crumpler2.jpg
Originally uploaded by minhi.
and one more with it next to an old canon bag. this canon bag is typicalled used with older rangefinders like the canonet. It’s a little to small for an SLR. It’s the perfect size for a g3 (but nothing else) since a g3 is about the same size as a canonet–just with the extendible lens.
crumpler1.jpg
Originally uploaded by minhi.
here’s a shot of the bag straight on, closed.
DSCF0309.JPG
Originally uploaded by minhi.
i’m always looking for new bags for everything; bags for my computers, bags for my bikes, bags for walking around, and here bags for my camera. I wanted something small to carry cameras accessories, my camera (g3) and external flash. This bag just barely does it, and only if i take off the lensmate adaptor.
The bag itself is fantastic, i’ve owned bags from a lot of bag makers and crumpler makes great bags. The quality is top notch, it’s extremely over built and there are small touches like hook and loop fasteners in places you need them but never expected to look for them there. Crumpler is an australian company, and their bags are on the expensive side–i think this bag is normally $50-$60 and I paid $35 from rei-outlet.com. But clearly there is value when you pick them up.
With everything in this bag it’s pretty solid and all that ruggedness built in the bag empty it’s still heavy 🙂 !
DSCF0308.JPG
Originally uploaded by minhi.
here’s my current camera, and despite the size my favorite, even over a small sd500 i had access to recently. Even after 3-4 years it’s still a great camera, only gripe is the poor viewfinder (still does not feel natural) and the slow auto-focus. I’ve been eyeing a dslr but this is till tiding me over.
yes it is gigantic with the flash on there, people freak out when they see the flash but it is totally worth it. The internal flash on these class of camera’s are horrible. A dedicated flash makes a huge difference, the ability to bounce the flash off the ceiling is great for indoors stuff. You can make a dark photo much more natural looking. And with an index card you can adjust the fill for straight on shots.
Fast recycle times, and i picked it up for $140 as an open box item from B&H Photo.
Now my problem is fitting everything into a bag (more on that in next post).
That was easy!
As a followup to my last post i received my check from Staples less then 2 weeks after submitting online for the rebate. Nothing to send in and the money is already in my bank accocunt. I haven’t even received confirmation that the buy.com rebates have been received much less any peep about payment.
On happier notes I just go back from a trip to San Diego, a few things to write about later.
ecommerce fails me now
Recently i bought a few things from buy.com–most of it for my sister who’s spending a lot of time overseas so she needed little things like SD memory for her camera, a portable hard drive and a usb memory stick. I usually avoid buy.com because of the hefty rebates on nearly everything. Now i have another reason to avoid them.
First they have an odd order fulfillment system, i ordered 4 items spread across two separate orders to take advantage of some rebates. They send all four items as separate shipments, typically this is doneto get you your items sooner but to be honest i think it multiplies the number of packages and risk. It also spreads out the delivery, i’d rather wait for one package then wait for four!
Anyway the next thing i discovered is that they use USPS for some things, generally i think this is OK, i love the USPS. And the two SD memory cards i ordered arrived fine via USPS, they came in bubble mailers no worse for wear. However the portable hard-drive did not make it. And this i blame completely on buy.com–the portable hard-drive which is about the size of a 3.5 index card and .75 inches thick but comes in a much larger box was also shipped in a bubble mailer. But the shipping department did not secure the envelope with any tape and the weight/size of the package forced the mailer opened. So the hard drive fell out somewhere along the way–i only received an empty mailer.
To their credit the buy.com customer service person (who’s in India) took my riduculous claim and 1 week later they did refund me the cost of the drive. But i still find it unacceptable that they ship something so poorly packed that i would never buy from them again (ha there’s a pun!).
Now you might notice that there’s one more item, well i also ordered a USB thumb drive. This was shipping via FedEx ground and supposedly delivered 1 day after i ordered it. I say supposedly because the day it was claimed delivered i went to the mailroom and they received no FedEx packages that day. The signature also does not match.
Buy.com did their claim but they blame FedEx and they will not assist me in chasing down the package with FedEx, basically they said i’m screwed we ain’t helping you. While I can understand their position since FedEx shows the package delivered, previously other companies would open a proper FedEx trace on the package so that FedEx can actually track the package by hand to make sure it was in fact delivered. It’s strange since i’ve had a lot of luck with FedEx in the past, rarely anything lost and I even have a FedEx shipper account with them!
So my lesson is learned, i’m out $60 for a USB thumb drive through no fault of my own. And I’m still a slave to buy.com because I have $35 in rebates for the SD memory cards I did receive (did i mention the USB thumb drive had $30 in rebates?) so now I have to wait to see how that is resolved and if i receive all my rebates. There were 4 separate rebate forms to fill out which took too much time and $1.48 in postage.
In comparison the rebate on the western digital hard drive i bought from Staples, I filled out online (actually i didn’t fill out anything) and submitted online, no postage, no forms write out, no upc to send in. Now that’s *easy*.
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