Adorama contacted me via email about purchasing used equipment. I was willing to sell then a Hasselblad H3D II 39mp kit. I had purchased the body, prizim, and back from them a couple of years ago for $3495 . I had added a 80mm lens, Imagebank, extra batteries, AC power adapter and a zero halibuton case. i have shot less than 500 images with this camera since purchase. There offer was a $1000 for the whole enchilada. The lens alone is going for 800-1100 on ebay. I understand they have to make a profit but this is kind of excessive, other photogs at UH I'm sure have used them, are yall ok with taking this kind of beating and is this standard procedure from the used equipment buyers?

Fortunately most transactions go through as hoped and don't need "customer service support." But in the few instances when their is a problem---don't expect much or any help from eBay. If you use Paypal--you can get your money back.

Recently I purchased a camera body from a Canadian seller who promptly shipped from Toronto. Canadian post took it to customs located in Chicago in just one day. I am located 200 miles N of Chicago. Now the tracking stopped at customs. Next Monday it will have been at customs for two weeks without word or further tracking. The seller sold and shipped in good faith and is not to blame for the delay. Orders from China, Japan and elsewhere don't languish that long. One jumps through many hoops to even get a question answered by eBay and I finally got one saying they would not consider it until the estimated time in customs ends Monday after two weeks. The seller suggested they told him customs would probably be returning the camera to him and that I should lodge a return with eBay and if returned to Toronto--re-order. That certainly makes one question placing orders out of the country. But then I was cheated out of $87. earlier this year by a woman in country, with no help from eBay, but wasted much time. I know that photographers who mostly use used equipment are forced to transact on eBay. Ebay has the online monopoly. And caveat emptor. But don't expect to fulfill your hopes until you have it in your hands and have tried it out.---------

I grow hundreds of houseplants (mostly begonias except for tuberous) in winter under shop lights (about 90 running 12 hours a day) in the basement. In summer I drag 90% of them outdoors and back indoors in late October. While I do like tuberous, I don't want to give them any more attention than I have for everything else. We (the Atlanta Begonia Society) are preparing to host our first national convention since 1998 (I didn't know about them back then) in late September. My basement is now a growing area for sales plants (I go to Florida and buy a load most every year but this year I am going for my second trip tomorrow and maybe a 3rd trip in September).

My wife even took pity on me Friday and helped me pot up 132 plugs and I had already potted up around 272 of my own cuttings. I bought 850 pots so I still have quite a few (about 450) for anything else that comes along.

There are strong opinions on whether or not to use a filter as a matter of course. I don't personally, but I recognize that there are conditions under which a filter WILL protect your lens from things like salt spray, blowing sand, flying mud, inquisitive jelly-covered kids' fingers or dog noses. I feel those situations are rare, but your shooting conditions may well differ.

On the other hand, everyone talks about using a UV filter. That is not necessary. UV is blocked by the various filters built into the camera, e.g. the Bayer filter. And the amount of UV you will encounter at ordinary altitudes is small. You may encounter some hiking in the 14s or above, but generally it's not something to worry about. A simple glass filter will provide whatever protection you need. The primary consideration is the quality of the filter, not whether it blocks UV or not.

I started to do a study on sharpness by shooting a target with a lot of edges and analyzing the edges. I ran out of time to do the full study and did not get enough results to publish but I tried it with and without a filter and saw no measurable difference. I even tried a sheet of window glass and saw no effect (modern window glass made by the float process is pretty good. Some of the windows in my house built around 1960 show striations that I believe would affect an image, but I didn't want to remove a window just for the study).