Quote from James Warner on June 27, 2022, 7:17 pm

Quote from grover on June 27, 2022, 4:05 pm

Perhaps one for the backlog @james-warner-b:

The sliders in the left gutter are perhaps a bit "to dynamic".

When I slide the filters (megapixels, price, year), the results are updated continuously as I'm sliding. Meanwhile the other static filters (checkbox for senor type and size etc) are being added/removed dynamically based on what's available for the current filter settings. This makes for a really chaotic left panel whereby the slider jumps up and down on the page and doesn't line up with my mouse pointer as I'm sliding the slider.

I realize this is a tricky UI dilemma. Not sure how best to solve this off hand. The easiest solution might be to wait for the user to release the mouse button on the slider before updating the search results and left gutter filters. The results would be "less dynamic" but also less "jumpy".

Hope that makes sense.

Yes, I see what you mean. Good catch. I also realized the sliders even though there's two knobs always start far left. Probably would look more obvious there's two knobs if I had them start on either end. I'll play with those.

Quote from grover on June 27, 2022, 4:16 pm

Another one for the backlog @james-warner-b

In addition to writing a review, it would be nice to collect some metrics from the user:

• Year of purchase
• Purchase price
• Country

You could drive some interesting stats on these inputs (price trends over time, price trends by country, etc). I realize old camera gear is sold in different condition and with accessories that can affect the price but law of averages would kick in once you hit a critical mass.

I did plan in a future feature to track purchase price, and then make the price that displays at least partially affected by user inputs. But I see now what you mean that when someone purchased it and potentially where could change that number a lot. Sort of like how PentaxForums has cameras and lenses at average prices way above what they go for, because it's including people who bought it on release 15 years ago. Good food for thought. I took a note of it.

Quote from James Warner on June 27, 2022, 7:18 pm

Quote from grover on June 27, 2022, 4:25 pm

The "sign in" button hangs for me more often than not. I get taken to a "Loading..." page that never loads. Usually I can get out of this by clicking the "back to search" button and then clicking "sign in" again. I'm assuming that by the second time I click the sign in button the missing resource has loaded (see screenshot):

FYI @james-warner-b this is Firefox 101.0.1

Thanks for catching that! I'm not sure off the top of my head why that would happen... it should automatically remove that loader when the call comes back. I'll have to play with it a bit and see if I can recreate.

Quote from Kieran Coughlan on June 28, 2022, 5:02 am

Hi James

Website looks good, tested on a Mac mini M1 and an iPhone SE 2020 both using Safari and Chrome.

• I signed up, no issues (used Google)
• Added the Pentax *ist DS, 2 small issues. 1) The filter on search was a bit slow to add the CCD sensor as an option 2) For cameras without reviews the rating seems to default to 1 star, I think this is for the write a review but on first glance it looks like an actual rating unless there are existing reviews
• Wrote a review, no issues
• General browsing no issues. a slight layout issue at the bottom of the Pentax *ist DS page where the Submit review is covering some other text.
• On the Phone layout the Navigation bar gets a bit squished as the Sign In button covers the About link. Layout was consistent though on both Safari and Chrome

Some other feedback

• When you click an external link you leave the site. You may want to open up a new tab with the external link.
• Search filters, I did't see an option to clear/reset filters in one click, then seen it at the very bottom. It might be better to move this to the top of the filters window (even have it in a freeze frame)
• User guides, what qualifies as a classic camera? Is there a cut off in years? Is it quirkiness?
• Under the Blog and About section the navigation bar disappears. Not a big deal now but as the site grows could be an issue

Have you considered the growth of the site? For example if successful will you want to have a Classic Lens Database too. How would this look? This could help you avoid design flaws that may lead to a lot of work in the future.

Overall the site looks good I would definitely be interested in writing blog posts and giving further feedback. Hope the rest of it goes well I used to develop websites and apps it can be frustrating at times.

 

Quote from James Warner on June 29, 2022, 2:41 pm

Quote from kcphotogeek on June 28, 2022, 5:02 am

Hi James

Website looks good, tested on a Mac mini M1 and an iPhone SE 2020 both using Safari and Chrome.

• I signed up, no issues (used Google)
• Added the Pentax *ist DS, 2 small issues. 1) The filter on search was a bit slow to add the CCD sensor as an option 2) For cameras without reviews the rating seems to default to 1 star, I think this is for the write a review but on first glance it looks like an actual rating unless there are existing reviews
• Wrote a review, no issues
• General browsing no issues. a slight layout issue at the bottom of the Pentax *ist DS page where the Submit review is covering some other text.
• On the Phone layout the Navigation bar gets a bit squished as the Sign In button covers the About link. Layout was consistent though on both Safari and Chrome

Some other feedback

• When you click an external link you leave the site. You may want to open up a new tab with the external link.
• Search filters, I did't see an option to clear/reset filters in one click, then seen it at the very bottom. It might be better to move this to the top of the filters window (even have it in a freeze frame)
• User guides, what qualifies as a classic camera? Is there a cut off in years? Is it quirkiness?
• Under the Blog and About section the navigation bar disappears. Not a big deal now but as the site grows could be an issue

Have you considered the growth of the site? For example if successful will you want to have a Classic Lens Database too. How would this look? This could help you avoid design flaws that may lead to a lot of work in the future.

Overall the site looks good I would definitely be interested in writing blog posts and giving further feedback. Hope the rest of it goes well I used to develop websites and apps it can be frustrating at times.

 

Great feedback, very helpful, thanks! I've added some notes to my todos.

One question about this: 1) The filter on search was a bit slow to add the CCD sensor as an option

Could you explain this scenario in a little further detail? Were you searching and changing filters and the CCD option disappeared, then lagged to come back? Or do you mean after submitting the Pentax and being redirected to the search page, the Pentax was slow to appear in the results?

Thanks!

Quote from Kieran Coughlan on June 29, 2022, 3:07 pm

Quote from James Warner on June 29, 2022, 2:41 pm

One question about this: 1) The filter on search was a bit slow to add the CCD sensor as an option

Could you explain this scenario in a little further detail? Were you searching and changing filters and the CCD option disappeared, then lagged to come back? Or do you mean after submitting the Pentax and being redirected to the search page, the Pentax was slow to appear in the results?

Thanks!

it was after I submitted the Pentax *ist DS, the filter for CCD wasn't there refreshed the page and it hung for a few minutes (my connection was good at the time as another page I was browsing updated several times), it's maybe a sync issue on the server would be my best guess.

Quote from James Warner on June 29, 2022, 4:21 pm

Quote from kcphotogeek on June 29, 2022, 3:07 pm

Quote from James Warner on June 29, 2022, 2:41 pm

One question about this: 1) The filter on search was a bit slow to add the CCD sensor as an option

Could you explain this scenario in a little further detail? Were you searching and changing filters and the CCD option disappeared, then lagged to come back? Or do you mean after submitting the Pentax and being redirected to the search page, the Pentax was slow to appear in the results?

Thanks!

it was after I submitted the Pentax *ist DS, the filter for CCD wasn't there refreshed the page and it hung for a few minutes (my connection was good at the time as another page I was browsing updated several times), it's maybe a sync issue on the server would be my best guess.

Hmm. Well the CCD option should have been there from the other cameras with CCD too, so not sure about that part. The part about not seeing the Pentax *ist after adding it for a little bit is how it works. I'm using a separate search index from the database for retrieval, and it's done asynchronously so depending how long that call takes it could take a few seconds to come back into search results and only after a page refresh (new call).

In any case, neither the retrieval or the adding to the search index should ever take more than a second or two, so it does sound like some connection problem. Where are you at these days? Still in Philippines was it? I can check region settings and see if I can expand, because my hunch is it's set just to central US right now. I had forgot about that part.

Quote from Kieran Coughlan on June 30, 2022, 3:01 am

Yep still in Manila Philippines for another 15-18 months at least then back to Ireland

Quote from grover on July 6, 2022, 8:36 pm

I submitted the Sony NEX 3 to the classic camera database.

Went well. Only three observations:

• After clicking to submit, there was no confirmation that anything happened.
• There was a text field with a default value "2006 DPReview" ( or similar ). I don't really know what I was supposed to put in there. Perhaps a field label is missing
• Even though I own a NEX 3 camera I had to look up it's specifications ( USB 2.0, micro HDMI etc ). This is somewhat tedious... but I get it, it needs to be done. I'm just wondering if there is a way to "kick-start" things by pulling in from an external dataset.
  • A quick google reveals this: https://www.teoalida.com/database/digitalcameras/
  • It is a site that basically sells data scraped from digicamdb.com
  • It has a sample xls that one could use to test development against
  • I'm not necessarily proposing that you would wholesale import that data as-is. Perhaps though, using a script and the xls you could create a bunch of pending submissions which could then be reviewed and approved as necessary.
  • Just thinking out loud. I'd be happy to help with this in any way.

Quote from James Warner on July 7, 2022, 2:16 am

Quote from grover on July 6, 2022, 8:36 pm

I submitted the Sony NEX 3 to the classic camera database.

Went well. Only three observations:

• After clicking to submit, there was no confirmation that anything happened.
• There was a text field with a default value "2006 DPReview" ( or similar ). I don't really know what I was supposed to put in there. Perhaps a field label is missing
• Even though I own a NEX 3 camera I had to look up it's specifications ( USB 2.0, micro HDMI etc ). This is somewhat tedious... but I get it, it needs to be done. I'm just wondering if there is a way to "kick-start" things by pulling in from an external dataset.
  • A quick google reveals this: https://www.teoalida.com/database/digitalcameras/
  • It is a site that basically sells data scraped from digicamdb.com
  • It has a sample xls that one could use to test development against
  • I'm not necessarily proposing that you would wholesale import that data as-is. Perhaps though, using a script and the xls you could create a bunch of pending submissions which could then be reviewed and approved as necessary.
  • Just thinking out loud. I'd be happy to help with this in any way.

Thanks again for the help.

I got swamped these last two weeks with life so have made very little progress, but I did just push some styling fixes and functionality fixes. Still only a third through my list of TODOs but getting closer (well, except it keeps growing, but that's how it goes xD)

Okay, I need to think about a way to make clicking the submit more user friendly to indicate the action was successful. Maybe just a brief overlay of successful then redirect after a second or two. I'll have to think through that. It's good feedback though.

There is a label for that field, but it's unclear. I wanted a space people could put helpful links they found about the camera, and for each link there's a display name and the link itself. I might need to redo that whole section to make it more user friendly anyway. I agree it's confusing.

I had considered the data set for quite a while, and it's a good idea in many ways, but decided against it for a few reasons. For now this site will focus on older digital cameras that people have actually used and enjoy, rather than a full set of all possible digital cameras. And I don't expect users to have to go through all the work themselves adding cameras to make this site useful - I am taking that responsibility myself - but the feature is there for times people want to.  The original idea had fewer fields and focused more on anecdotal experiences, but early feedback had people wanting more fields to search by to narrow down cameras. That's an advanced feature that will come in the future, but I wanted the data there so it would be ready.

Anyway, thanks again! I owe any success I have to all you helping me out. I really appreciate it 🙂