Tip for every poundering and hesitating about buying an MF digital

[julienlanoo]

There is some thing great to know if its for you or not.

Its called : renting
The concept of this is that some one else or some company buys it, and loans it on a regular basis for shorter periods in extchange for a much "smaller" amount of money than buying one. 

The advantage of this is that you dont have to spent an enormous amount of money to use some thing, and then see you don t like it.

If you concequentally like it you can buy the thing for real, being shure..

You re welcome..

[Doug Peterson]

And with many specialized shops, including ours, your rental can count towards purchase. Making it a very low risk proposition. Either you love it and didn't spend any extra money to buy it, or you don't like it and you save a huge sum from not buying.

But you also have to understand that not everyone lives in a high-population area where MF rental is common/easy. Also not everyone has the appropriate insurance to rent e.g. 30k of equipment and getting one-time coverage is very cost prohibitive.

This is where we get a lot of people that fly to NYC to try the equipment out in person (I'd imagine the same is true for cities like Moscow or Berlin, but I can't speak to that). Usually when we have such a person we try to make accommodations to go "out and about" in the city with them, or set up a mini shoot at our office studio, so they can get some idea of real world shooting without having to rent or deal with insurance.

[jjj]

But you also have to understand that not everyone lives in a high-population area where MF rental is common/easy.

Even then...I live in Sheffield, one of the biggest cities in the UK and the there's no photography or film rental facilities to be seen. Of any kind, let along MF.

[Doug Peterson]

Even then...I live in Sheffield, one of the biggest cities in the UK and the there's no photography or film rental facilities to be seen. Of any kind, let along MF.

Europeans and Americans have such different concepts of "close" and "far" when it comes to travel. That's neither good nor bad I suppose (except the larger environmental impact), just different. You're only 3 hours from London no? I have two friends that commute 2 hours each way to work - 5 days a week. One by train and one by car.

[jjj]

Europeans and Americans have such different concepts of "close" and "far" when it comes to travel. That's neither good nor bad I suppose (except the larger environmental impact), just different. You're only 3 hours from London no? I have two friends that commute 2 hours each way to work - 5 days a week. One by train and one by car.

Close is within easy cycling distance.   Actually most commuting in town is faster by bike, even somewhere as hilly as Sheffield.
My girlfriend has a stupid commute, 50-60 mins in morning. Plus she starts early with no overtime because she leaves before traffic gets bad and then a minimum 90mins return. Utter waste of time/one's life and a serious drain on one's wallet as fuel is very much more expensive than in the US. Not to mention, she's worn out from 12 hour days - if she leaves on time.
A return to London on the train tomorrow would cost around $300 - you can do it cheaper with more notice, but you don't always get that. So it's not just about geographical distance, but financial distance. Bizarrely we can often fly to other countries for less than the cost of getting to a relatively close airport.

[MrSmith]

how far away is Leeds from Sheffield? you have the flash centre and dale photographic if you want to get your hands on MFD

[Pics2]

Most of the people starting these topics about buying DMF live far away from rental studios and dealers.
For me, it wasn't a problem to drive six hours to a dealer, but the problem was that, in my opinion, you need at least a month of extensive shooting in all kinds of shooting scenarios that you come across in your job on daily basis to really test it. Few hours of playing around with the equipment is just not enough.

[julienlanoo]

i am not talking about a few hours,
every thing i bought i first rented for a week, when i had a bussy week..
works fine!

[julienlanoo]

And an other remark what's a 300 pound train ticket on a 50 000 euros investment ? ..
make a WE in and around Londen :p

[Pics2]

It wasn't possible. There is no dealer in my country. There is no dealer in any non EU country in Europe, I think, at least not one close enough. I don't think any dealer would let me take the camera outside EU for a week or more.
This and other forums were my only option.

[Joe Towner]

I'd take it a step further with other options to get kit in hand.  Such as:

- Phase One Certified Pro - the cost includes a full license for Capture One and it gives you a bit of an idea of what you'd me using.  Take it a step further and setup a shoot / walk about with the supporting company (Digital Transition, Capture Intergration, Bear Images, in the USA).

- PODAS - http://www.phaseone.com/en/Workshops/PODAS/Workshops.aspx - Go on vacation, shoot with gear you'll love, and just have fun.

Hasselblad has an owners club, http://www.hasselblad.com/hasselblad-owners-club.aspx so reach out to a local shooter and see if you can get some time with them.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I once got an offer to test a Hasselblad H4 system from a dealer.
He simply sent me the Pelicase with the stuff by mail.
Unfortunately it arrived too late and I had to send it back untested.
But that wasn't his fault.

[yaya]

Even then...I live in Sheffield, one of the biggest cities in the UK and the there's no photography or film rental facilities to be seen. Of any kind, let along MF.

All the MF dealers in the UK who do rental and/ or demos can either visit you in person or use a courier to send the kit to you.

If you need any help with speaking to someone about Mamiya Leaf let me know and I will sort it out for you. My contact details are in my signature below.

BR

Yair

[jjj]

Hmm, may take you up on that offer when I have the time to test properly.

[jjj]

And an other remark what's a 300 pound train ticket on a 50 000 euros investment ? ..
make a WE in and around Londen :p

I wasn't talking about the cost relative to the kit being bought, but about the relative distances of near/far that Doug mentioned with regard to Europe and the US sometimes being a financial distance.

[synn]

There is some thing great to know if its for you or not.

Its called : renting
The concept of this is that some one else or some company buys it, and loans it on a regular basis for shorter periods in extchange for a much "smaller" amount of money than buying one. 

The advantage of this is that you dont have to spent an enormous amount of money to use some thing, and then see you don t like it.

If you concequentally like it you can buy the thing for real, being shure..

You re welcome..

Why, thank you for that amazing insight. If you could find a rental shop within 200kms of Singapore,t hat would be extremely swell!
 (I did manage to get a demo, but this generalization that everybody interested in MFD has access to a rental facility is laughable. Tunnel vision much?).

[eronald]

Why, thank you for that amazing insight. If you could find a rental shop within 200kms of Singapore,t hat would be extremely swell!
 (I did manage to get a demo, but this generalization that everybody interested in MFD has access to a rental facility is laughable. Tunnel vision much?).

Not having access to a good dealer sets you on the road to a bad MF experience.
If you don't have some sort of decent arrangement with a dealer who knows his stuff AND who you trust, do yourself a favor and don't get a digital back.

Edmund

[synn]

Not having access to a good dealer sets you on the road to a bad MF experience.
If you don't have some sort of decent arrangement with a dealer who knows his stuff AND who you trust, do yourself a favor and don't get a digital back.

Edmund

I have a good, knowledgeable dealer. I got a demo from him. I just don't have access to a rental facility for MFDB here; which is what the OP was suggesting.

[gregohb]

Medium format has a bit of a learning curve - depending on which system you use. I did several tests with Hasselblad versus Nikon, and I was underwhelmed with the differences because the MF was more natural and the Nikon (and Canon) more hyped and contrasty. So it takes a while to learn and to appreciate what you are getting.

[satybhat]

a whole new perspective on the word "poundering"....
The other thing to consider is bought equipment depreciates in value. This can be good for your tax and bad for the wallet if you were to sell it.

IMO with whatever limited time I have used MF, someone making a decision of going MF is going to do a hell of a lot of research.
I've often seen people disappointed even with the best of camera and lens combinations: say a M9 + 50lux or D800e + 14-24, or 1Dx + 600f4 etc... and I wonder if its really the gear that they are disappointed with.