HI Lenny,

Please, before you even consider going near that shop, read the following warning I posted some time ago:

The following is my own personal experience which was posted on the web at the time (about 18 months ago) of visiting NICHOLAS in Camden Town London (UK)..


My experience of Nicholas... I had noticed the ads by Nicholas in AP (Amateur Photographer) magazine for ages and noted they seemed to have lots of rare items. The prices though are without any doubt the highest by some margin in the whole of the UK. In fact the prices, frankly are a complete rip off and have no basis in reality.

I was in London early this year so went to find the place. I had a shock when I got there. It is a tiny old victorian shop front in Camden town. The front looked like it had not been painted since the last war. I looked in the shop window...no prices on anything and cameras & lenses were haphazardly strewn along old chipboard shelves. More worryingly there was a thick, approx half cm layer of thick black dust over all the gear. I was shocked..it looks like the place NEVER gets cleaned.

I looked inside and saw (at 3pm) one assistant with someone and the other standing behind the counter eating a chinese takeout from one of those foil trays...I was wondering if this could get any worse at this point...so I looked through the door.. ....there was a huge pile of boxes, tripods, other equipment and assorted rubbish heaped up in a 'bonfire' style. it was about 3 feet high and about SIX feet across.

I was stunned. It filled the floor of the shop as you went inside. There was only a narrow corridor of free space on the floor about 18 inches wide in front of the counter. The shelves inside and the counter top was covered in cameras and lenses..they were just scattered all over the place and heaped up on top of each other. The storage and safe keeping of all the stock in there was abysmal. I shudder to think what condition items are in after the treatment there.

Considering the prices and the impression the ad's give, I was just gobsmacked at what I found. I seriously considered contacting the local health & safety officer as I am convinced several laws were probably being broken ( I have retail management experience) I was later at the camera fair in London..photographica and got talking to an old chap during lunch. I mentioned Nicholas and he said I should steer well clear, that they had an awful reputation in the trade.

I have since been told the same thing by about seven others. the AP forum on their website has had several mentions of this shop, all saying the same. Others are taking the shop to court for reasons they would not say. So, be very very wary. No one believes anything the owner says..from my own best guess having been there, I would guess they actually have about a tenth of the items they claim to have..and as to the condition....

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

cheers Steve.M.

On every ebay listing I ever did, I not only stated the serial number on the list notes but also with lenses loaded a photo of the lens front showing the number....no chance of scammers claiming issues and returning some other lens...

Why would anyome want to adjust any buying purely due to a company being taken over? I do not understand.

What was the purpose of the original post? because I am struggling to see one...

Just on point three:

There has been an explosion of users on web forums claiming they have a 'bad copy' of a lens. This is largely users who frankly do not fully know what they are doing..many web stories are false. This leaves sellers in an impossible situation sometimes.

A thread on here recently had many users on here saying they had never had any so-called 'bad' lenses in 25+ years on lens buying.

Also, AF lenses are just not as well made, or made to anywhere like the tolerances of older manual focus lenses. The pixel peepers (who IMO are quite bonkers) have made life very difficult for many people.

cheers Steve

"you will double the minimum working distance (the 1:2 will now give 1:1)"

Surely you meant to say HALVE not DOUBLE?

...or a used Sigma 18-50/2.8, mint ones from dealers are only £199 ish.

HI,

There are very few filter makers who sell just 'protection' filters, I have seen them but not very often, the two I have seen were from Tiffen and also Contax (Contax now only available on the used market). If you require the highest quality filters then you need to go with either of the two German made filters who use Schott (Carl Zeiss) glass, who are B+W and Heliopan. They both use Schott glass and also both use brass mounts to help stop binding.

You might try Ffordes; http://www.ffordes.com/

I have bought many used but mint filters from them.

cheers Steve.

Check out Speedgraphic. They are UK, they have many ball heads, they give excellent service and only sell a restricted range of quality items.

http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/

Moose, like I said, I am quite certain having seen many of his items and his descriptions that his own descriptions are simply not good enough and not thorough enough, probably as I say, due to volume and lack of time.

You may have been lucky, but many have not. If you sell items to buyers sight unseen, then descriptions need to be good and clear to avoid buyer issues.