Sorry to bring it up again...

Oriel

But this forum is getting bigger every week...
Can we please have a serparate forum for camera advice?

We have a seperate forum as "Digital Darkroom" for maniulation of digital images. Grand.
But every other week we have people asking pretty much the same questions...
"dSLR for or Compact"
"Canon or Nikon"
"dSLR for less than €1000".
Also, thanks to Ruu(!;)) we have a pile of newcomers fired in this direction, seeking some simple advice from AH.

After that, we have what the forum was always about - technique advice and member's photos and people asking for advice on how to improve.

Any ideas?

Steve.

Fenster

Not a bad idea, or we could just set up a whole product advice forum and point everyone there.

Oriel

Fenster wrote:

Not a bad idea, or we could just set up a whole product advice forum and point everyone there.

That's grand, but photography is one of those things that nobody, apart from those interested, really as a clue about.

70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR anybody?
Lens and cameras, I feel, would have to be seperate. Maybe that's just me.

440Hz

yeah I reckon a general camera section, cos most of the questions will be about compacts anyway... which really people in the gadget forum could probably answer. And some of the time they get ignored in this forum cos people end up posting the same reply all the time and get sick of it, or so it seems.

so yeah a dedicated sub forum primarily for camera buying advice i think would be a great idea. thumbs up

mloc

aye, agreed. a lot of the posts are the same. either that or some sort of camera buying advice thread that is stickied.

440Hz

mloc wrote:

either that or some sort of camera buying advice thread that is stickied.

yup.... i meant to say that but brain is switched to off position tonight, its one holidays . thing with that is though if someone doesnt find answer in sticky or cant be arsed reading it they will just post anyway... so you will still get loads of posts.

I mean the increased interest/traffic is great but somedays you just come along and see 10 different versions of the one post and think... urgh not today. Or maybe thats just me. At the start I used to reply to all those advice threads.. now I just think I should have something ready for copy and paste.

Shiny

maybe have a few polls (I know, more threads lol),
but say

1. Best <200 Compact
2. Best <400 ^^
3. Recommended Prosumer Camera
4. Recommended Budget DSLR
5. Then the 1000euro + DSLR's

Each entry with a link to a review and a
link to the cheapest website and ebay shops?

And then sticky that?

Perhaps?

Ruu_Old

Thumbs up for a Camera Review & Advice forum, coming from someone who will be looking for advice in the near future before raiding the bank account. Not too many stickies though, hateful yokes if there are too many.

Shiny

Forgot about the amount of stickies.

Damn having to scroll to get to first thread....

In that case thumbs up for Advice forum from me.

Zascar

Yes, very good idea. I'm also at the 'what DLSR' stage, I'm doing quite a bit f research and when I'm done I'd be happy to document my findings and opinions on a sticky. It would be ncie to have a few threads on what to buy in X price range; best & cheapest place to buy, lenses etc. If everyone can gradually ad to it we can get together a definitive guide so the same questions won't be asked over and over again

mikeanywhere

The ability to search on older posts would be good as that would solve half the questions what with us limited to the last 5 pages (or whatever it is)

Shiny

Zascar wrote:

I'm also at the 'what DLSR' stage, I'm doing quite a bit f research and when I'm done I'd be happy to document my findings and opinions on a sticky.

Me too, I did research for months before I made my final decision.
All that goes to waste after the camera is purchased although it was
fun all the same.:p

Fionn

the prob i have with a separate forum for new camera users is - if they don't get their queries answered that well here, they'll hardly get them answered to any degree of satisfaction in a separate forum as not too many with the knowledge will even visit the forum, also there might become a situation where a user that has some knowledge is confused as to where to put a question and thereby making a two tier system. Not to mention the overload on the mod, so i'm not 100% about a separate forum.
the one problem with a sticky is that it can very quickly become out of date, So the advice on last years good models/brands etc. may not be relevant this year!!
For instance the "Where to buy photographic equipment and consumables" sticky is just four years old now, I haven't looked at it in quite a while but i'm sure some of the info in it is not accurate any more.
Perhaps if this was cleaned up and presented as a list with comments and then it could be merged with a camera buying list with links to review sites too and maybe updated every six months or so might keep everyone happy

311

Is it possible to put a useful tag onto a reply.

I.E. When a person gives a great reply or in depth detail answer ,another person reading can give the reply a score of 1 to 5.

The reply with the most score is the reply that is the one that is visible first, as in the case of stickies ,a newbie would see the info everyone considers good.

Ruu_Old

^Don't know but the thread can be rated with stars, might make a thread with some good advice/responses more visible.

rymus

how about a super thread that every new advice request gets merged into?

Roen

The Canon Pricing Policy thread will be prolly unstickied in a few weeks or so. So that'll free up room for an Uber advice thread. But I know I'll steer the hell clear of it if one is made, I've already had enough of em.

Fajitas!

How many of ye would help out in a seperate forum though?

I think a super mega merged thread would work perfectly, with a READ BEFORE POSTING banner. And it wouldn't just be so that people using the forum wouldn't clog up our ever so precious space, but more that they could see all the help that went before them. Might answer questions and all that.

Titled "So Jimmy, You're buying your first camera."

DadaKopf

It'd be stupid to have sub-sub boards. Just put up some Technical Questions/Equipment and Technical Questions or something. It won't be that busy anyway, but it'll sure show up who's actually interested in the creative side of photography!

Ruu_Old

An uber thread would get many users very lost with their request I think. How many read the 'Read before posting' threads though?

rymus

and how many would read the READ BEFORE POSTING thread if/when it goes on for 20+ pages

Fajitas!

21,168 according to "Where to buy photographic equipment and consumables"

Ruu_Old

Yeah, just not a fan of too many stickies.

Calina

Any chance of using the Wiki pages to deal with this?

rymus

brilliant... set you to your task.. (I'm assuming you're volunteering)

311

A thread with direct links to the 10 most popular review sites would be good.
Theres no way that the users here would have all the latest equipment all the time ,let people look at dpreview or something like that.
If someone is looking for basic equipment ,they might not have put the time in to know where to look for stuff.

Shiny

Well I dont mind doing up a thread on my suggestion
earlier with the 5 catogories of camera.

Then people can dissect my opinions and i can upgrage
the thread untill everyone is happy with the choices,
review locations and price locations.??:)

Calina

rymus wrote:

brilliant... set you to your task.. (I'm assuming you're volunteering)

My dear boy I don't have time at the moment and I'm far from being an expert plus I've definitely lost my Wiki password and anyway I think Shiny's idea is much better.

Alternatively you can wait until sometime next October which is when I'll next have a slot free in my schedule...

Of course, the "What camera should I buy?" question would be easily answered by the following two words:

"A Canon".

I think if Shiny is willing to do up his piece, we can fling it over on Wiki for editting and maybe use the Wiki a little more effectively. Currently all it's got is a piece on what Photography@boards.ie is and links to two threads.

rymus

Shiny if youre up for that, attack it and we'll see how it pans out...

311

nice job shiny ,what about Ac foto as a place to shop for stuff though ?