach!

Crummy lens.
 
Flashgun, used a maximum of three times and sold here at a loss, not into portraits, indoor stuff or macro, lanscapes and wildlife (mainly birds) are my thing

Not even sure why I bought it in the first place, same could be said of the macro Lens, but at least that wasn't a money loser
 
2 things - a Meike grip for D300 and Redsnapper tripod.

Both are good quality items but just never use them, and with hindsight the £150 I spent could have gone on soemthing else.
 
Annoyingly I think I'm guilty of most of these... monopod? Check. Cheap tripod? Check. Hotshoe bubble level? Check. Deeply unsatisfactory compacts? Check... but read on!

My biggest mistake was, perhaps controversially, an Olympus PEN EP-1, which I thought would fulfil my lightweight/high quality needs where so many compacts had failed.

One came up locally on Gumtree for a very decent price so I bought it without really thinking about it as bargains don't tend to hang around on Gumtree. Saw the seller, sussed out that it wasn't nicked (the price was that good heheh), coughed up, and went home very happy. I then spent a week shooting with it, realised it was actually quite big, had no builtin flash, and with the 14-42mm lens it wasn't even that small. All could have been remedied with better research, but I found myself bidding on the add-on flash on eBay and decided enough was enough, I didn't really want to get into a second system. Punted the PEN and put the profit towards my D90 fund, which thankfully I was able to afford a few months later :love:

Good timing, because this was just as the EP-2/EP-L1 were coming out, and the price of EP-1's seemed to plummet.

Oh, and for my compact needs, I seem to have stuck with the Canon A590IS. Until a G12 comes up on Gumtree for a decent price :D :bonk:
 
ronnus said:
My biggest mistake was, perhaps controversially, an Olympus PEN EP-1, which I thought would fulfil my lightweight/high quality needs where so many compacts had failed.

One came up locally on Gumtree for a very decent price so I bought it without really thinking about it as bargains don't tend to hang around on Gumtree. Saw the seller, sussed out that it wasn't nicked (the price was that good heheh), coughed up, and went home very happy. I then spent a week shooting with it, realised it was actually quite big, had no builtin flash, and with the 14-42mm lens it wasn't even that small. All could have been remedied with better research, but I found myself bidding on the add-on flash on eBay and decided enough was enough, I didn't really want to get into a second system. Punted the PEN and put the profit towards my D90 fund, which thankfully I was able to afford a few months later :love:

Good timing, because this was just as the EP-2/EP-L1 were coming out, and the price of EP-1's seemed to plummet.

Oh, and for my compact needs, I seem to have stuck with the Canon A590IS. Until a G12 comes up on Gumtree for a decent price :D :bonk:
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I know what you mean... I was sure that a M43 camera was the way to go (much smaller than a gripped body, with lens and flash gun) so I got a Panasonic G1. Loved the camera and the images it produced, but found that the kit lens was a bit limiting and the pop up flash was hopeless... before I realised I'd added a second lens and external flash (so much for keeping things small)! Realised my mistake and sold the lot of it and got a EP-1 instead, lack of flash was annoying and I didn't feel that the images were as good as the Panasonic. So the EP-1 went and I bought an NEX 3, which I hated so it went back to the shop and I bought another G1! Then I added a GF1 with the 20mm lens and the G1 doesn't get used anymore (should sell it really). Having been through all that lot I've concluded that the GF1 with 20mm suits me best but that it's still too big and I often end up taking my Canon G9 (which I had before I bought my first G1) instead. :wacky:

Moral of this story... research before you buy and most importantly - stop shopping and start shooting.
 
BarryG said:
Tamron 18-200mm.

I traded in my 18-55 Nikon lens for this thinking I was getting a great deal - same ish price and more reach!

Crummy lens.
Click to expand...

Oh God yes. I got it in Canon mount back along when I didn't know as much as I did now. Absolutely pointless waste of 200 quid. Crazy soft and the AF is less accurate than my sister with an air rifle.
 
lol where to start

monopod lives in the car boot used once hated it

sigma 17-35 softest most useless lens in the world - sold on (sorry)

crumpler bag, loved it. great big bag couldnt fit bugger all in it - sold on (sorry)

red snapper bag, weighed a ton empty - sold on

cheap filters - just dont do it!!!
 
Lowepro 160AW - tiny and thus utterly useless if you carry other things than a camera around.
 
Oh does a Tamron AF 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di LD count as it arrived in the morning, took it out of the box, looked it over, then re-packed and sent it back in the afternoon - wasn't even interested in trying it.

Paul
 
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