I have the pleasure to introduce you to a little new project I created with a group of friends and that I am sure some of you will find useful to use. The name is Slidoo.com and it’s an eBay search and notification service that will be soon expanded and include Amazon results too.

Why I create this:
I guess most of you use eBay (or Amazon) to find stuff. But it’s quite difficult to find some real deals on eBay. I will make you an example. Back in 2011 I noticed that every couple of months a polish store sold new Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lenses for 250 Euro less than the regular price you pay in the rest of Europe. I wished to have a tool where I could easily get notified when the auction is up. eBay gives you a service like that but it’s not nicely done and a bit annoying to use and customize. That is why I created Slidoo with a group of programmers that are actually close friends of mine.

How it works:
(Note: Slidoo is an officially approved eBay APP and we have access to their full database.)
First you have to login. Actually you can easily login by using your facebook or twitter account so that you don’t have to waste time on a new user name and password creation. On the notification settings page you can set your Location so that you can optimize the search based on where you live and buy stuff (like for example US or Germany and so on).
Coming back to my Nokton 25mm lens notification example I set my search here (Click this link). I want a lens in “new” condition, from “Europe” and “Buy it now” option only. The regular price in Germany is 950 Euro (too expensive for me). That’s why I want to get notified when the lens will be in Stock for le’ts say less than 820 Euro. As a registered user I can save this search and get notified when some new auction will be online within the parameters I set. I set a price range of 600-820 Euro because I wanted to cut out all the accessory stuff for the lens that usually sells for 150 or less Euro.
For USA friends I will make an example with the superb Olympus 75 f/1.8 lens. The lens sells for a regular price of $899. But two times I found them for sale for $100 or even $150 less and I set this search (Click here) to get notified when this happens.
Within the notification settings you can set how to get notified (via email, facebook, twitter or zero notifications). Important: You can also mark single products to get notified about price changes of the specific item.

The real time feeling:
I also wanted to create a search that works in real time. It means that you can use the sliders and results will change almost instantaneously! I found this very useful for example to compare the price of used and new stuff or to order the results by different options (for example price).

The future features:
This is a Beta version. Within one month we will add Amazon results too (used and new stuff). Within 3 months an iPad and iPhone and Android APP will be created. Along that stuff many little new features and small design changes will appear every week.

How you can help us:
I would be immensely grateful if you could try the website for a short period to see if that is actually a service you find useful or not. Of course it is useful for all stuff you search…not only for cameras and lenses! And please don’t forget that you can change the location search settings on that notification settings page. We worked hard on it and invested a lot of time to make it. You can also send your suggestions for new features and bugfixes at contact.slidoo@gmail.com.

So join and try out Slidoo.com! Oh…one more thing…can you spread the word to people you know that may be interested in using this? We don’t have money for advertising so we rely on your help to spread the news :)

Thanks a lot from Ale and his friends Andrea-Richard-Melle-Elena-Mate :)

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You can also join the Slidoo Facebook group and Twitter stream.

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eBay vs Slidoo
Some asked me to explain the difference between eBay notification service and the Slidoo notification service:
1) On Slidoo while you set the search parameters the page doesn’t get reloaded…you just slide. Try to set price and item status (like new or auction) on eBay. It’s a long time to set them forward and backwards!
2) on eBay you have to click through two times to reach your saved search list. On Slidoo you just hover your saved search item list and you have them all.
3) Notification is also customizable. For example you can set email or facebook notification or have no notifications at all (if you prefer to check the saved searches for yourself on web).
4) On Slidoo  the frequency of the notification can be set too. On eBay you get notified once per day. Here you can get notified multiple times.

[/shoplink] Image courtesy: Lepidi.

ePhotozine selected the “Olympus LiveTime” feature of the Olympus E-M5 as the Best New Technology 2012. I would also say that they should give them an award for the best design too :) P.S.: The E-m5 looks even more a winner with that nice PEN F fron cap you can buy on [shoplink 35343 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. Thanks Lepidi for sharing the pic!

Reminder: We got a rumor saying that a new E-M5 firmware will be released wihtin the next 10-14 days. With one “surprise” be added via firmware.

M43.eu posted this video with the E-m5 vs Canon M AF speed comparison.

P.S.: Set of refurbished E-M5 at Cameta (via Slidoo).

It’s Sunday morning and you may watch that video to wake up with a little smile :)

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P.S.: There are plenty of new E-M5 acutions at [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket[/shoplink]. Check them out: [shoplink 35328 ebay]auction 1[/shoplink], [shoplink 35329 ebay]auction 2[/shoplink], [shoplink 35330 ebay]auction 3[/shoplink], [shoplink 35331 ebay]auction 4[/shoplink], [shoplink 35332 ebay]auction 5[/shoplink], [shoplink 35333 ebay]auction 6[/shoplink], [shoplink 35335 ebay]auction 7[/shoplink], [shoplink 35336 ebay]auction 8[/shoplink], [shoplink 35337 ebay]auction 9[/shoplink], [shoplink 35339 ebay]auction 10[/shoplink].
And than we have some PEN too:
[shoplink 35327 ebay]Olympus E-PL3 with kit lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 35324 ebay]Olympus E-P2 with viewfinder[/shoplink] [shoplink 35325 ebay]Olympus E-PL2 with kit lens[/shoplink] [shoplink 35326 ebay]Olympus E-PM2 with kit lens[/shoplink]

Until now all Lumix G cameras started to be shipped in Japan first and than (slowly) spread over the rest of the world. It looks like the Panasonic management decided to go the exact opposite way around. Amazon Japan ships the camera on Dec 13th but you can already get it in EU and US:
in US preorders are now shipping at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Panasonic store and Samys.
In EU these stores are having the GH3 in Stock right now: Wexphotographic UK, Amazon UK, [shoplink 35309 ebay]Photoexpress UK[/shoplink], Wex Germany, Technikdirekt (DE), [shoplink 35311 ebay]Webdistirbution FR[/shoplink], FotoHansKeuzekamp(NL).

That may be some kind of make it good action from Panasonic for all the time we had to wait on the previous G cameras shipments :)

GH3 batteries:
The battery is now available for preorder at BHphoto (Click here) and in Stock and shipping at [shoplink 35314 ebay]Photoexpress UK[/shoplink]. The UK store is also the only one shipping the [shoplink 35316 ebay]vertical grip (Click here)[/shoplink].

12-35mm X price drop at Amazon US:
There is still no GH3 kit order option in US. Meantime the 12-35mm X lens got a new $100 price drop via Amazon itself (Click here). Third party reseller Panacam sells even for even less via Amazon (Click here). One more little thing: Some nice deals on smaller accessories at Amazon Gold Box.

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P.S.: All current GH3 auctions can be monitored on eBay (via Slidoo).