We are looking for creative writers to contribute content to our blog and help expand our reach. If you like what we do and you would like to be a part of our growing website, please contact us as soon as possible. The opportunity is for 100% remote work, so you can do everything from home at your own pace and schedule. No need to send your resume/CV, as long as you meet the below requirements:

1. Must be Permanent Resident or Citizen of the USA
2. Must be at least 18 years old
3. Must be fluent in English and have solid writing skills
4. Must have good general knowledge of photography and be current with the latest trends in the industry
5. Part-time professional photographers and advanced amateurs preferred
6. Colorado Residents preferred

If you are interested in this unique opportunity, please use the form in the “contact us” page with the subject line “Mansurovs Job Opening”. Please include a short bio of yourself, a link to your online portfolio (if you have it) and whatever else you feel like sharing with us :)

Update: We have had some issues with our contact form. If you were not able to contact us, please try again. If you still have issues, then please send us an email to info[ at ]mansurovs.com (replace [ at ] with the @ sign).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New upcoming 2012 Year!

It has been a tough year for Nikon and besides a couple of good deals on some cheap lenses like Nikon 55-200mm / Nikon 55-300mm and on the new Nikon 1 system, we did not really see any significant discounts on Nikon gear this week, while Canon has just launched another lens and speedlite instant rebate program. This is very unfortunate for Nikon, because their sales have been severely impacted simply by short supply and unavailability of DSLRs, lenses and accessories. Popular cameras like Nikon D7000, D700 and D3s are nowhere to be found, while some lenses like Nikon 85mm f/1.4G have been hard to find for a while now…

If you have any gear-related questions, please feel free to post them here in the comments section below. I will do my best to respond to your question as soon as I can!

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Nikon D700 Rubber Issue

In this article, I would like to point out some of the recent quality control issues I have seen in Nikon products. Specifically, on the latest generation DSLRs like Nikon D700/D5100 and some of the newer lenses, like the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G. Why am I doing this? Because first, I want to make our readers aware of potential QA (Quality Assurance) issues they might encounter and second, I want to provide some information on how to react to such problems. Please bear in mind that the purpose of this article is not to scare existing or potential Nikon customers. In fact, every manufacturer, including Canon and Sony occasionally have issues with defective parts and products, so this article could apply to other brands as well.

Let’s talk about the types of defects you might see in cameras first:

1. Camera packaging – when a product is new, it should be nicely packaged and protected/shielded. The camera should be inside a static-free plastic bag or bubble wrap, enclosed in original packaging from the manufacturer. The contents of the package should be listed on the outside and you should check and make sure that the box contains everything listed on the box. Occasionally, one or two items might be missing. How to react: although I personally have never seen a missing product from Nikon’s packaging, if you are missing any of the accessories or manuals, please contact the seller immediately. You will most likely end up returning the camera for an exchange. If the seller refuses to exchange the camera or tells you that they will send the missing accessory, then you might be dealing with scammers or switch and bait companies like AjRichard. Always make sure to buy from authorized sellers only.
2. Signs of camera use – products shipped directly from the manufacturer should be brand new and there should be no signs of prior use. This includes fingerprints, grease/oil marks, scratches, etc. How to react: if you see any signs of prior use, return the camera to the seller immediately and ask for an exchange or a refund.
3. Broken/damaged parts – I always inspect every camera I purchase or test the moment I receive it. Before I start playing with the camera, I first charge the battery. Once the battery is fully charged, I insert it into the camera, then visually inspect the camera for potential damage. Finally, I take some pictures with and without built-in flash (if you have one) and make sure that the images show up fine on the camera LCD. I recommend you do the same. How to react: if anything is broken or damaged, return the camera to the seller immediately and ask for an exchange or a refund.
4. Defective pixels on the LCD – this one happens a lot and it is a matter of luck. See my “dead vs stuck vs hot pixels” article about the different types of defective pixels you might see on your LCD. How to react: if you only have one or two defective pixels, don’t worry about them – defective pixels are a normal fact of life. Think of it this way – a typical 3 inch LCD from Nikon contains 920,000 pixels. A single defective pixel means 0.0001% failure rate with 99.9999% of good pixels. Unless you have more than 2-3 defective pixels and they are close to each other, I would not worry about them. If you cannot live with those defective pixels, just return the product back to the seller. Depending on the seller, they might issue a full refund or exchange for a different product, or they might charge you a restocking fee. That’s why I always buy from B&H and Adorama – they take back products if I am not happy without any questions.
5. Defective pixels on the camera sensor – just like you can have defective pixels on your LCD, there is also a chance that you might have defective pixels on the camera sensor. Again, check out my article on the different types of defective pixels. Dead and stuck pixels at low ISOs can be annoying, although they are automatically taken care of by Lightroom/Photoshop Camera RAW. How to react: if you just bought your camera and have more than 5 defective pixels that show up at ISO 100-200, then send your camera back to the seller. If you have been using your camera for a while, then call Nikon support to see what they say. If Nikon support considers the pixel issue to be a bad defect, they will ask you to send the camera to Nikon for pixel remapping.
6. Dirty sensor – this one is very rare, but unfortunately happens every once in a while. During my trip to Glacier National Park on an early morning, I shot alongside a photographer that was using a brand new Nikon D5100 that he bought right before his trip. He was not happy with his purchase, because he had some strange patterns appear on his images and he desperately needed some help. At first, I did not notice anything on images on the LCD, but when I zoomed in, I discovered a strange pattern in almost every single picture with a bright sky. First, I thought that it was some sort of a reflection that was showing up in his images. But as I went through more and more images, the pattern stayed in exactly the same spot and appeared in every single picture like below:

   

   I knew it was not a lens problem, because lenses rarely leave anything on images. I also noticed that this pattern was more visible when the lens was stopped down to f/8 and smaller. That’s when I realized that something was on the camera sensor. I asked if I could remove the lens and inspect the sensor from the owner and he agreed. We walked back to my car because it was windy outside. I locked up the mirror and used a flashlight to see what was on the sensor and that’s when I saw this:

   

   I have no idea what it was. First, it looked like a fingerprint, but then as I looked closer, it turned out to be some sort of a residue. Gladly, the residue was not bad, because a couple of strokes with the Visible Dust Vswab + sensor clean solution that I had with me completely removed it from the sensor. The photographer was very happy to see that his camera was taken care of…the last thing he wanted was to come back with bad pictures from Montana.

   How to react: If you see a similar pattern in your images on a brand new Nikon DSLR, send it back to the seller and ask for an exchange/refund. Problems like this should be taken care of by Nikon’s Quality Control.

7. Rubber parts peeling off – some Nikon DSLRs like Nikon D700 have problems with the rubber on the back of the camera peeling off after extensive use (see the first image on the top of the article – I took that picture of my D700 today). I thought that I was the only person having such problems, but I have received reports from other photographers that seem to have similar issues. Take a look at another example of rubber peeling off the rear of a different D700 camera:

   

   Yikes, that one looks worse than mine. How to react: if you have a problem with your DSLR within the first year of purchase, then send your camera to Nikon for repair. If this happens after the first year (no warranty), then call Nikon to find out what they advise you to do. You might have to pay Nikon to repair the camera. If you do not want to pay, get some superglue and try gluing it back yourself.

Now let’s talk about the types of defects you might see in lenses:

1. Lens packaging – just like with cameras, make sure that the package contents are all there and that the box is original, from the manufacturer. Lens should be wrapped in a plastic container and padded against shocks and drops. How to react: if there are any problems with lens packaging, just send the lens back to the seller for an exchange or a refund.
2. Signs of lens use – again, products shipped directly from the manufacturer should be brand new and there should be no signs of prior use. How to react: if you see any signs of prior use on a brand new item, return the lens to the seller immediately and ask for an exchange or a refund.
3. Rubber ring is loose / comes off – While I personally have never had any construction/build problems with any of my Nikon lenses, some people have reported issues with rubber rings coming off on professional lenses like Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G, as shown below:

   

   I asked questions regarding this issue and wondered if the lenses were abused or left out in the heat/sun. It turned out that the lenses got normal field use and were not left in extreme weather conditions. So the rubber ring could get loose and eventually could peel off. How to react: call Nikon support and you can order a replacement rubber ring for very cheap (less than $5 USD). Once you receive the replacement rubber ring, installing it on the lens is super easy, so you can do it yourself.

4. Noise inside lenses when you shake them – this one is probably the most frequently asked question I get from our readers. Is it normal for lenses to make sound as if something is loose inside when you shake them? Yes, it is – almost every lens I own makes some sort of a sound. Newer lenses typically do not have as bad of a problem with this, but might eventually worsen as you use them. Zoom lenses are typically worse than primes. This happens because some of the internal elements move inside lenses when you focus or zoom and some parts could get slightly more loose overtime, which would add to the sound. How to react: first, don’t shake your lenses. Second, unless you can see something wrong inside your lens or in your images, you should not worry about it. On some older lenses like the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, the front element could get loose overtime (mine did that). If you touch the front element and it moves, simply grab the front element your fingers and move it clock-wise until it tightens. This will take care of the problem.
5. Dust inside lenses – as I have explained in my “dust inside lenses” article, dust is a very normal fact of life when using lenses. It does not impact your images in any way, unless it is behind the rear element of the lens. If there is too much of it, you might lose some contrast in your images. How to react: if you bought a brand new lens and it has large specks of dust (several millimeters in size) inside the lens that you can clearly see with your eyes, then I would return the lens to the seller for an exchange/refund. If you see small dust specks after normal lens use, then do not worry about them – they will not impact your images.
6. Noises when autofocusing – if you hear high-pitched screeching sounds when your lens autofocuses, you might have some dust/sand on the focusing ring of the lens or the AF parts might not be lubricated enough. How to react: try quickly moving the AF ring multiple times and see if the sound disappears. If it doesn’t, call Nikon support for further assistance. If the lens that does this is brand new, send it back to the seller for an exchange/refund.
7. Audible sound when you half-press the shutter and after you release it – the sound is normal, it is the Vibration Reduction motor that does this. When you half-press the shutter, the Vibration Reduction motor engages and starts to stabilize the lens. Once the shutter is released, it might take a second for VR to turn off. How to react: do not worry about this. All lenses with VR will have this ound when VR is engaged.
8. Lens is not recognized by the camera – if your lens is not recognized by the camera (0F and other errors), it means that something is wrong with the contacts on the lens and possibly on the camera. How to react: clean the lens contacts as shown in my “how to clean lenses” article and the issue should go away. If the problem persists, call Nikon support for assistance.
9. Fungus inside lenses – fungus only shows up in lenses that are stored in very humid environments. Fungus is a living organism, so it will probably grow more overtime, plus it is almost impossible to remove. How to react: if you see fungus inside your lenses, it is already too late – Nikon will not remove it for you and repair will not covered by the warranty. Your only choice is to find a company that can disassemble the lens, clean the fungus and assemble it back. The cost will be significant, so it is often easier to just replace the lens.
10. Cracked/chipped front element and scratches – you should never see scratches, cracks or chipped areas on the front lens element of a brand new lens. However, if the lens is used, you might have signs of scratches and cracks when you visually inspect the lens. How to react: – while small scratches and chips do not significantly impact the image quality, they still degrade it and lower the contrast. If the lens you bought is new and has any physical problems, send the lens back to the seller. If the lens is used, return it to the seller for a full refund, or you will have to live with lower quality/less contrasty images.

Please let me know if I have missed anything. I did not cover any of the Nikon software or accessories like Speedlights, remote cable release systems, etc, which I might add later to this article. If you have had any quality issues with your Nikon product, please leave a comment below with the exact description of the problem. If you have pictures for any of the above issues you would like to share, please send them to me via the “Case Study” form.

Dead (black) vs stuck (red) pixel

1) Dead Pixels

A dead pixel is a permanently damaged pixel that does not receive any power, which often results in a black spot on the camera LCD. Since digital camera sensors have color filter arrays, also known as “Bayer filters” in front of them, dead pixels do not normally show up as a black spot, but will rather show up of different color than adjacent pixels, or will be slightly darker than adjacent pixels. A dead pixel is a malfunction that is more or less permanent and does not go away over time. Dead pixels are rare on digital camera LCDs and sensors – manufacturers typically take care of dead pixels during their extensive Quality Assurance (QA) process. Dead pixels might appear on DSLR LCD screens and sensors over time, which is normal.

How to spot dead pixels: dead pixels are easy to spot on the camera LCD. Simply turn on Live View and point your camera at a bright area such as the sky. Dead pixels will always show up in the same spot even if you move the camera. Finding dead pixels on the camera sensor is tougher. Take several pictures with different colors and patterns, then analyze the image at 100% view size. If you see a pixel that shows up in the same spot and changes colors every time, or appears darker than the surrounding pixels, it is most likely a dead pixel.

2) Stuck Pixels

Compared to dead pixels, stuck pixels always receive power, which results in a colored pixel that shows up in the same spot on the camera LCD or on the sensor/images. The colors can be red, green, blue or any combination of these colors. Unlike dead pixels, stuck pixels do not change their color from picture to picture. Stuck pixels are very common, but not permanent like dead pixels – they might disappear overtime.

How to spot stuck pixels: to see if you have stuck pixels, set your camera to Program/Auto or Aperture Priority Mode, then turn on Live View and point the camera around, while carefully looking at the camera LCD. If you notice a pixel that never moves and has the same color no matter where you point your camera to, you might have a stuck pixel on the LCD. To find out if you have a stuck pixel on your camera sensor, take multiple different pictures at a base ISO such as ISO 100 or 200, then analyze the images at 100% on your computer screen. If you have a colored pixel (actually a small cross when viewed closely) that always shows up in the same spot, you have a stuck pixel. It is normal for digital camera sensors and LCDs to have multiple stuck pixels.

3) Hot Pixels

Unlike stuck pixels, hot pixels only show up when the camera sensor gets hot during long exposures or when the ISO is cranked up above 400-800. Hot pixels are very normal and they will show up even on brand new cameras, although manufacturers do their best to map hot pixels out during the QA process. Hot pixels will appear and disappear overtime and if your brand new camera does not have stuck pixels, you can rest assured that you will have them at some point in the future. Every single DSLR camera I have owned and/or used had hot pixels. My Nikon D3s had no visible hot pixels when it was new and now has plenty of hot pixels that are visible in longer exposure/high ISO images. Hot pixels do not occur in LCD screens.

How to spot hot pixels: while keeping the lens cap on, set your camera to Manual mode, turn off Auto ISO and set your ISO to 100 (base ISO). Set camera shutter speed to 5-10 seconds and aperture to a large value like f/16 (to decrease the amount of ambient light that could potentially enter the lens through small holes). Take a picture. Next, set your ISO to 800 and increase the shutter speed to something fast like 1/1000 while keeping the aperture the same. Take another picture. Analyze both images and see if you can spot colored pixels that look like very small crosses when zoomed in. You will probably see more hot pixels in the second photo at higher ISO than on the first one.

4) How to fix dead, stuck and hot pixels

Unfortunately in most cases, you cannot fix dead, stuck or hot pixels yourself. While you might find some online tutorials on how to map out stuck/hot pixels with various software (only works with very old DSLR models), I would not recommend trying those. If you decide to try it out, then do it at your own risk.

So, what do you do with dead/stuck/hot pixels if you have them? If you only have one or two dead pixels on your LCD, don’t worry about them – dead pixels are a normal fact of life. Think of it this way – a typical 3 inch LCD from Nikon contains 920,000 pixels. A single dead pixel means 0.0001% failure rate with 99.9999% of good pixels. Unless you have more than 2-3 dead pixels and they are close to each other, I would not worry about them. Plus, those dead pixels on the camera LCD will never show up in your images anyway! The same goes for stuck pixels on the camera LCD – don’t worry about them unless you have too many.

Now when it comes to the camera sensor, the situation is a little different, because dead/stuck/hot pixels will show up in your images. The probability of having defective pixels on a digital camera sensor is even higher – if you have 920,000 pixels on the camera LCD, you probably have 12+ million pixels on the camera sensor. Dead and stuck pixels are the most annoying ones, because they show up in every single picture. I personally do not care about those, because Lightroom and Photoshop Camera RAW automatically map those out when I import RAW images. If you only shoot JPEG, then it will take a little more time to map those pixels in post-processing, since you have to touch every image. There are some programs out there that will look for pixel patterns and fix JPEG images in batches, so you can more or less automate the process as well. If you see stuck pixels at low ISOs like ISO 100 and 200 and you exclusively shoot in JPEG, then you can send your camera for service to get those pixels remapped. As for hot pixels that show up only at high ISOs and longer exposures – those are very normal to have. Don’t send your camera to manufacturer to remap those, since they will come back in different spots later for sure. Again, if you shoot in RAW, Lightroom/Camera RAW will take care of those.

If you have just bought your camera and you have too many dead/stuck/hot pixels (by too many I define more than 3 on the LCD and more than 5 on the sensor at low ISOs), then send your camera back to the seller you bought the camera from. Depending on the seller, they might issue a full refund or exchange it, or they might charge you a restocking fee. I always buy from B&H and Adorama – they take back products if I am not happy without any questions, as long as I do it within 30 days from the date of purchase.

Losing images from a long-planned and expensive trip can be very painful. After it happens, you realize that it is not the financial aspect of it, but the effort you put into creating those images instead that hurts the most. We as photographers have to work with the best light during the day, which happens at sunrise and sunset times, no matter where you are located. In Glacier National Park, the sunset times in summer can be as late as 10 PM and as early as 5 AM in the morning. Northern Canada and Alaska are even worse, with sunset times close to midnight in July and sunrise in less than 5 hours. Add +1 hour after sunset and -1 hour for sunrise to get back and to the location, and we are talking about less than 3 hours of sleep at night. In addition, those late hours are also the peak and active time for wildlife, making it dangerous to hike to get to a good spot. And I am not even talking about the weather, which can go against you in those twilight hours. In addition, you carry the heavy weight with you and spent a lot of time tweaking your equipment and composing your shots using different spots and angles. So with so much effort put into making those images, the last thing you want is to lose them. What’s worse is, if you have been shooting for a while, you know if you got a great photo right at the time you take it. You take a look at the camera LCD and you know it is a keeper, a potential for your showcase portfolio. Once you lose photographs, you start to remember those keepers and deep regret hurts even more. So, why even take the chance? Take all the steps you can to protect your photographs when traveling and working on the field.

1) Back Up Your Data

Whether you are a professional photographer or a photo enthusiast, it is critical to not only back up your existing data, but also the new data that has not hit your permanent storage yet. I always take my laptop with me and back up photos from memory cards on a daily basis. I did not take my laptop with me just once when space and weight were an issue, and of course, it was the time when I lost many “keepers” on a 16 GB compact flash card. It was painful to lose so many great images, but maybe it happened for the better – going forward, I will remember to always take a backup device with me. Now when I say “back up”, I do not mean back up photos and then delete them from memory cards. You should never keep data in a single location, because any data medium can fail. With hard drives, it is just a matter of time. So when I back up my photos, I keep the originals on memory cards, until I safely get back home. Only after copying all images to my home storage and backing them up, I then format the memory cards for my next assignments.

Backing up your data on the field can be done in several different ways. If your camera is equipped with dual memory card slots (like Nikon D7000, D300s, D3, D3S, D3X), you can configure your DLSR to write to both cards simultaneously. While this means wasting one card, it is a good idea, because two cards will contain the same images. If data is corrupted on one card or one of the cards is lost, you still have a backup on the second one. Memory cards are cheap, so if you do not need the speed for video or fast action photography, get multiple slower cards that you can use in parallel.

If your camera is not equipped with a dual memory card slot or if you want to still back up your data to a different location, another option is to use an external memory card reader with a hard drive. There are many different options available on the market with devices of different hard drives sizes and obviously the price also varies depending on size and features. Something like Sanho Hyperdrive, although expensive, would work great for this purpose. Backing up your photos to an external storage device is a good idea – what if you were to lose your camera, or if you dropped it somewhere you cannot recover from? And lastly, if you travel with a laptop, just backup your photos to your laptop’s hard drive. That way you do not need to worry about getting an external storage device.

2) Label Your Memory Cards

I typically label my memory cards and provide my contact information on the back of them. If your memory card does not have space to write on, just put some white tape on it (make sure to use thin tape and do not tape over contacts) and provide at least your phone number. If anybody finds your memory card, they will at least have your contact information to contact you.

3) Properly Store Your Memory Cards

Keep your memory cards organized and store them properly in your camera bag. There are many different memory card holders out there, but the one I personally like and use is the Pelican 0940 CF Memory Card Case that securely holds 4 Compact Flash Cards. If you shoot with SD cards, you will want the Pelican 0910 SD Memory Card Case that can hold up to 8 SD and 16 Mini SD memory cards. Both card cases are water-resistant and well-protected against occasional abuse. If you have been storing your memory cards in camera bag pockets, I highly recommend getting one of these. I have four 16 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro cards stored in the 0940 Pelican. When I lost one of my memory cards, it was because I temporarily put it into my pocket in rush. Storing memory cards in pockets or in camera bag pockets is not a good idea, since dirt, moisture and other factors could damage them. Dust can get into the holes in CF cards.

If you only have one or two cards and do not want to purchase a card case, at least store the memory cards in plastic cases that came with the cards. When you are home and you are done using the memory cards, store them in dry, cool space (room temperature).

4) Label Used Cards

I once formatted a used card with photos I needed, because I did not label it after it was used. While you can recover photos from formatted cards, if you happen to write anything over the formatted card, the images you had before will not be recoverable, especially if you fill up the card with new images. You can purchase small color labels from any local store (for example green labels for formatted and red labels for used cards) or you can just come up with a method to identify used cards. If you use a memory card case like above, you can come up with a storage method for formatted and used cards without having to use labels. For example, I always put the formatted cards that are ready to use with their front up, while used memory cards are stored with their backs up.

5) Format Cards on Your Camera

If you have a habit of moving your images from your memory cards and forgetting to format the cards afterwards, I highly recommend to stop doing that and get in the habit of formatting memory cards in your camera instead. I have seen people with corrupt images and all kinds of other problems, just because their memory cards were not formatted properly. Always remember to format memory cards in your camera and not in your PC. It takes several seconds to do it in camera and if you shoot Nikon, you do not even need to get into the camera menu to format memory cards – you can just push two buttons with red labels and hold them for two seconds and once you push them together again, the memory card will be formatted.

6) Don’t Delete Images From Your Camera

If you do not like an image, or if it comes out blurry, don’t rush and delete images from your camera. This is another mistake I made during my last trip – every night I deleted plenty of images from my first memory card when it got full and many images from my second week ended up in my first memory card instead of the second on my Nikon D3s. If I had not done that, I would not have lost so many good images and my images would have been sorted better. If you run out of storage periodically, just buy more memory cards – they are cheap.

As for “Our Gear” page, while it has been there for several months now, I only had some text links to what we use, without much info on the gear. Today I updated the page with some short reviews of the camera gear we are using and finished the “Cameras”, “Camera Accessories”, “Lenses” and “Teleconverters” sections. I will soon update the page with a lot more content and provide more information and links to other tools we use, so please check back the page later.

If you have any questions about camera or computer gear, please ask them in the gear page rather than other articles. I will be checking this page more often and replying to your comments as soon as I can. Also, if you have been sending some case studies to me, please be patient, as I just have not had much time to work on them.

I am currently finishing up with the Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E lens review and will soon start working on reviewing the new Nikon 50mm f/1.8G lens, along with the Nikon D5100 DSLR. Stay tuned!

The moment I found out about his purchasing fiasco (which was on a Friday, approximately after two weeks since he placed the order), I picked up the phone and started calling AjRichard. I wanted to cancel the order as soon as possible and hoped to be able to recover his money. It was around 4 PM Mountain Time, which was 6 PM Eastern Time – the phone rang and then an automated message said that the store was closed. Unfortunately, it was the Memorial day weekend, so the store was closed for an extended period of time. On Tuesday morning before calling AjRichard, we checked the order status and the item was marked as “shipped”. A tracking number from UPS was provided, which indicated arrival on the third of June, two weeks after the order was placed – and that’s with the item being “in stock” with a free three day shipping. I called AjRichard and asked if it was possible to cancel the order. I was told that cancelling the order was not possible since the item was already shipped. Bummer. Now we had to wait till the package arrived. Meanwhile, my friend called his credit card company only to get disappointing news, that he would have to resolve the dispute with the merchant first. The whole dispute process could take several months.

I then decided to give a call to AjRichard and explore the purchasing process myself to see what I would get sold on on a $2,500 5D Mark II (as it was listed as of that day on their website). Here is an audio of the last part of the conversation, after I gave a fake name, address, email and credit card info:

Recorded Conversation with Mark @ AjRichard – click to listen/download.

And the above audio in text:

Me: Is this a new camera?
Mark: Brand new, factory sealed. OK, sold you the camera, we’ll do the warranty, then what else do you need?
Me: That’s it.
Mark: And the battery, you want to get the battery as well?
Me: Uh, doesn’t it come with a battery?
Mark: It comes with one battery, which is only 35-40 minutes, so I would definitely recommend getting one of the extended life batteries.
Me: What do you mean by 30-40 minutes?
Mark: It is a short battery, it is not a long-life battery. You need to buy the extra one, the long one.
Me: So when you say 30-40 minutes, it is for taking pictures or video?
Mark: Both of them. When the screen is on or anything, it cuts down very short (yawns).
Me: Oh, so the one that comes with the camera only lasts for 30 minutes?
Mark: Yeah. Then you have the two hour which is $129 and a four hour which is $169.
Me: Wow, so if I take this camera and take pictures, it is only going to last for 4 hours?
Mark: If you do the bigger battery, yeah.
Me: Let’s go with a bigger battery then.
Mark: OK, I will put the charger as well.
Me: Wait, wait, what is a charger?
Mark: No, you get the charger as well I am saying.
Me: Oh, so the battery comes with a charger?
Mark: Correct.
Me: Doesn’t the camera come with a charger though?
Mark: That’s what I am saying, you get the charger with that! The camera comes already with a charger in the bag with the battery.
Me: OK, so the only thing I am buying then is the battery, no charger right?
Mark: Correct. If you want, there is a separate charger, which is faster, if you want the “rapid” charger. It charges the battery within an hour, instead of waiting for 8 hours, it charges your battery in an hour.
Me: Oh, well, I guess I travel a lot, so let’s add that too.
Mark: And do you want to get a memory card?
Me: No, I already have a compact flash memory card.
Mark: Now they have a special memory card if you are doing like video and stuff. They have a special card which is for high definition.
Me: Yeah, I just got the one from Best Buy the other day and they told me that it can record video.
Mark: I mean if you want, because we have the new ones which are “error free” and “ultra high speed”. They are the ones that when you take a picture you are not going to have a 3-5 second delay time, and they actually say on the packaging “1080p high definition video”.
Me: Uh…I think that’s what my packaging says – it says “for recording 1080p video”. It is the “Sandisk Ultra” or something like that.
Mark: Hmm yeah, those aren’t error free, but they’ll work, they’ll take pictures and stuff.
Me: So when you say “error free”, what does it mean?
Mark: Error free means you are not going to get any glitches if you do action shots and someone running, you are not going to get any blur in the picture or anything like that. And you are not going to lose any pictures.
Me: Ohh.
Mark: You know, I’ll do this deal for you. I have a kit you might be better off doing, like right now if you are doing the camera with the battery, charger and the warranty and your total price was $3149.88, I have a kit I could do for you. It is a little more like $3399 as a whole bundle, but you would actually first get instead of the 4 hour battery I would give you two of the 6 hour batteries, so you get two batteries and it would be the six hour ones. You get also the charger now, which is the the charger that charges your batteries within one hour and it works in the house and in the car, so it is both AC/DC and it charges your batteries within one hour. Also, if you ever travel overseas, it is going to work overseas as well. You’ll get the 5 year warranty and I will give you the “platinum” warranty, it is the warranty you could take to any local service center. It will cover the screen, cover everything on that full parts and labor and it also covers professional cleaning as well.
Me: And the warranty we are talking about is US warranty right?
Mark: Yes, this will give you 5 years that you could take local, so you don’t have to ship to them or anything. And also covers the screen and everything. You are going to get the 32GB memory card, the ultra high speed “error free”, which is the bigger card.
Me: What brand is it?
Mark: That’s “Digital Film”, that has the full 5 year warranty, it is made for high definition video 1080p and also when you take the stills you are not going to have the delay time or the errors or anything. It is ultra high speed and error free.
Me: What was the company name again? Digital Film?
Mark: Digital Film, uhum.
Me: I have never heard of them.
Mark: Oh they are very good. The make the special ones for video and stills as well. Also if you do that kit you will get the car reader, so you get the ultra high speed card reader and you get everything for $3,399, which is worth it, because it is like $200 more, but you are getting the memory card, which is usually like $300 by itself, you are getting an extra battery, and you are getting the 6 hour one, so you are getting 3 batteries total.
Me: Oh wow, that sounds like an overkill for me though.
Mark: Yeah, so I will do that for you.
Me: OK.
Mark: So everything together comes out to…let me give you the order number as well, do you have a pen and paper?
Me: Sure.
Mark: The order number will be 1152214 and the total with everything will be $3549.98. And that’s with shipping, insurance, everything in that.
Me: What kind of shipping do you guys have?
Mark: You will get that probably within 3 to 5 days.
Me: So on the website it says “free shipping”.
Mark: Yeah, that is free shipping I did for you. The insurance is extra, usually it is like 8 percent, I gave you a break on that as well, so this way it comes to you insured and everything.
Me: So insurance is 8 percent of the total dollar amount on top of that?
Mark: It usually is, but I gave you a break on that, I did not charge you the 8 percent.
Me: Got it, OK, sounds good. How much did you say it was for shipping?
Mark: Everything together was $3549, with insurance and everything.
Me: So that includes the shipping.
Mark: Yeah and everything. I put the express shipping and everything for you.
Me: When you said “express” shipping, is that like through Federal Express?
Mark: No, UPS. Instead of like 10 days, you will get it in like 5 days, so you will get it quicker.
Me: Oh, OK. Can I change that to 3 day shipping?
Mark: Yeah, you want to do that? I can do that for you.
Me: How much is that going to cost?
Mark: I will do it for the same price.
Me: So instead of 5 days I will get it in 3 business days then?
Mark: Yeah, you will get it by Friday.
Me: OK, that sounds good.
Mark: All right, so I will do that for you and I will process it right away.
Me: Sounds good, thank you very much. What was your name again?
Mark: My name is Mark, my extension here is 218.
Me: Thank you very much Mark.
Mark: Thank you Nick.
Me: Bye.

The camera that was $2,499 is now $3,549, thanks to Mark’s sales efforts. Wow. I can’t imagine what they are selling to other people that don’t know what they are doing. Everything was going so wrong, I don’t know how I did not just explode in laughter (which we did, as soon as I hung up). The best part is when he says “Error free means you are not going to get any glitches if you do action shots and someone running, you are not going to get any blur in the picture or anything like that”. A lesson for beginners – now you know where all that blur is coming from! Just buy the right card and your images will be sharp and you will catch all the action shots in the world. LOL. Did you notice how smooth he went from $3399 to $3549? And that was apparently for “insurance” that he gave me a break on. That’s $150 that I got screwed on for shipping on a $2,500 camera.

Wondering what happened to my friend’s order? He received an opened half-empty 5D Mark II + 24-120mm kit box with what looked like a new 5D Mark II, with no lens or warranty card. Everything else was in the box, including manuals and battery + charger. The second battery and charger he got were from some unknown brand. He also received a worthless $3 cleaning kit and some other junk he did not need. He called AjRichard and this time it was supposedly a different guy, but with the same voice as Mark. The sales person said that he shipped a brand new 5D Mark II and that the box was not open. When my friend told him that he wanted to return the order and get his money back, Mr. Mark said that he would have to charge a 15% restocking fee for the entire order. Plus, he would be responsible for shipping and insurance as well. My friend decided to keep the camera.

Lessons learned:

1. Never buy photography equipment from an unauthorized seller/dealer.
2. Never fully trust third party sites like Nextag.com for vendor ratings and trustworthiness.
3. Know that if anybody lists prices significantly lower than top sellers like B&H and Adorama, most likely they are scammers.
4. Do not assume that your credit card company will help you when you make stupid decisions.
5. Do not engage in phone conversations about your order with sales people, unless the company is calling to verify your payment/address information.
6. Do not believe in 8% insurance fees, there is no such thing.
7. Buy from reliable online and local sellers with a long history.
8. Always check your gear after buying it. Check for camera shutter actuations and check all lenses you receive.
9. Always be extra careful when buying from online merchants. Read seller reviews from multiple sources and Google for information on the seller.

These guys should be shut down for what they are doing. The good news is, they are probably not going to stay in business much longer. The bad news is, they will probably reopen another company under a different name and continue to rob people. If we as consumers do not learn how to differentiate good guys from bad guys, companies like AjRichard will thrive on new, often “not-so-knowledgeable” customers. Please spread this message to your friends and family and do not let it happen!

Let me know if you have experienced anything like this before – our community should know who to stay away from. I will soon create a list of sellers I fully trust in a separate post and provide some tips on purchasing camera gear.