During my visit to Peru, the most amazing thing I saw were the ancient Inca stone structures present in areas such as Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and of course at Machu Picchu. In these areas the original structures are still standing today, hundreds of years after their construction. This is a tremendous testament to the skills of the Inca engineers since Peru regularly experiences strong earthquakes that score over 7.0 on the Richter scale. In these earthquakes modern buildings are completely destroyed while the Incan structures remain standing.

To build walls, the Incas used a mortarless construction with irregularly shaped rocks that were placed together much like a jigsaw puzzle. In addition to shaping the rocks to fit together on the wall face, they also carved or grinded the rock surfaces that met to have concave and convex surfaces.

Wall at Ollantaytambo.

Wall at Sacsayhuaman.

Wall at Machu Picchu.

This type of construction is very resistant to earthquakes: The lack of mortar allows rocks to move independently during an earthquake and since the rocks were irregularly shaped they would fall back into their proper place as the earthquake subsided.

The Spanish church atop the Incan foundation at Qoricancha.

In constrast to the Inca stonework, the Spanish used a brick and mortar construction. This had the advantage of being much easier and quicker to build, but would fall apart with any major earthquake. For example, in Cusco the Spanish church built on top of Qoricancha was destroyed by an earthquake in 1950. The Incan foundation remained untouched.

Although we can study the completed Incan structures, the method by which they built them is unknown. The Incans had no written language and any knowledge that would have been passed on to their descendents with an oral tradition was lost after the Spanish conquest. Today, researchers can only guess at the techniques they used and there are no definitive answers to questions such as:

• How did the Incas move stone blocks from the quarry to their construction site? At Sacsayhuaman, many of the blocks are huge and weigh over 100 tons. At Ollantaytambo, the quarry was several kilometers away on the other side of the valley.
• How were the stones cut and shaped so that they would fit together perfectly? In the best stonework, the gap is so small that it would be hard to slide a sheet of paper between the stones.
• How were the blocks lifted and placed into position? The Incan’s did not have access to pulleys and the blocks could weigh many tons.

A larger stone at Sacsayhuaman.

The quarry for the rocks at Ollantaytambo was located across the valley.

A close up view of how precisely the Incan’s shaped the rocks at Ollantaytambo.

The twelve angled stone in Cusco.

Sunrise on Machu Picchu, Peru

• Expect delays when traveling internally by air. During my travels, I had to make three internal flights one of which was delayed by a whole day because of mechanical difficulties and the inability of the carrier to get a replacement airplane. My experience was not unusual and many people that I met had at least one segment of their tour delayed by at least a day. I met a church group who was delayed by a whole day three times while traveling.
• Bring your own toilet paper. In many places, the public bathrooms did not have any. Additionally, usually you should throw the paper in the trash rather than the bowl as they are prone to clogging.
• Carry small change especially in remote areas where large bills can be hard to break.
• Allow yourself enough time to acclimatize to the high altitude if you a visiting areas such as Cusco or the Sacred Valley. The first day I got dizzy while riding a bus. Do not eat large meals or consume alcohol.
• Consider using a reputable tour agency such Explorandes. They are relatively inexpensive and can handle much of the grunt work arranging for tickets and tours.
• The Inca trail can be difficult even if you are in good shape. For example, one of the days involved going from 8000 to 12000ft over about 6 miles of hiking. The highest point on the pass, Warmiwanusca is almost 14000 ft high and even the porters who are used to higher altitudes had difficultly.
• Although the most heavily traveled portion of the Inca trail is only about 20 miles long, most of that distance is either going up or down over rough stone steps which can be tough on the knees.
• On my trip, Lima was the only place where I felt that I had to be concerned about safety. Lima is a very large city and it has many poor areas. The safest place to stay is in Miraflores which is an upscale suburb. This served as my base while I was there.
  

  Peruvian musician playing the zampona and charango. Sacred Valley, Peru.

• You can expect to find many internet cafes, even in relatively remote areas. The cafes are incredibly cheap, just a few soles per hour, so they are good way of staying in touch with friends and relatives not lucky enough to go with you.
• Bring sunscreen and insect repellent. Mosquitos are a problem both in the Amazon and in central mountain areas.
• Don’t count on having working phones in hotel rooms.
• Learn the words “no gracias”. Because Peru is a very poor country many people are very entrepeneurial and try to make a living selling tourists merchandise. Furthermore, in many areas restaurant maitre d’s will follow you while you walk, trying to convince you to eat at their establishment.
• It helps if you learn at least some basic Spanish. At a minimum learn the numbers.
• The airports all have a departure tax. You should find out ahead of time and plan to have enough money to pay for this.
• There are many laundromats in areas such as Cusco which are very cheap to use.
• If you are using a portable hard drive to store your digital images, they will work fine at high altitudes. Just set it on a flat surface and be careful not to bump it while transfering data.

A small portion of my hard drive collection.

As I was backing up the hard drive that stores my images (a 1TB drive which I refer to as my ImageBank), I realized that I had a lot drives lying around my office. Some were in external cases, others I had stored in those anti-static bags and were stacked beside each other. In fact, I realized that I had so many drives I didn’t know exactly what was on each drive nor when was the last time I updated them.

I did a quick count of my drives and realized I had at least 19 drives: 3 in a mac pro, 1 in a macbook pro, 4 in external drives cases, 3 in a ReadyNAS NV raid system, and 8 bare drives for backup (I pop these into a USB docking station). It’s also quite possible that I’ve forgotten some that are tucked away in corner of my house somewhere (or in the corner of my mother in-law’s house).

Anyway, to deal with this mess, I decided that I better catalog at least the drives that I use for backup so that I can keep track of where they are located, what they are storing, and when they were last updated. Hence, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of everything. Nothing fancy, but I gave each hard drive a unique ID number and then recorded:

• make, size, serial no.
• type of drive (e.g., external usb, bare SATA, bare PATA, etc.)
• how much space was used and how much was free
• date last updated, date the drive was last checked to make sure it still works
• what is stored on the drive (e.g., image backup, music backup, TimeMachine, etc.)
• where the drive is located

For my bare drives that I have stored in anti-static bags, I put a big sticker on them and labeled them with the ID and date the drive was last updated with new files. Now I just have to find a logical system for organizing them physically.

In the future, I’m hoping the size of hard disks grows faster than my data and I can just put everything on a single drive and have a couple extra copies as backup.

Think Tank Photo has a reputation for high quality bags and when I first heard of the Urban Disguise 35 shoulder bag ($150) I decided to purchase it immediately. I have numerous bags for my camera gear because quite simply, I can’t find one that is just right for me. I want a small bag that can carry a three lens travel kit, have minimal padding (just enough to prevent lenses from banging together), and not be too bulky.

Figure 1. Front and side views of the Urban Disguise 35

As you might guess from the name, ThinkTank’s entire line of “urban disguise” bags are designed not to look like a camera bag. However, most of their bags are shaped like briefcases and look exactly like a laptop case so I think they would still be enticing to a potential thief. The Urban Disguise 35 is an exception to the line as it is taller than it is wide and looks more like a satchel or a school bag. (I’m planning to abuse mine so it doesn’t look so nice.)

The build quality of the bag is excellent. The zippers and fabric are extremely heavy duty and in my opinion, the Urban Disguise is better made than bags I’ve used from other manufacturers such as Lowe Pro, Tenba, or Domke. The bag weighs 2 lbs 6 oz and has the following dimensions:

• Interior: 10″W x 13.25″H x 4.25″D
• Exterior: 10.5W x 13.5″H x 6″D
• Laptop compartment: 10″W x 13.25″H x 1.5″D

Bag Compartments

The bag has a main compartment for camera gear with removable dividers (Figure 2) and a narrow compartment at the back for a small laptop (Figure 3). The front of the bag also has a flap and a small pouch which can be used for storing gear (Figure 4).

Figure 2. Main compartment of Urban Disguise 35

Figure 3. Laptop compartment

Figure 4. Front pouch

My Storage Setup

I have the bag in a three column setup with lenses in the side columns and the camera mounted with a wide-tele zoom lens in the center. The camera sits on top of the two dividers which separate the bag into three columns as in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Camera with lens in main compartment

Here’s what I fit in the bag when I using it to shoot:

• 70-200 f/4 (side column, lens hood reversed)
• 17-40 f/4 (side column without lens hood)
• 24-105 f/4 mounted on a Canon 5d II (center column)
• lens hood for the 17-40mm lens stored beside the camera at the top of the bag
• CF cards
• remote cable release
• extra battery

With all three lenses sitting side by side, it is snug fit. For me, if the bag were 1/2″ wider it would be just the perfect size. When traveling, I also carry the following:

• Macbook Pro 13″ laptop
• power brick for laptop
• Canon battery charger
• notebook
• pens
• paperback book for reading

The power bricks and charger go on top of my camera gear in the main compartment. I could put it in the front pouch as in Figure 4, but this tends to make the bag really bulky (wide). I take this extra gear out of the bag when I reach my destination.

Figure 6. Gear that I put in my ThinkTank Urban Disguise when traveling.

Notes

• The “water bottle” holders on the side are very small and fit tightly (you have to stretch the fabric considerably for a water bottle) and I don’t think I could fit one of my travel zooms in there. On other bags, I use the bottle holders to store lenses that I switch to frequently while shooting.
• The padding is very minimal compared to other photo bags. This is a plus for me as I want the least amount of padding to reduce weight and bulk.
• The bag is very convenient for airplane travel and fits easily under seat in front of you.
• In terms of a working bag, it’s not as convenient as using a shoulder bag with wider footprint (the Urban Disguise trades width for depth) such as a Lowepro Street & Field Reporter model, however it still works reasonably well. Most shoulder bags also don’t let you store a laptop.
• It’s easy to put too much gear in the bag making it quite heavy. Also because of the vertical design, you may need to stack gear in order to get it all to fit.
• You can get shoulder straps for the bag and use it as a back pack. The straps wrap around the handles at the top of the bag and connect to small metal rings at the bottom.

Final thoughts

The Urban Disguise 35 is very well made and it can hold a lot of gear although there are some tradeoffs. In particular, the bag uses a deep vertical design and may be slightly less convenient than a regular shoulderbag. However, this allows it to hold an SLR with a big tele-zoom mounted. The bag also has a laptop pouch which uses up space but is obviously required if you carry a computer. I would also have liked bigger pouches on the sides that I could use to hold lenses. However, these are relatively minor points and overall the bag works extremely well. I’m pleased with my purchase and going to be reaching for the Urban Disguise 35 whenever I need to travel.

Dancer with terrifying mask at the Thimphu tsechu festival in Bhutan.

This past fall, I went to Bhutan for a two week trip and took several thousand pictures. I finally finished processing the images and I just put up a gallery of my Bhutan pictures. The major locations I visited included Thimphu, Paro, Punakha, Phobjikha valley, and Wangdue Phodrang. I can say that Bhutan is an awesome country to visit for photography. The small Buddhist country is steeped in tradition and I had no shortage of subjects with all of the religious festivals and sights.

It took me a little longer than I expected to process my images because I’ve been experimenting with my workflow. I normally use iView MediaPro for cataloging my images but this time I tried using Lightroom instead for captioning and keywording. I really like Lightroom but it also has a number of limitations that make it an imperfect digital asset management (DAM) solution as well (such as an inability to automatically sync meta-data across multiple versions of the same picture). I’m hoping version 3.0 of Lightroom will fix these issues.

I’ve had my HP Z3200 24″ printer for several months now and I thought I would write a few notes about my experiences with it. Initially, I had a terrible time with a hardware error that caused banding and a posterization like effect in prints but it has now been resolved through the help of HP technicians (and replacing every circuit board on the printer). Since I’ve got my printer working I’ve gone through a full 50′ roll of paper and half a set of the starter inks making prints. So here are my initial observations:

Print Quality

I’ve been using the instant dry satin paper and the print quality is very good. The gloss enhancer really works and avoids any bronzing or gloss differential in white areas. I’ve also printed a few black and white images and I’ve been very impressed with the output. The blacks are very deep and because the Z3200 only uses the black and grey inks the print is neutral.

Once or twice, I’ve experienced a print defect that appears as if the entire print head came in contact with the paper (Figure 1). Basically it looks like you took your thumb and smeared the ink on the print before it had a chance to dry. I’m not entirely sure why this is occurring (it’s not repeatable and very rare) but I suspect it may have something to do with there being too much curve in the paper.

Figure 1. Print defect on the calibration target for the HP Z3200 printer.

Calibrating and Profiling Papers

Calibrating and profiling a paper is very easy and literally the press of a few mouse buttons. It takes about 10-20 minutes to complete and you don’t really have to do anything as the process is automated. However, I was surprised that after using a profile for just a few months I received a warning that it was now out-of-date. I was expecting the profiles to be good for a much longer time period (i.e. half a year or more) but perhaps the engineers are just allowing for a big margin of safety.

I haven’t had a chance yet to try out the other paper types but I plan to experiment with the professional satin paper and the matte canvas for my prints.

Noise

Without question, the printer is loud. When printing, the carriage makes a fair bit of noise as it goes back and forth (the whole printer shakes). Furthermore, the control ribbon vibrates against a metal rail and making an annoying ringing noise. I’m not sure if just my Z3200 makes this noise or if it is a problem with all of them.

The printer is also loud when it is not in use as the HP engineers decided to keep the fan on ALL THE TIME. The fan is even on when the printer is sleeping. I could turn the printer off, but HP recommends keeping it on so that it can perform head maintenance periodically.

Paper Loading

On the Z3200 the paper is loaded from the rear of the printer and can be a little difficult to access unless you have adequate space behind it. I have my printer in a small room and place it right up against the wall so if I can want to change the paper I need to roll it out. Not a big deal but still somewhat of an inconvenience.

Print Drivers

I’ve been printing from a Mac and I’ve been less than satisfied with the print drivers. They seem to be a little buggy. For example, the driver keeps warning me that there is a new profile in the printer and that I should update the version on my computer. The driver also does a poor job canceling print requests — if I cancel a job in the middle of printing the driver will stop applying any of the color inks but will keep advancing the paper and will apply the gloss enhancer over the entire area of the image.

In August, I ordered a brand new HP Z3200 Designjet printer. I had spent a considerable amount of time researching this purchase (and comparing it with other options such as the Epson 7900) so I was very excited to receive the printer and take advantage of its many features.

The printer didn’t take long to set up and I immediately started making color prints. At first, I didn’t notice anything amiss, but about a week later I noticed some odd defects occuring in the light blues and earthy midtones. Initially, I thought it was posterization caused by the colors being out of gamut but the issue also appeared in black and white images. Figure 1 shows an example of the problem and you can see the odd streaks or bands in the sky which should have a smooth transition from light to dark.

Figure 1. Printing defect on black and white image.

After I noticed the problem, I ran the image diagnostic test which is supposed to print out a solid patch for every color. In the test print, I saw that the light cyan (LC) and light gray (LG) had broad horizontal regions that were lighter in color as shown in Figure 2 and 3.

Figure 2. Image diagnostic print with lighter bands in the LG and LC patches. The defect in the LC patch is more difficult to see but if you look carefully you can notice lighter areas in the same location as in LG.

Figure 3. Another image diagnostic print with the defect in the LC and LG patches.

Some observations:

• The bands of lighter color are completely horizontal and match exactly in the LC and LG patches. I printed the diagnostic over a dozen times and the bands always started and stopped at the exact same locations.
• Running the clean print head routine helped for about 1 diagnostic print and then when I went to print an actual image the banding effect returned.
• The bands appear at different locations on the patches from print to print.

The most puzzling thing about the problem was the matching in the LC and LG patches. The print heads in the Z3200 come in pairs (i.e., one cartridge contains the heads for two colors) but the LC is matched with LM (light magenta) and LG with PK (photo black). At this point I realized there must have been a hardware error and I decided to contact HP Support.

Timeline

Through HP support, I eventually got my printer fixed. Below, I’ve outlined the basic timeline of my interactions with them.

• 8/21 – I received the printer from Atlex and set it up. I happily printed a dozen or so pictures from my trip to Korea.
• 8/28 – I noticed a problem in the light blues and grays in a few of my prints. After trying to debug the issue myself, submitted an email to HP support
• 8/31 – I hadn’t yet received an email response so I called HP support directly. This was much more helpful and I talked directly with a support staff member. He opened a case number and told me he was going to send a new set of print heads to make sure that wasn’t the problem.
• 9/2 – The new set of print heads arrived. I changed them all but it did not fix the problem.
• 9/3 – I received a response to the email I sent on 8/28. Unfortunately, the answer was not very helpful as it basically said to make sure I was using the right profile and supported paper.
• 9/8 – I spoke again with HP support over the phone. At this time, since they could rule out a problem with the print heads, they thought the issue might be caused by the print carriage. They had one sent by next day delivery to my house.
• 9/11 – First visit by the technician. He had never seen this issue before but thought it unlikely that the problem was caused by the print carriage. He decided to update the firmware, to eliminate it as a possible cause, but unfortunately the printer hung during the process and was not rebootable.
• 9/14 – Second visit by the technician. He replaced the formatter board (which stores the firmware) and got the printer to boot up. This was very quick and was done in a few minutes. However, this did not fix the printing problem and the tech then ran a number of diagnostic tests with a second level support engineer on the phone. They thought the problem might be in the “print mech” or the “main pca board”. I’m not sure of their exact function but they are essentially circuit boards that control the printer.
• 9/18 – The technician changed the print-mech with a new unit. However, this did not solve the problem and the image diagnostic print still had the different bands in the LC and LG patches. He then changed the pca board and thankfully this fixed the problem.

In general, I thought the service provided by HP was reasonably good. Everybody I spoke with was courteous and helpful. However, the entire process took about three weeks, which was much longer than I expected. In the time that my printer was down, I had to send my print orders out to commercial labs instead of handling it myself. While I am happy with the outcome, I think the process could have been faster if (a) HP kept the replacement parts on hand for the technician instead of having them shipped to my house for the next day necessitating another visit and (b) if I had more availability, I could have scheduled the technician to come out sooner and on consecutive days.

Summary

The printer is now working and the quality of the prints is terrific. My recommendation if you have a problem is to call HP support directly (emailing was a dud). It was also really helpful to have pictures of the test prints showing the problem when talking to the support staff over the phone.

Eventually, the time will come when you want to sell your photography gear. This may be because you don’t use that lens anymore, you’re upgrading your digital camera to latest version, or you would rather just have the cash. In my experience, eBay is an incredible marketplace for selling your photography gear and is simply the best place to sell where you will get the top dollar for your goods.

The most important thing about selling on eBay is having an established account with excellent feedback. Nobody is going to buy a $1000 lens from someone who just joined eBay and has very little feedback. The account I use to sell has over 400 positive feedback notes with no negatives.

If you are new to eBay, developing an account will take a lot of work. You will probably want to start small selling relatively inexpensive items and gradually work your way up to more expensive goods. Make sure to retain positive feedback as even a few negatives can really hurt you. Historically, eBay had poorly designed feedback system where both buyers and sellers could retaliate against each other for leaving negative feedback. As a result almost nobody left negative feedback (even when warranted) because they would get negative feedback in response. Thus when you read the feedback scores even someone with 99.0% positive rating should be treated with caution.

How much can you get?

You can get very good prices for your used goods on eBay that are close to what it costs to buy the same item new. In a few cases I’ve gotten more than I paid for my items. Yes that’s right, my items sold for more than I paid for them new. For example, here’s a list of a few things I’ve sold in the past year on eBay:

• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens, bought for $1450 (including the $150 rebate) and sold 5 years later for $1601.
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, bought for $1700 and sold 1 year later for $1671.
• Nikon SB-800 flash, bought for $360 and sold 3 years later for $380.
• Really Right Stuff L-plate, bought for $140 and sold for $128.
• Nikon D700 digital camera, bought for $3000 and sold 1 year later for $2227.
• Nikon 24-85mm consumer zoom, bought for $360 and sold 7 years later for $238.

As you can see lenses, especially the professional zooms, sell extremely well. To be fair, my sale prices have been helped by the increases in lens prices due to the rising Japanese yen (compared with the U.S. dollar). For example, the Nikon 24-70mm lens now lists for $1800 new at B&H Photo and the 70-200mm lens lists for $1950.

In my experience, consumer zooms and primes do not sell for as much but you will still get very reasonable prices. I was extremely happy to get two thirds of the new price on my 24-85mm zoom considering that I used it for 7 years and did not take especially good care of it. Not to mention that the lens has been discontinued and replaced with better options such as the 18-200mm VR dx zoom.

Personally, I would not buy a lens on eBay for the price that they sell for. To me, the risk is not worth the meager discount (if any) compared with buying from a reputable store with a good return policy. However it seems that there are lots of willing buyers which is great if you are a seller.

Digital camera bodies depreciate much more quickly, but this is understandable given how fast they become obsolete and how fast the new prices drop. Still, I was able to sell my D700 body for 75% of the purchase price after one year. From my perspective as the seller this is more than fair. At the time, the price I received for my body was about the same as a refurbished D700 from a large store like Adorama.

One thing to consider is that what your net will be somewhat lower than selling price. From the selling price you will have to pay eBay and Paypal fees which will add up to 5-6% of the selling price. Note you can setup your auctions so that the buyer pays for shipping and insurance.

How to set up an auction

When you list an item on eBay you have a lot of choices. What’s the best day and time to list the item? Should I use a reserve price? What should I start the list price for? What buy it now price should I use? Here’s what I do

• Buy it Now. I do not use the buy it now option. Every time I’ve thought about using this option the item has always sold for more than the buy-it-now price I was considering.
• Length of Auction. I always use 7 day auctions to make sure that there is enough time for people to see the listing.
• Time of day. I try to have the auction end when it is reasonable for people on the east coast and west coast to bid. Generally this means early evening, 6 or 7pm Pacific time.
• Day of the week. I like to list on Sunday or weekend evenings when people are likely to be home. I avoid having the auction end on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
• Reserve prices. I never use a reserve price. If I am worried that the item is too much of a specialty I just list for the minimum price that I would be okay with selling the item.

To get an idea of what the market is for your specific item, it is extremely helpful to look at the completed auctions.

How to describe an item

There’s no secret here. Give a detailed description, point out any issues/defects, and show lots of pictures. More specifically,

• List the item with exact model number. Make sure you get this right as there is a big difference between say a Canon 5D (12MP sensor) and a Canon 5D Mark II (21MP sensor).
• Describe the item in detail and point out any blemishes or defects. As a buyer, the biggest concern is that the seller may be misrepresenting the condition of the item (or omitting important information).
• State if the item is a USA or imported model. Some manufacturers such as Nikon refuse to service imported products (also known as gray market items).
• State what accessories you are including with the item. You should try to include everying that came with the item initially including the original box and instruction manual. I think having the box is very important as it shows that you are a legitimate owner (i.e. you didn’t steal it).
• For camera bodies, state the number of shutter actuations. You can find this by using a program like EXIFTool.
• List any additional conditions you have on the sale or buyer. For example, you will only sell and ship to U.S. bidders.
• Mention any points that might increase the sales price. For example, if the item is only a few months old or if it is still covered by the warranty.

As an example, here is the description I used to sell my 24-85mm zoom lens:

Nikon AF-S 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5G Zoom Lens

You are bidding on a Nikon AF-S 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G Zoom lens in used condition. This is a US model. Note that the lens hood fits loosely and there is some white markings on the rubber (see picture). The lens works perfectly and I used it on a D200 camera.

The lens comes with everything in the photo which includes: the lens, box, lens-hood. The UPC symbol has been cut out of the box.

Buyer must pay by Paypal with a confirmed address. The lens will be shipped insured with signature delivery. No shipping outside the United States.

You should also include lots of pictures.

• I include one picture with everything that comes with the item: box, manual, warranty cards, case, item itself.
• For lenses, I include pictures of the electrical contacts, front element, rear element, controls on the body, and any blemishes.
• For camera bodies, I include pictures from all sides (with the camera on) and pictures of the active LCD.

You should clean your items before taking a picture. Dust and grit has way of sticking out like a sore thumb on the pictures. Also, take your own pictures, don’t bother with stock photos, and especially do not use pictures from other people’s auctions (not only would this be misrepresenting your item, bidders may rightfully think your listing is fraudulent).

Shown below are the pictures I used to sell my Nikon 70-200mm lens.

Avoiding fraud

There are many horror stories about eBay and Paypal on the net and I have no doubt that some honest sellers have been negatively impacted through no fault of their own. However, eBay (and Paypal) process millions of transactions and the vast majority go smoothly without any issue. For me, the benefits of using eBay vastly outweighs the risks.

You should read carefully the eBay/Paypal seller protection policies and make sure you meet all of the requirements. Thankfully, I have not needed seller protection so far. (To be honest, I am dubious as to whether the protection policies would really help me in the case of a dispute. Looking at the terms eBay states that you are not covered if “the buyer says that the shipped item is significantly not as described”. They don’t make any mention of attempting to verify the buyer’s claims…)

To minimize risk,

• I only ship to U.S. bidders with a confirmed address.
• I require insurance for anything over $100. I do not leave it as an option for the buyer.
• I ship with signature confirmation. So far, I have found USPS to be the most convenient and cheapest method.
• I have a dedicated bank account for Paypal and immediately transfer money out of it (so that Paypal cannot transfer it back).

Some people cancel bids from buyers who do not have enough positive feedback. I don’t do this simply because most of items are won by people with substantial amounts of feedback.

Alternatives to eBay

Unfortunately, there’s not many alternatives to eBay. Basically, you can either (1) use Craigslist or similar forum to sell the item locally or (2) sell the item to a local camera shop or to an online seller like KEH or Adorama.

I generally prefer to use eBay because of demand and convenience. Demand leads to the best prices which you won’t get from either Craigslist and certainly not from a camera dealer (anecdotally, friends and relatives who’ve tried to sell camera gear to a dealer were offered about 50% of the market rate). I also don’t want to use a local forum like Craigslist because of the hassle of arranging to meet with potential buyers. It is much easier to take a few pictures and then ship the item via USPS.

Summary

When the time comes to sell your photo gear, eBay is an excellent venue and attracts many buyers to help you get highest price for your goods. Although there is some risk with online transactions, as long as you take reasonable precautions you should be able to avoid any problems.

This is my personal list of photography resources. I have made no attempt to to create a comprehensive list of everything on the net. The sites listed here are those that I have found useful for my own work.

General Discussion forums

• photo.net – one of the oldest photography forums on the net.
• fredmiranda.com – the site sells a number of plugins for photoshop (which I’ve never used) but also has a few good discussion forums.
• Digital Photography Review – probably the most active photo forum on the net.
• NatureScapes.net – primarily nature photography but has some good information on digital and business issues.
• Nature Photographers – same as NatureScapes.
• Large Format Photography – even if you don’t shoot large format, there’s a lot of useful information here.
• PhotoCamel.com – a very friendly and collegial forum.

Nikon

• Nikonians – a Nikon user community.
• Nikon Cafe – another Nikon user community.
• www.bythom.com – Thom Hogan is the author of a number of Nikon guide books and he has some useful reviews of Nikon gear online.
• www.naturfotograf.com – Bjorn Rorslett provides detailed reviews of Nikon cameras and lenses.
• NikonLinks.com – a massive collection of links, mostly reviews, of all things Nikon.

Lighting Information

• strobist.com – a lighting blog with many examples using small portable strobes
• StudioLighting.net – they have some interesting podcasts on lighting

Business of Photography

• Dan Heller’s Photography Business Resources
• Photo District News – has a good forum on business issues
• Editorial Photo
• Photo News Network – a set of discussion forums for professional photographers

Stock photography

• StockPhotographer.info – news relevant to the stock photography industry
• Stock Photo Talk – a blog on stock photography
• StockPhoto.net – maintains an agency database as well as a discussion group
• Alamy Pro Group – a discussion group for photographers that have images with Alamy
• Alamy Contributors Group – an open forum for Alamy contributers with no membership restrictions
• Selling Stock Photography – a forum about selling stock photography (Rights Managed, Royalty Free, and micro stock)

Other Resources

• Apple Aperture Forum – the official forum for Aperture
• Aperture Tricks – a blog with Aperture tips and information
• HP DesignJet Printers – a forum for Designjet printers or plotters
• The DAM Book – Digital Asset Management for Photographers

Note: I get no referral fees and these are places I’ve used to purchase my own equipment. Another place to look for recommendations is Photo.net’s neighbor to neighbor section.

B&H is simply the best place to purchase equipment online. They have a large selection, excellent prices, and good service (i.e., excellent return policy). This is the first place I check when I need to buy something, and I recommend them without reservation. Another good store is Calumet, but they are usually a little more expensive than B&H.

Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto is my local camera store. They have a nice selection of goods but they can be pricey. However, they are one of the few places in the peninsula that actually carries professional equipment. They have a large sales staff and who are usually very helpful.

NewEgg is primarily a vendor of computer equipment but they carry inkjet printers and low end digital cameras. They have a very good reputation and excellent prices, but like most computer equipment sellers I believe they have a restocking fee for returns.

I use A&I for slide processing and they do an excellent job. They are fast and cheap and it costs about $5 per roll of 35mm film with mailers. If you send in enough film at once, they will ship it back priority or even Fedex it. However, they use cardboard mounts which is inconvenient for scanning. I haven’t used A&I in years because I switched to digital a long time ago.

Ebay is really great for selling camera equipment and I found that I can get very good prices for my used gear. I have also bought equipment, but I believe this is much riskier as you cannot see the goods beforehand. I have primarily bought low cost cameras such as my minolta autocord ($80) and an old Polaroid land camera ($15). I would hesitate to buy anything more expensive here.

Acratech makes an excellent ballhead. Really Right Stuff, Kirk, and Wimberley make a variety of Arca-Swiss plates, flash-brackets, and other miscellanous equipment. All of these vendors have good reputations, and I’ve had good experiences with all except for Kirk (because I haven’t bought anything from them yet).

I have read many recommendation for KEH as a place to buy used camera gear online. For newer gear, their prices seem to be high and can often approach what one would pay for a new item at B&H. However, less popular items can be inexpensive. I have not bought anything from them yet, although I’m tempted to purchase a used 28mm PC Nikkor from them.