I'll agree that it's useful in getting the expencive purchase past the other half, but TBH it would be a lot cheaper to buy second hand gear if they were ugly, there'd be fewer collectors around using perfectly good K1000s as display pieces.


It is interesting though that even cosmetically damaged K1000s, ME-Supers and the like still fetch good prices. Can't tell me many of the battered ones are going to be sitting on someones shelf.

well I have one of the 7dayshop 6.99 NP400 jobbies

I can confirm that it is a 1500mah model and the moulding on the plastic is ever so slightly different (not so it matters, just enough to prove it's made by a different machine). I wouldn't say that either appears to be better made than the other, at least outwardly.

It provides more or less the same runtime as the original. I haven't performed any scientific tests, just used the camera, but both seem to do 500+ shots on a charge.

It slots into the battery compartment just as snuggly as the original battery.

Nothing more to say really, it's a battery, it takes a charge and runs the camera for a sensible length of time.

more evidence that the DLI-50 and NP400 are one and the same

http://www.digitalmediastore.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=108_142_183&produc...

this here battery charger does both

not definitive proof I'll grant, but evidence none the less.

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that they are all made by Hahnel anyway.

give it 3 months and then check www.7dayshop.com

I bet there will be an equivalent battery there at 1/10th of whatever the offical one ends up going for.

I must admit that as a new member I had always assumed that SLR in this case included DSLR since there was no DSLR forum. Perhaps the forum names could be re-worded to remove the ambiguity?

Hi and welcome

Have a look at Dlab7.com, I have found them to be very good, very quick and very reasonably priced. You can choose if you want them to "cast a professional eye" as they call it over your colour balance or not. I asked them to do this last time (my monitor is not calibrated) and was very pleased with the results.

what a fantastic idea, that would never have occured to me!

I like the look of the super clamp as well, nifty little thing and surprisingly inexpencive.

forgive the stupid question Don, but what do you mean when you say a beanbag. Are you litterally talking about the things you used to ballance on your head at sports-day as a primary school child? or is it a technical term for something more complex?

ok thanks for the advice people,

It's pretty clear that I'm going to need a tripod to get the best out of one of these (which I knew anyway, I did say handheld "at need" not all the time, basically I am concerned not to end up with a lens which is just to heavy to even think about hand holding)

so do you have any suggestions for good but relatively inexpencive camera supports? Within reason I'm looking to know how much I have to save up to get a good one, looking to avoid "buy cheap, buy twice" syndrome. I have a Hama mini-tripod which has always served me fairly well but I have this feeling it might not cut it for a really long lens. Or am I selling it short?

I'm beginning to wonder if there is something wrong with my 80-320, everyone on here seems to love theirs and tbh mine isn't all that great, every "test" I've ever done suggests that my Sigma made Zeiss (still a consumer grade 70-300) is sharper but even that struggles to justify itself vs the DA ED 50-200.