Film Kit Reviews...

[TheBigYin]

Well - following on from the "call to arms" for the new review section, I've been adding a few bits of film kit into the "database"

At the moment I'm sort of "populating the database" - adding a basic header for a given camera / lens etc. - though I DID re-purpose my two reviews out of the film kit review thread.

So - I've started with a few Canon (because I have a fair grounding with them) Bodies and some of the FD and FDn lenses - I'll plough through adding some more of the "headers" and so on... I'm also trying, where possible, to put my efforts into camera lenses and bodies that some of you lot may have, so you can add PROPER reviews of the kit in due course. Sadly, that'll probably mean I have to add the Plastic Fantastic T-Series bodies, so Brian can waffle on about how he "bought one from a bootie", but that's showbusiness...

BUT - setting these things up is a non-trivial task - it takes time, and a bit of effort. It also takes a source for the specifications and images. Canon was easy really - the trusty Canon Camera Museum came to my aid. I'm pretty happy to sort the Canon side out - though if anyone has something esoteric that they'd like me to add, in the same format as the rest of the kit, so they can review it - then drop me a PM, as I can't honestly say i've kept track of everyone's kit buying over the past couple of years - I'm guessing there'll be plenty of QL17's and Canonets etc. that have flown under my radar.

However - for other camera types, I know little / nothing as to where to gather similar information...

Ideally, if someone could come forward to cover some of the other marques:

Nikon
Pentax
Minolta
Olympus
Bronica
Hasselblad
Leica

etc. etc. - For the less well known kit, I think we can go a little more "ad-hoc" and just go straight to the review stage with the obscure stuff

You'd need to have some form of "source" for the Specifications and Images - ideally, a consistent one for each marque...

It's not a small task - it's taken me a couple of hours to add in 16 basic items - so maybe if you volunteer for a section - say "I'll do Nikon 35mm Bodies" - or - "I'll do Olympus 35mm Rangefinders / Compacts" - and perhaps liase with whoever's sourcing the info for the other kit in a given marque - so you're all taking info from (say) mir.com for Nikon lenses and bodies... it's a "database consistency" thing... (that's my years of IT and my OCD combining in one massive PITA right there!)

There's no great rush, maybe add one item a day say... but initially it'd be good to get some idea of volunteers - or even if people can't actually add the data, they could find sources for the specs for others to add...

If I've not explained myself too well - feel free to ask any questions that may arise...

 

[Morinaka]

Looking through the review section it reads more like a poor man's wiki, you'd be better off encouraging people to contribute to the camera-wiki.org pages like i do every so often, they allow lenses as well.

I pretty much tidied up all the pages for the cameras i own so that everyone can benefit from the pictures and information. I took the King Regula section from a few models to probably the most comprehensive information source out there for the brand that exists just because i was collecting them and wanted more information and pictures out there for people to use and me to have for future reference.

 

[TheBigYin]

Looking through the review section it reads more like a poor man's wiki, you'd be better off encouraging people to contribute to the camera-wiki.org pages like i do every so often, they allow lenses as well.

Its about a week since we opened this bit up, and we're only starting to put in the names etc. of the cameras and lenses... once there's a bit more framework there, the idea is that people can actually REVIEW the stuff they've got - so it's reviews of kit, by members you quite probably already know from time spent on here, and may well have interacted with if you've spent any time as a member actually posting

In short, it's early days. Give it a chance maybe ??

 

[ChrisR]

I'll try to add some Pentax stuff when we'e back from travels...

 

[kendo1]

I'm pretty much up on Contax. I'll have a look.

 

[Morinaka]

Its about a week since we opened this bit up, and we're only starting to put in the names etc. of the cameras and lenses... once there's a bit more framework there, the idea is that people can actually REVIEW the stuff they've got - so it's reviews of kit, by members you quite probably already know from time spent on here, and may well have interacted with if you've spent any time as a member actually posting

In short, it's early days. Give it a chance maybe ??

My mistake i thought it was an old part of the forum that had been neglected because of the linked thread being titled "Help shape our Review section overhaul" and briefly looking through it just showed tech spec posts with the top two being from 2015.

It's not a terrible idea, the Pentax forum's lens database threads with its review posts are excellent and very useful. You'd need to add a ton more brand categories for lenses to maintain usefulness or it will just get swamped with modern canikon lenses making it hard to find other brands.

Sorry i don't spend enough time on the forum for your taste, i just tend to stick to the film section so my post count is low, for random other photo chat i use reddit or #photogeeks on freenode.
Didn't this forum used to have an IRC channel, i remember i used to chat on it but it died out once Woodsy stopped frequenting.

 

[TheBigYin]

I'll try to add some Pentax stuff when we'e back from travels...

I'm pretty much up on Contax. I'll have a look.

That's be great - all efforts welcomed.

 

[TheBigYin]

My mistake i thought it was an old part of the forum that had been neglected because of the linked thread being titled "Help shape our Review section overhaul" and briefly looking through it just showed tech spec posts with the top two being from 2015..

We had a review section on the old forum software, but it wasn't capable of being ported over to the new software we swapped to a year or more ago. At that point, we chose to thoroughly evaluate what was available on the new forum software, and eventually decided on this setup. The first two entries were dropped in back in 2015 by Marcel when we were initially playing with the system behind the scenes, and deciding how to try and configure the system. However, the Admins decided that actually asking the unpaid moderators to spend the immense amount of time to populate the database prior to launch wasn't really going to work - as frankly, we generally have more pressing problems to deal with in our time online... (usually classifieds related) Therefore, in April of this year, we decided to try and throw the process open to the membership... the initial couple of lenses were left in there by Marcel as a kind of "this is the sort of basic template we're looking for..."

It's not a terrible idea, the Pentax forum's lens database threads with its review posts are excellent and very useful. You'd need to add a ton more brand categories for lenses to maintain usefulness or it will just get swamped with modern canikon lenses making it hard to find other brands..

It's not JUST for old / obscure lenses though... it's for the kit that the regular users of this forum USE and wish to review... I've simply got into adding things on here, in the older lenses and film kit related section because that's more where my kit interest lies (such as it is - i'm really a bit of a "the camera is a tool to do the job, nothing more or less" person really, but I do appreciate the "feel" of older, more mechanical cameras and lenses purely because I can more easily appreciate the engineering)

If you think that we need additional categories, how about sitting down and compiling a list of what it needs - then replying to the "call to arms" thread and volunteering to set them up and populate them. If you've the knowledge, why not share it on here - okay, it might involve a little more effort than just sitting and complaining that nobody's done it for you... but - its involvement like that which makes you part of a community, not just an onlooker.

Sorry i don't spend enough time on the forum for your taste, i just tend to stick to the film section so my post count is low, for random other photo chat i use reddit or #photogeeks on freenode..

I spend most of my (non-moderating) time in the Film section as well... Taking away the stuff in the staff-room, it's far and away my favourite bit of the forum - which is why I'd like the film guys to help shape our reviews sections eventual form...

Didn't this forum used to have an IRC channel, i remember i used to chat on it but it died out once Woodsy stopped frequenting.

Couldn't say - I gave up on IRC around the time 33.6 dialup modems became available.