what happened to the midwest photo website?
Besides the problems already mentioned, the new layout takes too much of space per item, and you can see only 10 items per page. In general, the layout does not make good use of space.
Other bad stuff:
Big sign: "See Our Specials" on the home page; yet the sign is not a hyperlink, and there is no sign of where to click to see the Specials
There is no visual cues to which graphic element is a hyperlink; you need to click on them to see if they are hyperlinks or not (typically, the mouse pointer changes from an arrow to a pointing finger if the element is a hyperlink)
I think it is a a poorly designed and poorly implemented web site. Really bad. I spend less that half a minute on the site, and had to leave. Would you trust such an implementation to provide secure e-commerce ?
I hope they will improve, as I like MPEX.
- Phong
what happened to the midwest photo website?
I liked the old version better with the big list of stuff in stock. I can easily browse and see if I "need" anything
what happened to the midwest photo website?
In comparison, the B&H website is quite advanced. Nothing quite like it, except perhaps Amazon.com
what happened to the midwest photo website?
An inadequate upgrade (it's broken on Mac OSX Safari and Firefox, and I imagine it ain't pretty even on a PC.) - they either should have done it right (B&H photo gets "more" right than the others) or they should have simplified it even further than their previous version. Plus, considering how long the lag time was to get the old site updated, I rather see them do a simple html website without e-commerce, but spend the time and money updating the product availiability and comments.
Anyone remember the old Del's ads in Shutterbug? - we all knew what a Nikon FM looked like - but they would stick little comments and even jokes into their text only listings. It made it a lot of fun to read and I bought more stuff from them because I could scan it faster than any of the other ads. That's what somebody (Badger, Quality, or MPEX) should do - simple, fast, cheap and effective marketing.
I hate those drop down menus - lousy architecture compounded by buggy code.
what happened to the midwest photo website?
My vote goes for MPEX to return to the old site. I've only dealt with them a few times, but I liked getting it done on the phone with Jim. Now am turned off by missing inventory listings and too much info cramped into too small a space. As it stands, they may lose fresh customers who are unfamiliar with an otherwise great supplier of photo gear.
I don't mind drop downs as long as they serve the purpose. In this case, they don't seem to.
I do agree with Frank's comment: improve the gear description/life inventory update in an otherwise simple HTML format. As many have already said: the old one wasn't a high-style site, but it was easy to navigate
B&H site is a well trimmed, and after recent updates, very effective site. Adorama's is also up to the task.
what happened to the midwest photo website?
I looked only at "large format" and "lenses" and "cameras" within "large format" but I thought it was very nice, I don't see what the problem is supposed to be unless it's elsewhere in the site. I particularly liked the "more info" addition, where it looks like a picture of the product and some detailed information about it is planned to be added eventually. It worked fine for me with Internet Explorer 6.0.
what happened to the midwest photo website?
Sorry for the double message but I just noticed the question about Quality Camera's web site. I don't know what Quality's problem is with web sites but they sure have one. Their web site was "under construction" for years, long after every other photography dealer in the world had one. Then they finally got one up and it's a disaster even when it works which it apparently seldom does. Last time I looked at it, about a year ago, it couldn't be conveniently browsed, the assumption seemed to be that when you go on it you know exactly what you want and are ready to buy. It's very strange because it must cost them a lot of business. I know I never even think of Quality Camera when searching for equipment just because they've never really had a good working site.
what happened to the midwest photo website?
I design a lot of websites for work, but honestly I like Lens & Repro because you can just scroll a quick text list of inventory that they actually update. Except I never buy anything because their prices are too high...
But, sort of doing the supreme effort that B&H did (a half-million dollar project, I guess), it works and any smart amateur could do it just fine.
I'd be fine if all these half-baked e-commerce "solutions" got axed and people just went to PayPal check-outs. I think PayPal works really well, and is secure except for all the fake emails I get to "verify" my account.
what happened to the midwest photo website?
http://www.harrysproshop.com/Used_Large_Format/used_large_format.html
I like Harry's. Simple. Easy to navigate. Even has pictures. No e-commerce you have to email.
what happened to the midwest photo website?
I don't like that the LF lenses aren't sorted by format anymore. If the descriptions indicated what format the lens was useable for, this would help new LF photographers.