Anyone preordering from adorama?

[Arjay]

I have made it a rule for myself never to buy a new digital camera before the first firmware update has been published - and this first update has always been a certainty in the first three to six months of any digital camera I have bought.

OTOH - I'd be careful to poke fun at early adopters: Buying blindly wouldn't be my cup of tea, but who else if not the early adopters would be the ones who'll report the infancy bugs that will trigger the first (and crucial) firmware release? This release will iron out all those annoying little startup problems that almost any new camera has. So, early adopters are doing the user community an important service - let them buy bragging rights allright.

All hail the guinea pigs!

 

[hteasley]

Not going to consider ordering it until the X1 firmware update comes out, and I see how the X1 improves. I went from not liking the X1 so much, to really liking using it, with the addition of a viewfinder, so I'm not in such a rush to change.

 

[Quash]

Wow, strange that forum members say other forum members are stupid, have no sense and say they pre-order based on vanity, wanting bragging rights. It's amazing how comfortable some people feel insulting others.

I have this wild and zany theory. Ready for it? Perhaps many people pre-order (I won't be one) simply because they are... Excited. Why disparage people for this? Sure, I'm sure some buy for bragging rights. This is an element of conspicuous consumption. Is that anyone else's business but theirs?

Pre-ordering is actually not a bad idea for a product which might sell out, knowing some cameras take months to deliver after the inital run dries uo. There is little risk, as you can return. I could return for up to 30 days, no questions asked, full refund. So, very low risk to be an early adopter and pre-order. And the up side is that I know I will have the camera at a fairly certain time. Makes sense.

 

[Spyro]

I have preordered from adorama before and it didnt work out very well, they ended up shipping a couple of weeks after B&H had the same item listed as "in stock" (they did explain their reasons though and kept asking me if I wanted to cancel, I didnt precisely because they were honest with me). But the bottom line is that the first shop to accept preorders is not necessarily the first to get stock.

 

[Richard G]

I would like to pre-order - I am confident that this is going to be a success. I am not going to because I am being uncharacteristically frugal and patient at the moment.

I will also declare that I have no conflict of interest and have no shares in Fuji and I do not receive any fees from them to direct attention to their products.

 

[videogamemaker]

I will also declare that I have no conflict of interest and have no shares in Fuji and I do not receive any fees from them to direct attention to their products.

I wish I had a conflict of interest. Then I'd be out shooting with my pre production model instead of checking the internet for new tidbits.

 

[Paul T.]

I won't pre-order, because I don't have a lot of work due in the spring, but if I were, given I could reclaim the VAT and some of the capital cost this year, I'd certainly take a punt on the X100 in the reasonable hope it could replace my Hexar AF for people work.

How stupid can 'habitual generalisers' get?

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Pre-ordering something like the M9 before it was released? I can understand that because of an anticipated big backlog. Pre-ordering a $1,000 mass produced P&S? That doesn't make much sense to me.

But, you pay your price and you take your choice.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I won't pre-order, because I don't have a lot of work due in the spring, but if I were, given I could reclaim the VAT and some of the capital cost this year, I'd certainly take a punt on the X100 in the reasonable hope it could replace my Hexar AF for people work.

How stupid can 'habitual generalisers' get?

"All generalisations are dangerous, including this one."

No doubt there are some with good reasons for, as you put it, taking a punt on the X100. And there is equally little doubt that there are others who are so obsessed with having the very newest of everything that they don't really care whether it is any better than what they already have: it suffices that it is new. In between there are all kinds of other motivations.

I will cheerfuly put my hand up to making an over-broad generalization. But I still think that pre-ordering an unknown camera is foolish. The venom with which some have responded to my comment makes me wonder if some people are quite as convinced as they say (or think) they are of the virtues of the X100. Are they trying to convince themselves, or me? Because I'm not going to be convinced until I see evidence.

Cheers,

R.

 

[X-100]

Because I'm not going to be convinced until I see evidence.

Cheers,

R.

There are non so blind as those that will not see.

 

[Roger Hicks]

So you're predictably insulting and arrogant?

More sort of predictably arumentative, contrarian and given to taking quite a long view. I also have some slight idea of what I'm talking about, most of the time.

How woud you describe yourself?

EDIT, based on your last post. What am I supposed to see? Where is the evidence? Where is the working camera? I've handled a prototype. It looks like an excellent camera, thugh the dual viewfinder wasn't working and the autofocus wasn't finalized. Until I see a working camera, there is no evidence that I am willing to accept.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Paul T.]

X-100, you might seem a more objective judge of Roger's possibly closed mind, were you not named after the camera he accuses people of idolising!

 

[videogamemaker]

X-100, you might seem a more objective judge of Roger's possibly closed mind, were you not named after the camera he accuses people of idolising!

lol, that's exactly what I was thinking.

I've handled a prototype.

Cheers,

R.

How did you like the optical viewfinder? Do you wear glasses? Did it seem large enough to use (assuming AF isn't a problem, I just mean in terms of visually large enough to use for composition framing).

 

[Richard G]

Before member X-100 appeared I made my declaration on conflicts of interest. Does RFF have rules on this? Anyone else with something to declare?

 

[Roger Hicks]

X-100, you might seem a more objective judge of Roger's possibly closed mind, were you not named after the camera he accuses people of idolising!

Dear Paul,

Really, it's not closed about the X100. I hope and believe it will be an excellent camera, but in the absence of evidence in the form of a working production camera, I don't know.

On the subject of early adoption of any technology, yes, it is quite a bit more closed, but this may be for two simple reasons:

1 If I buy a new tool, I want to be sure it does all that I want.

2 I'm already experienced at using the tools I have, so a new tool has to offer a significant advantage over the old one for me to want it.

Among the professionals I know or have known, there have always been two schools. One, epitomized by Terence Donovan, would buy almost anything just to try it. As you say, take off the VAT and write it off agains the business, and it ain't that expensive. The other school (the majority, in my acquaintance) won't take the slightest risk of losing a picture, even a happy-snap, because the camera doesn't do what they want. They will therefore let others act as guinea-pigs.

Likewise, among amateurs, there are those who are forever changing cameras, and who might as well pre-order, because 'trying' cameras is one of their principal hobbies (ahead of reliably getting good pictures), and those to whom the camera is simultaneously paramount (it must do exactly what they want, when they want it to) and secondary (any camera that will do exactly what they want, when they want it to, will suffice, no matter how old it is).

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

Before member X-100 appeared I made my declaration on conflicts of interest. Does RFF have rules on this? Anyone else with something to declare?

... I'm getting a bit bored with the whole thing, to the point of becoming a bit tetchy

 

[Roger Hicks]

How did you like the optical viewfinder? Do you wear glasses? Did it seem large enough to use (assuming AF isn't a problem, I just mean in terms of visually large enough to use for composition framing).

I found the optical viewfinder more than adequate, but I don't think I was wearing gasses when I tried it.

Perhaps the most useful comment I can make about it is that three months on, amid the blur of all the other things I saw at photokina, I do not recall it as beng either "Wow! Incredible!" or "Aaargh! Unusable!" I did come very close to thinking the latter about all the EVFs I tried, as compared with optical finders.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Richard G]

I have not now, nor have I ever had any affiliation with Fujifilm.

My only digital camera is an S2 pro which has a 28mm constantly fitted.
An X100 would, no, will make an ideal pocket version.

Thanks. I thought so. Welcome. As I said, I thought my post relevant even before you appeared.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

This thread is closed.

Obvious why.

Too many insults tossed between RFF members.

As far as early adopters, the term is "Bleeding Edge" for a reason. Start a thread on problems with early copies of cameras, and ask for examples. The Leica M3 (glass pressure plate), Nikon F2 (motor drive backlash), Nikon F5(shutter failure), and Leica M8 come to mind.