Thread: The Starter Set Dilemma

Stuart raises a number of excellent points. I would like to add that we have a very diverse member structure. We have all sorts of ages, cultural, educational, or economic backgrounds. One man's meat is another man's poison and all that. May be hard to accept for a beginner, but with a background in photography, it should not really be a problem, as recommendations are similarly hard to give in this area (although manufacturers will always try to tell you differently).

First of all, I don't know that I normally feel like I stepped in it, but I do with this post .

I was not really trying to say a beginner should not do his homework and copy off of somebody elses notes. Nor was I thinking that there are no personal descision points in the process, as I know there are.

All I was trying to say is that at the point in time a beginner has to select equipment, he knows nothing about equipment and can get confused with the way things look rather than the way things perform. And with money being what it it for most people, beginners don't want to have to upgrade in 6 months. But they don't really realize that when the right selections are made, not upgrade is necessary for a while.

I know the information available here is top notch and I know that it is not difficult to mine out. I did it and I'm sure lot's of others have as well.

I fully understand SRP staying away from specifying specific manufacturers and staying with key characteristics to look for. And I don't think SRP wants to endorse a specific manufacturer because of the rat hole that would be climbing down.

One thing I can say about this thread, there have been some really good ideas that have been generated and some really good conversation.

Cheers!
David

he analogy does not work at all. Chances are slim that a low budget tripod will outperform an expensive one.

I'm sorry - I didn't mean it as an analogy. I meant more that there is a story behind how any one of us got to where we are (as there is a common story about how someone eventually came to the "right" tripod). And that the narrative has meaning, even if only as an example of "see, you're not alone!"

And advising someone to simply "start off with this great but really, really huge wiki" is less personal than someone saying, "you are not alone, here's an example - just an example - of what I went through." No matter how good the manual is.

As much as the OP has commented that he set off a storm with this post, I seem to only ruffle more feathers with even posts that are intended as positive and attempting to be more of a contribution (I fully acknowledge that I was aggressive and critical in my first few posts). I'll leave this thread be from now on.

k.