Right...where do I begin. I had not even read a word in this entire thread until now. Now I'm trying to catch up all the threads that I'm behind reading, since the new design and all the errors. I even have to use Internet Explorer to use this forum as I like it. No log outs and stuff.


Anyway I hope I'm not going to enlighten the fire too heavily, because while reading it intrigued me.


Quote Originally Posted by freelanceshots


I find myself visiting this site less and less because of the changes that are popping up that in my opinion make it hard to use. Thats a shame because I visited this site all the time to check stuff out. Major disappointment for me when this site started covering Nikon gear and I just have to share that. I don't care two flips about Nikon gear and I'll never own one. There are tons of other Nikon specific sites so Its just over kill to have another!
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I can see myself in this story. To be honest I've had my quiet moment here as well since all the changes and errors. I can also see your point with the Nikon stuff. I often make jokes of being anti-Nikon, but truly I personally don't really see the point of adding it here either. I must also say that I haven't had any trouble with it so far, other than scrolling trough a long list while checking the charts. If that's all there will be, I'm not complaining. However I do feel that the strength of all intelligence on Canon gear that is gathered here is mostly due to the fact that it's a Canon only site. And I like that. I cannot imagine someone asking advice about Nikon gear in the forums and receiving proper Nikon advice....pretty much never. Or at least for a long time.


There are also some other things that stood out for me.


Quote Originally Posted by Keith B
No. People's work should be praised if it is deserving.I feel if you give raving reviews of work that isn't deserving you can be doing injustice to that person also.I have given and received praise without feeling I received or given a smooch to the glutes. But a lot of the time the comments that accompany the praise are way over the top.

You're so right here. I actually didn't like the national biggest photography site because of this phenomenon. The ugliest photos getting great reflections and so. There are also some difficulties here I think.


1 - Opinions differ. And so does skill level. I for instance like most of your work, but then I'm a newbie myself in that sort of shots, so in your eyes I might be overpraising you.


2 - There's also been some issues with the show and tell. There is a section here for critique threads and one for show and tell. Often this goes well, but I've also seen show and tell threads where the OP's pictures literally were burned down to the ground. That's a shame...


Quote Originally Posted by Keith B
I have seen people give bad advice about gear without being able to correct them because they have become a demigod on this site. Then there are people get all high and mightywho are praised fortheir advice when really they are just quoting Bryan and have actually never used the gear at hand. This burns me more than anything. I can see ISO and MTF charts and read Bryan's reviews myself but to me real world experience is what I want to hear about.

I'm not seeing myself as a demigod, but I do recognise myself in one of those who gave bad advice at certain points. I pledge guilty [] Seriously, it's hard to get objective advice I think. Experience is also a big factor here. While I might have called my Tamron 17-50 verygood over time. I actually thought it was, however now that I'm further in time I do see that my opinion differs. My Tamron actually suffered from quite some chromatic abberations, but I'd never really noticed it until later on. So technically speaking my advice was sloppy. In other words, real time experience and knoledge about certain things also comes down to your personal style. I must say that I often think we got to technical around here and sometimes a softer, but creative shot is better than a supersharp, technical correct, but boring one. In some circumstances we give to much credit to the technical data and forget the more important things.


Anyway there are also times where I do not respond on a thread, because I feel like I have nothing to say. That's ok, because you can't know it all.


I'll try to think about all these different views the next time I'm replying somewhere and I hope this will get us to a better understanding of eachother.


I hope I'm not pulling anything out of perspective. If so let me know. I kind of lost the red line I had in mind so I hope it isn't too chaotic []


Jan


PS: for the old-school members...I'm only 24, so I consider myself young and member of the digital generation, but I also hate it when people use their mobiles in the most riduculous situations. I can name you some, but I guess that point is already made.