P*ssed at Inon and Reef Photo

[Dsix36]

Ryan and the others at reef photo have gone out of their way to accomodate divers on so many different occasions that I find it very difficult to believe that they are not/did not do eveything in their power to help you out.

Sometimes a part is just not available and there isn't a damn thing that you or anyone else can do about it. ryan even extended his wish that possibly another entity could "hook you up".

I am just glad that I did not sell something to you.

 

[Scared Silly]

Now, my interpretation of Richard Perry's email #2 is that it is a blow-off.

Not really wanting to get in the middle of this pissing match but I do not see how a response of "Upon further research, it appears that Inon does not offer that diffuser as a replacement part." is a blow off. While short, to the point, and though lacking any more information or suggestions I would not say it is a blow off in the least bit. That said given the finial outcome one could argue the accuracy of the information given (the source of which I will not try to even discuss).

BTW More often than not many kit items are not available as individual replacement parts - it costs them more to stock the parts than they are worth. So the consumer is stuck with buying the whole kit to get one part. That said in a few cases I have called the mfg regarding such parts and often they do have them. They just do not make them available for distribution.

 

[jghflash]

.......I'm just curious.......did backscatter sell you the part for 50 cents?

 

[zahner]

i have an AD mount base DC 70/80 sitting in my junk drawer if you want to pay a couple of bucks for me to ship it to you and see if the diffuser from that model fits. Or meet up in NYC since I see you're from LI.

 

[scuba e]

'm curious on how IT broke in the first place. Things dont break, they are broken.
The economy is in the tank and this guy is whining about about a low end part that translucent duct tape on the housing could have replaced. The fact he got any response other than "the manufacturer does not offer it" is pretty solid response. Reef is well known and probably pretty busy. Yet they responded. The manufacturer only responded with a form email of "contact a distributor". Now that is a blow off. I would boycott Inon, not Reef.
Leaving customer service out of it, look at it through the eyes of a business based on an expendable form a entertainment trying to stay open in the midst of a long run recession. What kind of margin did they pull off of a $50-60 part? Your assumed .50c part probably would eat that margin up and from the tone of your letter I assume you did not want to pay for that either. I don't think Reef will miss your "business".

 

[Byte Me]

You sound like the kind of customer a company is better off losing.

My thoughts exactly...

My dealings with Reef have always been well above average. Had MANY questions when putting together my E-PL1 rig and for parts of it (housing and lenses) I picked their brains and asked them to price match - where they couldn't I did buy elsewhere but did buy the addl arms, ports, macro lens & adapter, etc. from them. They ship when they say they're going to ship, always answer questions thoroughly and provided great after purchase service (the most important kind IMO) even throwing a couple "$.50" parts in the box for me without charge to round things out. They're my go to photo shop.

 

[Interceptor121]

I am confused by this post. That piece of plastic on the mount base is meant to block the internal flash and connect a possible sensor to it as alternative to doing that on the housing with a velcro system. The M67 base for example does not have the mentioned piece of plastic at all.
If you are using the internal flash of the camera (which you really should not do if you have bothered buying the mount and the close up lens you should buy a strobe for macro that is not expensive) that part should actually be removed as it does not actually diffuses it really takes the light away! You are going to be so close that hopefully you can play with ISO and shutter speed and use the internal flash as is. Also the AS570IS housing the WP DC 12 that has a diffuser that you can still use (if you cut it) together with the mount base.
But as I said if you have gone that far to buy the base and the close up lens do yourself justice and buy a strobe your pictures will improve a great deal

I am curious to understand how much did the other guys charge you for that piece of plastic?

 

[flareside]

I am confused by this post. That piece of plastic on the mount base is meant to block the internal flash and connect a possible sensor...

The black ones that come with the optical cable set are designed to block the light. The white ones are designed to diffuse the light, thus directing it around the end of the lens to help eliminate the lens shadow in the lower right corner that you would normally get without it. And while you can attach a cable to the white one, it is the wrong one for the job if you are using a strobe as the light through it will just add to the backscatter.

 

[Interceptor121]

The internal flash of the A570IS is just good enough for macro between 5-10 CM at that distance backscatter can be very little as there is very little water between you and the subject. I have the same kit of the OP and I can confirm that piece of plastic diffuse very little and actually casts a shadow on the picture itself blocking the light not diffusing, maybe this is due to the positioning of the light in the camera and the fact that the AD mounts fits many cameras but to me the fact that no lights goes through and the fact that there is a plug for their optical sensor means that with the internal flash set at minimum no light goes through and you can trigger a slave strobe. For my set up the internal flash is completely blocked anyway.
Better results can be achieved removing that part entirely for your macro shots The A570IS has 3 power settings for the internal flash you can play with that too. For non macro no matter what you do the results are poor and you should not even bother using the flash of the camera but shoot on manual white balance and forget about diffusers entirely.
In essence in my personal experience that piece of plastic on the AD mount is completely useless with the A570IS for any kind of purpose except maybe attaching a slave sensor. I have a sea and sea strobe so for me even that is not a possibility