cgratti said:
Return it and go with the 70-200 f/4 L from Canon. You will be happy you did! If your using a DSLR with a crop factor that makes it all the better for bringing in the action.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...198&is=USA&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
it's $544, and for about $25 more you can buy the 67mm UV filter for it and still have $$ left over for beer! Oh, your only 16... then you can buy soda!
or you can save all your birthday money from now until your about 30 yrs old and get this puppy!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...153&is=USA&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
With all due respect I do not think it would be appropriate for him to return the lens he bought at his local store and then instead of buying the other lens there, going home and ordering online from B&H or some other online store.
Online stores have their place, but if everyone orders online all the time this could eventually sound the death knell for many independent or even chain brick-and-mortar camera stores. Personally I would hate to see that happen. I have established a very good relationship with one of the local camera shops in my community (I'm in an urban/suburban area) and to me this is invaluable and I have the kind of interactions and transactions that are just not possible when dealing with an online store. I can go into Penn and ask to see a particular item, ask questions about that item, use it on one of their demo cameras if it's a lens, and get honest feedback from the staff if this is really a good purchase for me. Since I've bought just about all of my gear there they know what I've got in the way of lenses and what my shooting patterns are. They also can see my physical stature and know that I'm not going to be buying a 500mm lens because I simply would not be able to physically handle it. They will bring out a lens and let me see for myself, though, too -- which is what we did a few days ago with the excellent 200-400mm lens. Had I ordered one of those from B&H sight unseen I would have been very unhappy at having to go through the hassle of returning the lens. Instead, I went to Penn and we took a 200-400mm out of the box and they let me attempt to handle it. That answered my question about that lens and the sales associate carefully repacked the lens into the box, ready for a customer who actually could benefit from using it. No pressure on me to buy, an honest and realistic assessment of my ability to work with that lens and that was that.
With the 200mm f/2 lens, it was a surprise to find that yes, I could handle that one (it's heavy, but well-balanced). Now had it turned out that I decided against purchasing that lens, too, fine, no questions asked.... The point being that in a brick-and-mortar store you do have the opportunity to touch, see, handle whatever it is you're interested in: tripods, cameras, lenses, camera bags....
cgratti said:
I guess I just don't have faith in the smaller stores when it comes to my equiptment and place my faith in B&H. And, $45 is $45.. if I can save $45 I will, even if it means not supporting a local store.
You had mentioned that the stores in your area seem to hire only teenagers who don't know that much about what they're selling. If this is a chain store in a mall, a store where most of the time customers are only interested in point-and-shoot cameras, yes, I can see how that would happen. Hey, people can and should research online before going to the store in that case so that they'd know they want an XYZ camera rather than a QXX or know that they want to compare two or three of them rather than being overwhelmed by the store's entire inventory.... Many times someone going to buy a P&S camera, though, is more interested in how much it's going to cost and how large or small it is and how big of a zoom it has, so the sales staff really don't have much opportunity to explain the finer points of each camera even if they know them. Many of those mall shops do not have much in the way of DSLRs or lenses, so of course the sales staff might not be knowledgeable about the merits of lens A over lens B.
Actually, when shopping for lenses, one should do the homework, too -- there are a lot of good online resources about lenses. If the brick-and-mortar store has the lens you want, regardless of the salesperson's knowledge bank or skill set, you have the benefit of immediate gratification, being able to use the lens immediately and if there are problems with it, easily being able to return it for exchange/replacement..... Tripods are the kind of thing it's good to actually see and handle, too. Many of the chain stores have only the less-expensive tripods and sometimes those are not actually a good deal if they're not all that sturdy. In a brick-and-mortar store you can see for yourself, play with various "heads" on the tripod, see what works best for you. In the end you're going home with the item which is best suited to your needs instead of doing guesswork by ordering online.
When going to a real full-service camera store which caters to professionals and enthusiasts as well as the point-and-shoot crowd, you should find a very different situation on the sales floor and behind the counter. There, sales associates are all very well-trained and very knowledgeable, most of them are photographers themselves. They have the good stuff, a good range of cameras, lenses and tripods and the knowledge to help the customer find exactly what is the best for him or her. Unfortuntely not every community has the benefit of a good full-service professional-level camera shop, and that is too bad. With people continuing to order online rather than availing themselves of the services at these stores, chances are that some of them will quietly close their doors, depriving the photographic community of a valuable resource.
Sure, I could've saved some money last week when I bought that very expensive lens at Penn rather than ordering it online at B&H, but I feel that I got more than just the lens; the outstanding customer service that came along with it, the fun we had with that lens at the store (sales associates loved the thing, too, as they don't often get to handle one) is worth far more than the cost difference between ordering online and purchasing locally.
