KEH has a new website!

Dr Croubie · Jul 10, 2014

Categories!
Filters!
Photos!
Sortable!

Wow, for anyone who's had the misfortune to use the old website over the years, this is a vast, vast, vast improvement over the old one. Unfortunately (from the point of view of my wallet), it's goign to be a lot easier to find things to buy with my hard-earned...

eng1er · Jul 10, 2014

Hmm. May it will grow on me, but I liked the old site better.

John_Nikon_F · Jul 10, 2014

In some respects it is better. In other respects, it has to be fine tuned. The old site wasn't terrible, but I wish that it remembered your viewing preference (I preferred looking at all items, instead of 25 items at a time). It was a lot better than the site of the late '90s. I still remember having one page open, showing manual Nikon lenses, then opening another page with Vivitar flashes. Went back to the Nikon lens page, hit page 2, and got Vivitar flash units.

The current page reminds me a bit of Kenmore Camera's site, albeit a bit stripped down, since, the Kenmore site lets you view manual focus Nikon lenses only, whereas, KEH throws everything at you, including large format and Nikon S mount lenses, as an example.

-J

Truzi · Jul 10, 2014

I found it a bit frustrating. The search features and sorting are very nice, but my time is valuable (to me).

On the old site I was able to get to what I wanted within two clicks. Now I must search, sort, and wait for reloads each time I click a category - unlike B&H, but similar to Freestyle. At least I can make multiple selections before the reload on the latter.

Then I have to sift through items that were not what I searched for ("Bronica GS-1"). It took me far longer to find the same thing than on the "classic" site (link on the lower right of the new page layout).

Everything is also very large, as if made for a mobile device, which means less information per screen. I now have to scroll the page quite a bit more than before (using a computer).

If they could combine both styles, I would find it very useful. Tweaking won't help much as the concept demands that it "work" this way. As it is, it reminds me of the ebay changes that wasted enough of my time that I've not used ebay in nearly two years.

I left feedback, and made the mistake of not using my spam email address - so now one of my other accounts is on the mailing list. Yes, I did unsubscribe.

RattyMouse · Jul 10, 2014

eng1er said:
Hmm. May it will grow on me, but I liked the old site better.

Agreed. The old site was much quicker to use.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 10, 2014

I too like the old site better, but the new will grow on me.

Jeff

StoneNYC · Jul 10, 2014

The old site was terrible, the new site is better but the pictures don't mean anything since they STILL aren't the actual product... But progress is still better than no progress.

Dr Croubie · Jul 10, 2014

The one thing I hated about the old site was that it couldn't be sorted or filtered.
Like the LF Lenses page was only sorted by name (ergo focal length), and I had to trawl through all the ancient, no-names and uber-expensive APO versions just to find a regular Symmar-S or something.
I couldn't, for instance, choose 'just Schneider' and sort by Lowest price, now I can.

But yeah, it does need a bit of tweaking. Something like B+H's 'for format' box would be good.
eg, if I go to 'categories', 'lens accessories', 'lensboards', I have to select brand Linhof, Wista, Miscellaneous, etc, to find 'Technika style' boards.

Still much better than before.

ntenny · Jul 10, 2014

It's the first day out for a new site, so I imagine some fine-tuning is yet to come. I hope they make it a little easier to navigate by system, though, which is how I tended to use the old site; start at the Mamiya 645 page, or whatever, and from there have ready access to relevant bodies, lenses, bits and pieces. As it is right now, I don't think there's an easy way to go from looking at the bodies to looking at the lenses.

-NT

Dr Croubie · Jul 10, 2014

Yeah, if you click on 'shop by format' and 'large format', you only get a choice of Bodies and Lenses, you can't get categories for lensboards, backs, shades, GGs, etc. I hope that's coming soon too.

Richard S. (rich815) · Jul 10, 2014

Much prefer the old site.

hoffy · Jul 10, 2014

Looks slick, but I am not a fan of how they have categorised 35mm gear especially. All the Minolta Gear is lumped together, regardless of it being MD/MC or AF. All the non manufacturer gear comes under its specific brand name, so I now have to search through the whole listing to find the mount I need.

Slixtiesix · Jul 10, 2014

A major improvement in my view! Much faster and easier to use.

mgb74 · Jul 10, 2014

Richard Sintchak (rich815) said:
Much prefer the old site.

I always prefer the old site. Until the new site becomes the old site, then I prefer it.

TimFox · Jul 10, 2014

I had to use the "classic" button tucked away in the lower right corner to find anything on "large format bellows". No luck whatsoever with the new site, but four mouse clicks on the classic version.

Hatchetman · Jul 10, 2014

don't care about the site format, but would prefer actual photos and/or brief description of the camera in question.

StoneNYC · Jul 10, 2014

Hatchetman said:
don't care about the site format, but would prefer actual photos and/or brief description of the camera in question.

+1!!!!

jacaquarie · Jul 10, 2014

Look at it this way, we are lucky to have KEH, and the site does work.
Already I have given KEH more of my plastic money.

Arthur

Truzi · Jul 10, 2014

hoffy said:
Looks slick, but I am not a fan of how they have categorised 35mm gear especially. All the Minolta Gear is lumped together, regardless of it being MD/MC or AF. All the non manufacturer gear comes under its specific brand name, so I now have to search through the whole listing to find the mount I need.

Slick is right. Form over function. The response to my feedback was that the "classic" site will eventually go away.

DWThomas · Jul 10, 2014

Yes, I got an email from KEH yesterday and tried it out. It's maybe lighter and cleaner, but I used to be able to click 'Medium Format' then 'Bronica SQ series' after which it offered subsets of SQ-* items and I so far don't see an equivalent to that simple way to drill down.

But then my GAS is waning anyway ...

AgX · Jul 10, 2014

Has their overseas return policy changed to the better too? Has anyone checked this?

Sirius Glass · Jul 10, 2014

StoneNYC said:
The old site was terrible, the new site is better but the pictures don't mean anything since they STILL aren't the actual product... But progress is still better than no progress.

Remember that the antonym of progress is Congress!

I should check out the KEH site but I do not have enough GAS pressure to go there at the moment.

RattyMouse · Jul 10, 2014

Slixtiesix said:
A major improvement in my view! Much faster and easier to use.

I can't possibly see how this new site is even remotely as fast, much less faster than the old site.

michr · Jul 10, 2014

In general I think the site chrome is more attractive, but it is less navigatable because items get lumped into the categories instead of being in the appropriate spot. Also, is anyone else bothered by the incorrect aspect ratio on some of the images?

Wayne · Jul 10, 2014

I don't think all the kinks are worked out yet. I had to call when a link they sent me for a shipping label didn't work, but they took care of me. I don't care for the new website much because I'm on dialup and it seems slower, but I hate to criticize KEH when they are such a great place to buy.

KEH has a new website!

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