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betterviewdesired.com ??

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yellolab View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote yellolab Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: betterviewdesired.com ??
    Posted: August/01/2005 at 18:26

I keep seeing referenced to www.betterviewdesired.com , however I can't get the site to open.

 

What's the secret?

 

Kevin

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ranburr View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ranburr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/01/2005 at 23:04

It recently shut down for good.  The guy who ran the site went to work for Zeiss around May of 2004.  There were some descent older reviews.  Some of it was good some of it was questionable.  It was written from a birders perspective, thus not everything fit for what a hunter wants.

 

ranburr

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gremlin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gremlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/02/2005 at 09:05

Yeah, it's a shame to see the passing of betterviewdesired.com.  You could always count on Steve for an honest comparison--until he lent his name to Leupold for use in their Pinnacle advertisements, you were always certain that he stood to gain little from his reviews other than the joy of having published them.

 

He stopped updating the sight when he took the job with Zeiss because he didn't want there to appear to be a confilict of interest.

 

The site provided invaluable information that you couldn't find elsewhere--manufacturer catalogs typically drop out the information on older lines once new ones are introduced.  He had great reviews of all the classic mid-price lines--Meade Safari, Minolta Classic and Activa, Olympus Pathfinder, etc.--that are now lost forever.

 

His insights were consistent, his standards were high, and his writing was superb.  For 10 years he provided information that you couldn't get anywhere else.

 

And now it's gone.

 

I wish I'd have printed out the whole site before it went down...

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Chris Farris View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chris Farris Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/03/2005 at 16:31
If someone can get a hold of him we'll host the old site on our server for free so people can still refer to it.
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ranburr View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ranburr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/04/2005 at 01:18

Chris, apparently it is going to be archived on birdforum.net

 

ranburr

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Buster1 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Buster1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2005 at 15:58
It's up and running as of this morning, Sunday, August 14, 2005.......
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FrankD View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FrankD Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/23/2005 at 12:00
....and new reviews have recently been posted on it.
Frank
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cheaptrick View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/03/2006 at 11:37
I have long been a betterviewdesired.com fan.
 
I found his site informative and even considered it the "Consumer Report" of optics.
I spent a ton of time on there........
 
Very nice of Chris & SWFA to offer to host that great site as well.
If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lucznik Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/03/2006 at 13:23

In the past (When Steve Ingharam -sp?- was writing the articles) I would tend to agree with cheaptrick.  In its new iteration however, Steve is no longer part of the website (he went to work for Zeiss) and the new people running the show have come under some pretty severe criticism on various birding websites. 

 

I am personally guilty of posting a not-too-favorable review of their new reviews on BirdForum.net.  It probably didnt' help that their first review was a look at the new Zeiss FL which "coincidentally" is where you find Steve working nowadays.  It was hurt further by their declaring the FL the new "BVD Reference Standard" without doing any real direct comparisons to any of the current top-of-the-line options (let alone the idea of comparing it to the heretofore current Reference Standard, the Nikon LXL.) And worse yet, the review was all subjective bantering with next to nothing by way of objective testing that could be duplicated or verified.

 

BVD is definately not the same high-quality source of information that it used to be.

What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?
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cheaptrick View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January/03/2006 at 13:56
I should have qualified my earlier post by saying that I haven't been around that site for about year or so and wasn't even aware that Steve was not in the loop any longer.
 
Appreciate the update on that......
If at first you don't secede...try..try again.
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