Ian’s Guide to Shopping

Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Shopping. Aka, where to get deals.

I reckon I’ve been on these intarwebs for about 12 years now, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that people go online to buy stuff.

Actually, if there’s one thing I know, it’s probably that America is being ruined by poor perceptions and lack of self control regarding sex, food, and money, but that’s another rant. Today, it’s about spending the cash. Or electronically transferred monetary instruments, but you get the picture.

Ok, so in that vein, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that people go online to buy stuff. The second thing I know is this: shopping specific search engines like Froogle, or Pricewatch frequently yield poor results. With that in mind, here are the things I’ve learned in my experiences with shopping online.

There are all of about 14 billion online webstores, so figuring out where do go can be a real pain in the rear. What I’ve found is this, it really all depends on what kind of items you want to buy. Are you looking for new items, or will used be ok? Big ticket, or low dollar? Hobby specific, or directed at the general consumer?

We all know about Ebay, but what a lot of people don’t know is that it’s generally difficult to get a great deal on Ebay without doing a lot of research and spending a lot of time hunting around. Why? Shipping and handling, and selling fees. Ebay sellers get to tack on extra S&H on top of the ending price. Also, there are certain overheads involved with selling on Ebay that result in “new” items almost always being available in a regular online shop at a cheaper price.

Second verse, same as the first…

Or other things of that nature.

So, I’m currently working on revamping my lens collection a bit. My first lens was a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX. It’s a decent lens. It’s got good reviews. I paid $400 for it. Check it out here. if you like.

Side note: I’m a huge Adorama fan. It’s one of the top online stores for photography equipment. Great service, great prices, and it’s pretty easy to use the site. I’ll probably do an “Internet Shopping” post in the near future and outline places that I feel offer the best online shopping experiences. For a brief preview: Adorama for photog specific stuff, Newegg (best webshop ever!) for computer or miscellaneous electronics, and Talkbass for used bass guitar stuff.

Ok, onto our story…

The issue I had with the Sigma is compound. One: It’s soft wide open. Which means, at wider aperatures the lens is less sharp than when it’s stopped down. For a brief overview of aperature and it’s effects on photography, please consult Wikipedia. Two: It’s a fixed length lens. No zoom-zoom. Now, many people will tell you that if you have a specific purpose in mind, a fixed lens will out perform a zoom lens. This is probably true, however if you’re not someone who takes the same types of shots over and over and over (such as in portrait work), then zoom lenses solve a lot of problems.

The 30mm lens is kind of a generic focal length. My specific Sigma lens was made only to work on APS-C cameras. It will not work on a “full frame” sensor camera. Basically, it’s a lens designed specifically for Canon’s cheaper DSLRs. Because of the crop factor, the 30mm length yields a field of view similar to a 50mm lens on a normal 35mm format camera. For years, a 50mm lens has been considered a standard walkabout lens. It isn’t wide angle, it isn’t telephoto… it produces shots similar to what the eye sees when you’re just looking around.

So, here’s the summary for point #2 above,  I find the 30mm length to be very limiting. I am continually running into shots that I either need a little more length, or a little wider angle.

Quick blurb: Shorter focal lengths give you a wider filed of view, longer focal lengths yield a narrower field of view. Thus, at an equal distance, a 300mm lens would give a 10x larger subject than my 30mm lens, but my 30mm lens would put a lot more “in the frame” so to speak. That’s all pretty intuitive if you’ve ever used a camera with a zoom lens, but I didn’t want anyone sitting there wondering what I was babbling on about.

So, my answer is selling the Sigma and now buying this. Without going into detail, that lens will do everything the Sigma would do except for one thing (freezing motion due to a large maximum aperature which leads to faster shutter speeds), and that’s something I don’t really need. So, in the near future, I hope to be dazzling you all with superior shots of grandeur from across the countryside… or whatever.