THIS IS ME - I AM A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE -
These are my rules for my small business with a big emphasis on putting customers first. In this day and age to be very conservative means staying alive, saving money, better deals, but it only works if the end product is GOOD: My name is on the product I build.
I answer the phone because years of trying to teach my Rottweilers to do this have failed. Even The Bonetta Stone didn't work. As a very small business man I become more intimate with my customers. About a phone call away. Try that with Mr. Big. I manufacture battery packs for the WEPP shooters, Wedding, Event, Paparazzi, and Photojournalism market. My clients are frugal, smart, climbing in their league, and competitive. There is no BS here. I build HD equipment, no frills just performance and look for ways to save them money and time.
FINANCIAL PLANNING
I spend a lot of time with suppliers trying to keep prices down. This is a volatile market and one must plan ahead. Availability is sometimes day to day. Most of the deals that I procure in turn, are made to keep prices down but not at the sacrifice of quality. I learned that lesson from working with SOCCOM, at MacDill AFB, Tampa Florida. I strive to build things that work better, are simple to operate, field sustainable or repairable, off the shelf, on budget and can be amplified or upgraded. There are several thousands of the Black Boxes out there, all field repairable and upgradeable.
QUALITY
I only use Kobicon jacks and Marson high grade steel rivets. Both cost double the price of the Chinese stuff available, but the Chinese quality (vendors will sub you) failed miserably. A one ten cent rivet cost me twenty dollars in postage. I learned my lesson, now I exclusively buy from TAIWAN, JAPAN, with USA preferred when I can. Batteries are tougher to compare because of other than China you have very few choices.
POSTAL COST SAVINGS - I use the United States Postal Service (USPS)
Fixed lower rates on a 5-10 pound weighted products saves my customers money. This keeps costs down to customers and with PRIORITY fast shipping, as fast as two day UPS and FedEx depending on location. Our hot seal packaging prevents theft and "slit grabbing" and the USPS offers inexpensive insurance, and packaging materials which they supply. Normally pre labeled CLICK & SHIP means no lost waiting on lines and being located close to a major airport and USPA hub (TIA-Tampa International) means faster times on both domestic and international shipments.
POLICIES and QUALITY - VALUE ADDED
I have held the price line with basically free service, backing up the product and other special jobs I have done for customers, the increase is negligible. A product is as good as the sum of it's parts. It's called value added. For example, each 2011 pack can power two strobes with the second port into an umbrella or soft box or two strobes floor mounted for backgrounds illumination of large churches or areas.
We do not use cardboard covered vinyl in our cases because they absorb moisture. Our cases are made in Denmark because they are a better molded polycarbonate product. We do not use cheap findings like metal belt clips and miniscule shoulder strap assemblies. Superior charging of the Sealed Lead Acid battery means no days off. My packs stay on the charger indefinitely. My chargers are intelligent, more so than the others and do the thinking for you and make my batteries last longer up to seven years.
You won't get "branded forum answers" from me. We do not accept payment for reviews, nor "door prizes" for good reviews. It's called the truth. Just go to www.aljacobsladder.com and read my reviews on politics, sex, religion, and www.aljacobskitchen.com for comments on food and cooking.
I will slam bad stuff bad, Most "reviewers" are shills for their magazines and simply don't report bad. When WAS the last time you saw a bad review? Remember those free magazines you get are paid from advertising. I do not push or shill for any brand. I work with both Nikon and Canon, and have owned just about any brand you have.
I am not a fan of some China knock-offs. Not for me, it's not that tripods break, just the ten cent screw connector that was tapped from cheap stock and under-threaded by the screw machine. It releases, resulting in the 4000 dollar camera and lens hitting the ground first to save the tripod. I endorse what works. Stuff like Manfrotto, Kirk and Custom Brackets.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Photography started for me when someone left a paper bag left sitting on a park bench in the Zoo area in NYC's Central Park. Today we would call the bomb squad. I was fourteen, a junior, and was naturally, playing hooky from school. I grabbed the bag after eyeing it for an hour, artfully dodging the truant officers who carried my picture in their wallets with the number one on the front. With no one claiming it, I stood on top of the park bench and yelled the sacred words "finders keepers".
With the legalities out of the way, and running for my life, I had mischievously become the owner of an AIRES IIIL 35mm Rangefinder Camera, the first of the Japanese clones of a Leica. It took nice pictures of the Dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History in NYC, the Statue of Liberty and other sites when I played hooky and got caught.
That camera saved my arse, showing that I was doing something to help my education and it got me off easier. At 14, for penance I guess, I gave my first presentation to the Science classes in HS. It was about Dinosaurs and I proudly showed off my 2 1/4 x 31/4 prints. I was a success! The kids gave me a standing ovation and I got a reprieve since the "science teacher thought the dinos got whacked by the cavemen". She hated me.
THE GADGET MEISTER
I picked up a few nicknames, like
"the Gadget Meister" starting in an obscure camera repair facility, the best in the camera district of New York City. It was where I first found out man could fly if he simply touched a capacitor from a Honeywell 770 Strobe, and when I touched the Eveready 510 volt battery, it sent me to the moon.
Only the Wright Brothers had a better first flight. But I learned early what works and what doesn't work and that you don't get from school or books. Maybe that shaped my attitude toward cheaply made products that fail.
It also inspired me to learn to fly using an airplane, piling up thousands of hours over 28 years and the occasional heart stimulation.
MASTER MACHINIST
I remember the first tools I made at Wingate HS (600 Kingston Ave for you Brooklyn fans) in the metal shop (totally unauthorized program) and even today they still talk of the Jacobs Hubcap Remover, not sold in stores, available in Midnight Black Only. You too can have a career in hubcap "restoration" for only $39.95. Make it back on your first job even if you only got the front ones! Comes complete with instructions for both domestic and foreign jobs.
BUT WAIT! Order now and we'll double the offer and send you my new book " Guide to the Great Bail Bondsmen of America".
I FAILED IN ENGLISH, SO I BECAME A WRITER, and PHOTOGRAPHER
Why not? Early on I learned some really cheesy folks can and went on to become Teachers, Policemen, Congressmen, Senators, Judges and the President, I figured I could write about anything I like if I put my mind to it. Unfortunately I was kinda choosey and didn't care for the "writing" in my English class. I referred to Shakespeare's words as "spake as a flake".
That got me out of the grace of the teacher. The killer was a book report on Julius Caesar where I had to read aloud one page from something Shakespeare wrote, I picked a scene where Brutus mentions a questionable and unmentionable act upon Caesar. That got the class roaring and I got the Deans office. It taught me the power of words and how to get thrown out of English class.
OTHER WEB SITES OF MINE
POLITICS, SEX, and RELIGION EXPOSED
"Things not spoken about except at the water cooler"
www.aljacobsladder.com
FOOD, FODDER and FOIE GRAS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY
"How to get thrown out as a food critic, tell the truth"
THE CENTRAL COMMAND MEMORIAL
"Country Served"
ACCURATE PLATING and WEAPONRY
"Professional Factory Gunsmithing and Plating"
DIAL INDICATOR REPAIR
"Make your Indicator like New"
http://www.indicatorrepairsite.com
AUGUST 2008 I WENT TOTAL MAC: I LISTENED TO MY BROTHER and FRIENDS.
With 28 years doing IT as part of my job, working on computers, certified from DOS/WIN 2 to Vista, I finally gave up on PC's. Thus I am PC Retired, MAC Inspired. I converted an entire business and lifestyle to a loaded three computer MAC network in two days, Air-streamed into a 18 speaker Monster cable room by room sound system in my condo, linked computer and Apple phones to my mail, all of which I did my self needing one call to apple for support which I got in sixty seconds and the sound came alive and with iCloud link the world.
This resulted in being ten times faster and more proficient not spending my time fixing things or finding workarounds. I run eight websites, my databases, two blogs and write storyline articles about everything daily and process what I shoot and don't spend my time on repairs, burps, upgrades and viruses. I have become an Appleholic.