[shuttertalk]

The kind people at www.camerafarm.com.au have kindly donated a memory card as a prize for this month's photo competition. The winner receives a choice of either a (a) 1G compactflash card, (b) 1G SD card or © 512 mb xD card. To enter, simply upload a photo into our photo gallery here, that illustrates your interpretation of the theme - Diversity.

There is strength in conformity
And in diversity alike
Things may appear different
But deep down they're all the same

[hint: doesn't have to be about people]

This competition starts on 0000 GMT+10 02 Mar 2005, and ends 0000 GMT+10 09 Mar 2005. At the conclusion of the competition, the winner will be announced based on overall photographic merit by an independent judge. All decisions are final.

Image editing techniques are allowed, so long as they do not affect the overall integrity of image. Removing imperfections and minor distracting elements from images is permitted, but creating or moving major elements of your photograph is not. If possible, please list the effects and changes perfomed in the comments/notes for your entry

Photos used in submissions have to be captured by the entrant during the duration of the competition. Up to 3 submissions per person will be accepted, and originals may be requested to validate entries.


Some final notes - you need to be a member of the Shuttertalk forums to participate. Register for free here. Email or PM me if you need any questions or need assistance with your submission.


Thanks again to the nice folks at www.camerafarm.com.au for their generous giveaway. Bonus prize - a $20 voucher will also be given away to a random Shuttertalk member who (1) visits the www.camerafarm.com.au website and (2) posts a reply to this thread telling us what they like about the site / or what could be improved.

[guerito]

Well, here I go...

What I like about www.camerafarm.com.au: The site navigation is really easy. The whole site structure seems to be very simple (this is very good, actually).

What I was missing (or was to stupid to find) was some sort of legal declaration - Company name, street address, register number, who is the CEO, and so on, the whole commercial information. I wouldn't know who to sue if I sent them money and the website was gone the next day. But I don't know how this is handled in Australia anyway.

Product portfolio: The Camera Farm seems to have a rather tight focus on cameras, cards, and not too much else. I'd actually prefer a wider focus on photography, with the offer of camera bags, tripods and other accessories you may need when you buy a new camera. And what about lenses?!

I checked the prices for a few items and found them quite low. I have no insight in the Australian market, but compared to what we have to pay in Germany they definitely offer some bargains.

My overall impression is that this is a good place to look for something for a good price, but you have to go somewhere else if you want to buy your complete set of gear.

[byrt_001]

hi everyone

is about time a camera store gets involved in here!!!! well done camerafarm hope to see more of you guys. also thank you for sponser the price, niiice stuff. hope next time is a 4g card!

Guerito: maybe they are just starting? is a new business?

Regards

Christian

[Irma]

I like very much that important information about the cameras like Megapixels, Optical Zoom, Digital Zoom, and LCD Screen Size is extracted and placed in bigger font. However, I think to add a bit more information wouldn't hurt. As a seller you need to give a lot of information about what you are selling, to give the idea that you "as a company" know very well what you are selling...

I suggest a "About us" link, where they can give more information to the visitors, a commercial background of the company, a picture of the place or people working there would be fine. I find this important specially if they started their businnes recently, to gain the confidence of the market.

I think the site is ok. However, I don't think the footer is right. I think the copy right line has to be in separated line. It is the line which marks the end of the page, and gives a bit of room to finish the page. I keep trying to go down thinking that there is more to read...

Irma.

[shuttertalk]

Thanks everyone for your feedback so far... keep it coming!

[EnglishBob]

Nice simple site, easy to navigate and a very clean design.

I would like to see some more detailed information on shipping, especially international, do you ship overseas etc....

[shuttertalk]

Ok everyone, the competition is now open, and will be ending in approximately 6 days and 15 hours. Start taking and uploading those entries!


Good luck and most importantly, have fun!!

[adam]

*thinking*

[Petographer]

Good looking site right off the bat. Bold and clean. I like the list of camera's and prices right on the front page with links to nice and big photos of the product. The colour has a suggestion of "Canon". I like it. Having the public note from Mark Soberg is a nice tuch also. All the info you need is right up front and navigations is easy. Fast loading.
Two things I found on the downside were, 1) camerafarm. Where does "farm" come in? What is the significance of using "farm" in the name?
2) The tage line says "retail". Not catchy enough. More thought needed. Is this what the Camerafarm is all about?

[adam]

how about the photo competition!
I'm still thinking!

[Cailean]

Well, the site fails the first thing I check with any site I'm critiquing: the HTML is not valid... not even to HTML 4.01 transitional. Of course the fact that I'm now employed as an HTML QA geek might bias me towards good, clean, valid code. Even if the code were valid, the layout of the code with the navigation menus at the beginning may cause accessibility issues for with non-visual browsers - screen-readers, etc. Seems like very little javascript - so that's a plus.Ok, I'll stop code-picking now.

I really like the opening paragraph from the operations manager. Right away, you feel like you've reached a real store with real people working there.Navigation is very good. Links take exactly where you'd expect and there's more than one way to get ther.

On the category pages, the text seems a little too big. It might have been done this way to fill the space, but I think some carefully done images would be more effective. On the 'cameras' page for example, it is a list of manufacturers and their brand lines. Logo images could be be use very effectively here. I would also ditch the top-level bullets.
Product info is also good. Brief, but effective. Links to manufacturers might be useful, though. An option to compare models (based on the 4 'overview' features) would also be helpful. This should actually be very easy to code.

Another thing I could mention (and the labour-intensiveness of this makes it highly unlikely) is to have consistent product images that are unique to our site. If a consumer is doing a lot of shopping around they are going to see the same product image pulled from the manu. site. It looks a little off when some shots have a grey background (panasonic) while other have white (Nikon, etc.)

OK, I'm almost done. I am also confused by the 'farm' reference. Without any further tie-ins to a farm theme, it seems a little odd. Perhaps a tag-line like "We grow our business one photographer at a time." Course it could be taken too far with little farm animal GIFs running around all over the place!

Like Guerito said, a little more information on the comany itself might put some customers more at ease. An' About CamaerFarm' page with a little anecdote about why the founder felt his/her service could be better than the competition. "John Founder got tired of browsing around camera sites that are difficult to navigate and flooded with ads and other hard-sell techniques. He thought photographers deserved better... etc. etc." Might also explain the farm thing there.

Overall, a very pleasant place to buy a camera.

[peter]

OOooOOoOOoOoOOoO im thinkings ...
trying to be original .. but not too lame ...

[adam]

I thought it's a photograph competition! not a web-site-critique! lol

[byrt_001]

hi

hehehehehe, how do i upload the images?? yeah http://www.shuttertalk.com/gallery/thumb...m=62...but where do i log in and upload? im just blind!!!

byeeeeeeeee

[shuttertalk]

Hi Christian, sorry it's not as straightforward as it should be. On the 2nd tab (you see a little Home icon, then next to it there's a '@' icon) - hover your mouse over it, and then a list of links will appear. Select upload, and then follow the instructions from there.

Make sure you follow it all the way through until you assign the photo to an album. Put it in "Comp #5: Diversity".

[Rufus]

Well, I hope Christian sees the links, 'cos I'm jiggered if I can! :x

[shuttertalk]

Sorry, I'll work at modifying the theme soon.

For the meantime, just use this link:
http://www.shuttertalk.com/gallery/upload.php

[Cailean]

I thought it's a photograph competition! not a web-site-critique! lol

Bonus prize - a $20 voucher will also be given away to a random Shuttertalk member who (1) visits the www.camerafarm.com.au website and (2) posts a reply to this thread telling us what they like about the site / or what could be improved.

[shuttertalk]

Hi all,

Just realised that I made a boo boo with the dates - it was six days duration instead of a full week. I've extended the end date by one day - so the cutoff is now end of Tuesday, Australian Eastern Standard Time. Results will be announced on Wednesday.

By the way, the competition gallery is looking fantastic so far. Such a diversity in submissions (ha ha) - 11 and counting. Thanks to all who have made the effort to submit an entry. Remember, you can submit up to 3 entries so there's still time for more fun!

Check it out if you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.shuttertalk.com/gallery/thumb...p?album=62

[adam]

Oh! I didn't read that *runs away embarassed*

YaY! More TIME!@#!@#!@

[shuttertalk]

but where do i log in and upload? im just blind!!!

Hi all, I've modified the gallery theme so that the links are visible at all times, not the fancy disappearing act it was doing before.

And by the way, the gallery and forums share the same authentication mechanism, so if you're logged into the forums, you'll be logged into the gallery as well.

[EnglishBob]

Coming up with a subject is not so easy for this one!

[shuttertalk]

Yeah.. agreed... I'll try to think of an easier one next time, which allows more creativity for the photographer...

[byrt_001]

hi


gooosh where do i upload now?!!!!! heheehehe

uuuhmmm whats the secret password? or should i say link? can someone explain.

anyway...

[shuttertalk]

Good to see that you're all sorted out Christian!

Less than 11 hours to go people! Make sure you get your submissions in! Entries close at midnight tonight.

I couldn't help entering one as well.... but don't worry, in the very unlikely event of me winning, I'll hand the prize over to the runner up.