[Kombisaurus]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your concern Byrt, and I *did* have a bit of a look around the camerafarm website when I was shopping for my 350D.. but they didn't list it as a product there, so I kept looking elsewhere. In fact, from memory I think the 20D was the only Canon DSLR they listed?

I assumed that their sponsorship of the photography competition was simply a one-off thing, and I had no reason to expect them to treat me differently to any other customer, or that I should treat them any differently to any other online camera shop. They simply sponsored a competition to give themselves a bit of exposure (pardon the pun), and I hope they got their money's worth of advertising while the competition was running. If they did, then hopefully they will sponsor more competitions.
Certainly I would say the only reason I even went looking for the 350D at their website is because of the exposure they received at shuttertalk, so in that sense their marketing was effective. But they won't successfully sell cameras to people online if they don't list them on their website.

If they develop a closer relationship with shuttertalk and can offer member discounts or amazing customer service, etc, then of course I will consider them closely when shopping for lenses and accessories in the future, but I really had no reason to give them special consideration in this case.

Cheers
Adrian