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Quote: No, it's five. You forgot the space before the word Amazon in the last bit.
You had me really worried there Mr K.
I thought for a moment that you were interacting on N***n subject matter.
When use of the name normally brings you out in a rash 
I imagined for a moment that you'd suffered a blow to the head during the last week.
But you're OK. Amazon - thank goodness for that
I am pretty sure it is a ploy by ePz to turn the word Amazon into link - which will link viewers through via the ePz Amazon affilaite account so that ePz get commission on everything sold via that link.
It's what I do with all of my websites - if you click on an Amazon link to one of my books it will go through my affiliate account so that I get an Amazon commission as well as the royalty from the publisher.
Quote: Iam pretty sure it is a ploy by ePz to turn the word Amazon into link
It is.
I think that it's an idea that was introduced a while ago as a part of the improvements to the forums.
I believe it works on other names as well.
So if you are having a moan or even a serious discussion about bad service from a company such as Amazon they still get a free plug....?
In the UK Nikon had regional hands on demos for their new products about 2 months ago.
Calumet UK had regional trade days within the last month where you could handle the new Canon, Nikon and many other products.
The growth of internet trade reduces the chances of a local camera shop having a just announced high end long back order product available for demo to low.
The mid range and entry level DSLR's can be handled at many Jessops shops.
It is not all "gloom and doom" in the UK - though you might have to make a bit of effort to handle high end new products.
Quote: So if you are having a moan or even a serious discussion about bad service from a company such as Amazon they still get a free plug....?
Looks that way.
I've just typed my own website address into the comment box and pressed 'preview' and it comes up as a link automatically.
Quote: as a part of the improvements to the forums.
That's one opinion
Could be worse though - on a motoring forum I frequent it "tries" to create relevant links. eg if you type in a car make/model it frequently generates a link to either a Fleabay auction for a model of that car or a south american river link to a book about it, neither being relevant to the post in which it was made. Even better is if you type in a part name and it comes up with a totally irrelevant link.
I suppose we shouldnt be surprised as the entire internet is totally self regulated in real terms....we pays our money and takes our choice. Perhaps I was being naive but it was a bit of a shock as my experince of A.......N is mixed to say the least.
Something I overlooked earlier was the universal arrival of credit cards.
When I started in photography credit cards were rare, you paid by cheque at your local camera dealer, the manufacturers had to get stock quickly to the smaller shops in the camera trade to sell their products, and getting an item from over 100 miles away took over a week while a shop cleared a cheque from an unknown customer.
Theses days I can go on line and find which reliable dealer has the best price, with many dealers whether it is in stock, make a quick decision, phone up (to check computer stock is up to date), maybe talk discount or a deal with something else, and have it delivered next morning.
Other changes have happened - such as the big camera names having minimum orders of at least £1,000 so if you ask your camera shop for a £10 item the day after the monthly order went in - tough luck 
"High Street chain decay" does not helped either. By that I mean the typical High Street group retailer shop assistant being trained to say "there is no demand for that" (even though you are demanding it 
) when they really mean the group only stocks items with the highest mark up they can negotiate rather than what customers prefer to buy.
The naive believe them - the internet savy get it delivered next morning - diluting the original High Street purpose of providing a customer friendly retail experience.
That isn't just the case with group retailer shops. I was recently in a rather large camera shop in the south east, with the Olympus sales rep in the shop I was told there was little point in upgrading my e620 to an E5, which I thought was a bit of an unusual comment to make. But the sales rep agreed - so I'm now on my way to buying my first Canon 7d,at a different shop.
Strange that I had owned Olympus since my first camera (an OM10) and had been going to this same shop for my equipment for some years, both brand and retailer have lost a customer now.
I personally wouldn't buy anything like a camera off the net - you need to be able to hold it and speak to a real person, who knows what they are talking about when you are purchasing the equipment.
The world has moved on in the last 20 years. Both manufacturers and suppliers must keep stock levels to a bare minimum if they hope to survive, well managed cashflow is the centre of any good business. This has been accentuated by online suppliers, they don't need expensive retail premesis, just a low cost warehouse, where all floor space can be used efficiently. We've all heard of the banking crisis, the results to an average business is they must meet the banks covenants, or risk been forced out of business - even good businesses have gone to the wall through cash flow issues, that 5 years ago the bank would have extended overdrafts without a second thought.
It's a very fine line between adequate stock and customer service. It's often how you manage customers expectations, under promise, over deliver.
Customers can price check thousands of stores instantly, it took a whole day 10 years ago to check half a dozen outlets even in your own locality - this squeezes a businesses margins.
Legislation about price control has come into place (I haven't a clue how Apple bypass this), and you can buy from virtually anywhere in the world instantly.
Specifically for the camera market, we soon forget Japan is still coming to terms with one of the worst natural disasters in the last couple of hundred years, One of Nikons main factories was devastated - its a credit to them, they have managed to get new products out in such circumstances. Is it much surprise that stock is tight?
Part of the problem is that on the internet, 'launch days' are now big events, with news and hype arriving on our screens the moment the press release is published from the manufactures.
Before, it would take time for the press release to appear in the printed press, and then be read by us - giving the supply chain time to kick into gear.
Quite why people need to rush out and by the latest camera is beyond me. Yes, if my current camera falls off a cliff (more likely than it sounds actually), then yes, I would see the benefit in replacing it with the newer model than the old one, but apart form that, I would give it 6 months at least for supply and prices to settle down before buying.
For me the added complexity of the modern high spec digital camera and the speed with which the latest models are offered to the market has necessitated a "wait and see" approach.
In the not too distant past there was a degree of "face" involved amongst the high end camera makers that involved ensuring that any top end model came to the market at 100%.
Perfect was the yardstick for the big name makers and yes some did slip thru but today the emphasis feels like "first" beats "best".
The really sad thing is our greed for better and better means the baby is being thrown out with the pixel count as Im sure it has struck other digital users there have been several outstanding dslrs that merely needed a minor tweak to make them unbeatable but that dont shift units and there in lies our problem.
I will look,wait and watch to see if the latest and greatest is just that before my £3/4k gets spent as the blogs on the internet always tell their own story and though I dislike it as a shopping experience as a source of info the internet is second to none!
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