When do you trust advice on the net?

The internet is a wonderful thing. There are lots of people around that are

willing to share their knowledge. I have learnt a great deal here in the Leica

forum at photo.net and on the net in general that would have required much

more effort using traditional means. <br>

<br>

As a caveat it must be said that sometimes the information given is not very

reliable, it might be disinformation or the result of persons overestimating

their own expertise. A case in point; in this post <a

href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HI9c"

>http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HI9c</a> a new member

was seeking advice on the value of some unusual Leica gear. The majority of

the answers indicate that it is likely to be a fake.<br>

<br>

The kit was sold at an auction in Stockholm today. The catalogue entry can be

seen <a href="http://www.lpfoto.se/swe/auktioner/objectWinInfo.asp?

auktionsnamn=Auktion%2025%20S�ndagen%20den%203%20december%

202006&objektnr=385">in this link</a>. Telephone bidding was fierce and the

gear was sold to a European buyer for a hammer price (not including 17 percent

commission) of SEK 62.000 (EUR 6.865, USD 9.155).<br>

<br>

How do you separate the good advice from the bad on the net?<br>

How do you separate the good advice from the bad on the net?

 

 

 

you can't, it's impossible .... you post is the proof there of. Specially on "specialist" fora such as these-

IMHO you merely take into consideration the advice of somebody who has developed credence through a long period of offering advice, and has professional credentials on the topic or demonstrated expertise (it still doesn't mean they're right....merely that their opinion has some backing). The rest of the advice is worth what you pay for it (nothing). It is no different than stopping somebody you don't know on the street and asking for their advice...they may be well meaning but misinformed, correct but without expertise, or mean spirited and purposely misleading. I agree, the web is a great place to ascertain opinions...but the value of them is frequently less than appears on the surface. There are a lot of helpful people out there...just don't assume their advice has merit.

In "The Devil's Dictionary" (1906) Ambrose Bierce offers:

 

Advice, n. The smallest current coin.

 

Meaning, pretty worthless.

 

AC

You get to know people. There are so many here that I trust implicitly 100% on account of their posting history. If something turns out to be wrong, then, well, it's only a photography forum!

Advice given in the Internet is generally worth exactly what you pay for it.

 

If you want good medical advice, pay a doctor.

 

If you want good legal advice, pay a lawyer.

 

If you want good advice on your portfolio, pay for a professional portfolio review.

 

If you want good advice on equipment valuation, Take it to a specialist for professional evaluation, but don't expect to get it for free unless it's from someone who will make a commission selling it (like an auction house).

 

I've seen so much bad medical/legal/photography advice given on the Internet that I wouldn't believe anything I was told here by "experts".

If the same advice comes from several verifiably different people with extensive experience

I'll give it more weight than if from people I don't know well. There was one person who

posted his advice on this forum under many fake names in order to make it appear that

his opinion was widespread, so beware!

There's any amount of uninformed opinions and incorrect facts in books, in magazines, in newspapers, on the television and in camera shops, too.

 

Personally, I find you can tell a lot from the tone of someone's comments. Is it too much like advertising copy? Is it defensive?

 

I take yes/no answers and good/bad opinions as meaningless unless the authors "show their working." It's a matter of sifting through information from various sources, weighing it up, seeing what's bogus and what might have some truth in it, and judging what's important to you rather than what's important to other people. It takes some work, some thinking.

 

The seller of the Swedish military Leica understood this, checked again and struck gold. If he'd just thought "Oh, well," and put the camera back in the attic, he'd have deserved everything he got.

 

And even doctors will let you get a second opinion...

Since a number of opinions were expressed without even seeing pictures of the item, the credibility of those posters has to be questioned. How you can say an item is fake without seeing it escapes me.

Hello,

 

My "advice" to you would be to also trust yourself, your own experience, and what seems logical or correct to YOU. Going with your "gut feeling" is not such a bad thing.

 

Duke

In the case of medical and legal matters, going with your "gut" may be a very bad idea indeed.

 

In the valuation of photo gear however, the worst that can happen is that you'll lose money.

 

I think it's probably true to say that the many internet "experts", or at least many of those giving "advice", don't really know what they are talking about. There's lots and lots of evidence for that as any real expert (in almost any field) will tell you.

At least in medicine, when someone asks for advice without being examined in person, my response is, why would you trust the advice of a doctor who hasn't even seen you?

Svante:

 

Good post as it raises questions & is a legitimate concern for many people who have potentially valuable equipment but are clueless as to the real value & whether or not it's fake or real.

 

Unfortunately early Leica equipment has been faked more often than most any other item outside of watches.

 

With that said I would suggest for anyone who may have an item or items such as the subject matter in your post to contact an expert for an evaluation.

 

The internet is good for research to weed out most fakes but if items pass most tests it's best to deal with knowledgable people after this.

 

I will also suggest that this forum is not the place to ask for expert opinions for potentially valuable items.

 

Regards

The value of these forums is mainly in finding out what your options are. For example, you might have a Leica M4, and not know that you can buy a clip-on meter for it, the MR-4. Or you might see a device at your local camera shop called a Visoflex, and the salesman may want to sell it to you for your M5, which just happens to be off getting serviced. On the forum, you might find out that there are several versions of the Visoflex, some of which won't work with your M5, but the version III will. So you can go back to the shop with the knowledge that unless the Visoflex they have is the Visoflex III, it's not going to fit with the eye level finder on your M5, and you're better off looking elsewhere.

 

But the last thing I would do is buy a lens, based on a statement here that one version of the lens was better than another, or decide to buy brand H rather than brand Q based on statements here about the relative qualities.

 

If five different posters agreed that the Summisplat was far better than the Elmapoof, I'd make note of that and try to find out more about the differences between various Splats and Poofs. But that's as far as I'd go.

If I may just point out that the fact that it has been sold at a high price does not mean that it is not fake.

I've bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of Leica equipment, and while I haven't published any books on the subject I'll pit my knowledge against just about anyone short of a Jim Lager or the equivalent. If someone wants to look at the few photos I have uploaded and conclude from them that because I am an untalented photographer I must not know anything about Leica cameras and my advice is worthless, then they are welcome to ignore it. In any case I would not myself bid on a big-ticket item unless the seller provides written proof of authentication from an unimpeachable authority (Christie's, Sotheby's, Westlicht, etc.) and I would strongly advise anyone serious about collecting to do likewise, as in fact most serious collectors already do.

I think most people accept the advice that agrees with whatthey wanted to hear in the first

place.

 

I note the seller didn't take up the "$85 for the lot" offer, and took it elsewhere...

 

Same with "advice"on your pics. Do you really listen to someone who tells you your framing is

wrong if you like the framing ?

"Do you really listen to someone who tells you your framing is wrong if you like the framing?"

 

I do. And then I profusely thank them.

The most knowledgable contributer to this forum (who shall go unnamed) has been banned for many years. Unfortunately, you can't really trust anyone, not even me.

<p>Although I'm pretty knowledgable about Leicas, but occasionally pontificate on something that turns out to be completely incorrect. It is, however, a matter of memory lapse rather than deliberate misdirection.

Advices are basically judgments or opinions based on some factual information and evidence. I use the net to collect the facts and evidence, and form my own judgment; advices from other people (especially those with any supporting facts) carry no weight at all.

Make your own choices and take what others say w/ a grain of salt and only as possible consultation - no more, no less.

I think you can get reasonably good advise on the net, but not often from one or a few posts.

 

You have to read many posts, and "harmonize" the data. This is no guarentee but it could often get you close to good advise.

 

I think the more you read and research the more likely you'll find good advise. But even after doing this, you'll find that some good advice is illusive.

 

I get info from this site and a few others, and for a given topic, after researching, searching, reading many posts, the conclusions I come to from this are often right on. Sometimes not.

The only advantage a local human has, as a source of advice by comparison to net advice, is in her/his visual credentials: what a human says to your face may be essentially the same as vaporware or spam if one cannot actually verify by looking at her/his work. For example, if you ask someone at a camera store or photolab for advice, that advice may be valid or may be entirely worthless...the only way to know will be in her/his work. The fact that the person works at a camera store or lab may be enough, right up front, to reject that person's advice.