Lens Tag

trevorsehrer

New member
Hey all,


Google Alerts brought me here - I'm the guy that made/runs Lenstag and what it's in for me is solving the problem of photographic & video equipment theft. Feel free to ask questions here or email me at trevor at lenstag.com.


Thanks!
trevor
 
Hey all,


Google Alerts brought me here - I'm the guy that made/runs Lenstag and what it's in for me is solving the problem of photographic & video equipment theft. Feel free to ask questions here or email me at trevor at lenstag.com.


Thanks!
trevor

I actually looked at the link and moved on but you responding to this link goes a long way in showing that you are legit. Thanks. I I will go back and try this service out. I think I will make this a sticky for now so others will be able to find it.
 

trevorsehrer

New member
I signed up and got in most of my gear. If nothing else it gets you to list all your gear and serial numbers which would help in case of theft and reporting it to the police

Awesome! BTW, if you take the time to get your gear verified you get free copyright monitoring that has found a bunch of stolen photos over the last year or so since it's been in operation. Additionally, the gear can instantly be flagged as stolen if it wanders off, making life more difficult for whomever is trying to sell the gear as well as raising the chances the thief will get busted/you'll get your stuff back.

There's some new/used value functionality as well, but I'm still working the bugs out of that. It's accurate for roughly 80% of the items in the database but it gets complicated by the zillion or two ways someone can write a particular item's model name (nearly 30k permutations of all the gear that's out there, at last count).
 

Deleted

Senior Member
Hey all,
Google Alerts brought me here - I'm the guy that made/runs Lenstag and what it's in for me is solving the problem of photographic & video equipment theft. Feel free to ask questions here or email me at trevor at lenstag.com.
Thanks!
trevor

Thanks for your response Trevor.

Can you see how some people might be concerned about the aims of your website, or the risk of such data being misused or stolen?

For serious stuff, such as Cloud Backup, I like to use a paid service. In that way I can see the intention of the relationship from both sides.

Something like Lenstag, a free service with lots of people's real names & addresses, with the ability to track every image that they ever upload on-line has a remarkable risk to privacy.

I'd have thought that every DSLR camera owner will have insurance. Should my own camera equipment get stolen, I also have insurance & frankly after it's been through the hands of some grubby criminal - I don't want it back thanks!

I'm sure that you are an honest guy, Trevor. But companies do change hands. In the future what if a company like Google decides it wants your business. How many hundred million could you resist?

Would the people in this thread be in such a rush to sign up if Lenstag was owned by Google?


A quick online search seems to indicate that you work for Google.

Lenstag Helps You Track Your Super-Expensive Photography Gear For Theft Recovery And Prevention | TechCrunch
 

trevorsehrer

New member
Thanks for your response Trevor.

Can you see how some people might be concerned about the aims of your website, or the risk of such data being misused or stolen?

For serious stuff, such as Cloud Backup, I like to use a paid service. In that way I can see the intention of the relationship from both sides.

Something like Lenstag, a free service with lots of people's real names & addresses, with the ability to track every image that they ever upload on-line has a remarkable risk to privacy.

I'd have thought that every DSLR camera owner will have insurance. Should my own camera equipment get stolen, I also have insurance & frankly after it's been through the hands of some grubby criminal - I don't want it back thanks!

I'm sure that you are an honest guy, Trevor. But companies do change hands. In the future what if a company like Google decides it wants your business. How many hundred million could you resist?

Would the people in this thread be in such a rush to sign up if Lenstag was owned by Google?


A quick online search seems to indicate that you work for Google.

Lenstag Helps You Track Your Super-Expensive Photography Gear For Theft Recovery And Prevention | TechCrunch

Thank you for giving me the chance to address your concerns. Lenstag was designed to be pseudonymous from the start because I don't want it to become a subpoena magnet. All it asks for is an email address and password. That's it. No names, addresses or anything else.

And Lenstag isn't a company, it's a project. Note how nothing is copyright "Lenstag, Inc." or anything that like. It's just me. I verify every single serial number item image that comes through (sometimes my wife (who is a photographer and has had gear stolen) does help me when I get swamped).

Lastly, yes my day job is at Google but this project is totally separate from my work Google, they hold no interest in it, all opinions are my own and not those of my employer, etc. Why anyone (let alone my employer) would offer me money for Lenstag is beyond me. It loses money every month because I refuse to charge for it, takes up basically all of my nights, weekends and vacations and requires at least one actual human being to make the thing work (making sure images of serial numbers match what people have typed in).

Anyhow, I understand your concerns and this is something I'm constantly asked about but it's just not the case. There is no personal information to leak, it's not like Lenstag even verifies your email address. This is simply a project to end photo & video equipment theft (and help fight copyright infringement) because no one else was doing it and I believe Lenstag has a really good chance of accomplishing that goal. It does need your help, however.

Lastly, yes lots of folks have insurance but insurance won't replace gear with images on it stolen at an event, a ruined vacation because your camera disappeared, etc. And having to deal with the police. It took my wife over a month over regular phone calls just to get a policeman to show up to take a report so she could file her insurance claim after a couple Nikon flashes were stolen (she shoots with a D800 and wants to get a D810). It'd just be better if it was extremely difficult/impossible to resell stolen gear so photographers would stop being targets. I get to read about how photographers are drugged, stabbed, mugged, and all manner of cruel things every day with the theft reports people leave. Yet cameras and lenses have identifiers like cars and carjacking is something unheard of or at least very rare in most locales. Isn't a world without camera theft one you'd rather live in?
 

Pretzel

Senior Member

Why would it matter who he works for? Granted, I haven't signed up for the service yet, but I'd be more concerned by the EULA, fine print, terms and conditions, yada yada than where the creator of the product works. I'm guessing he's allowed the freedom to be an entrepreneur, doing things along the lines of what he loves and enjoys while still keeping a steady day job... Kinda like most of us photogs, yeah?

My thoughts are, even though I'm insured (I happen to carry a binder for no deductible replacement), I'd still want to take action to make sure that the scumbag thief that nabbed my gear had a VERY hard time making it worth his/her while. With that in mind, I love the thought behind the service. Once I have time to slow down, I'll go through the fine print and make my decision then.
 

fotojack

Senior Member
Trevor...I'm the one that brought your service to the attention of our members here at Nikonites, and I'm glad I did! :) If anything, it's peaked their interest, and secondly, it's reminded them of the possibility of theft.

I'm glad to see you've responded to some of their concerns. I admire your dedication to your project and wish you continued success. Thank you.
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
And Lenstag isn't a company, it's a project. Note how nothing is copyright "Lenstag, Inc." or anything that like. It's just me. I verify every single serial number item image that comes through (sometimes my wife (who is a photographer and has had gear stolen) does help me when I get swamped).

Lastly, yes my day job is at Google but this project is totally separate from my work Google, they hold no interest in it, all opinions are my own and not those of my employer, etc. Why anyone (let alone my employer) would offer me money for Lenstag is beyond me. It loses money every month because I refuse to charge for it, takes up basically all of my nights, weekends and vacations and requires at least one actual human being to make the thing work (making sure images of serial numbers match what people have typed in).

I applaud you for this contribution of effort and resources to this cause. I can see some long-term concerns, of course. Since this project makes no money, it's continued existence is going to be wholly dependent on you continuing to care enough about it to put in the time and resources to keep it going, without any tangible reward, or else on somehow getting others to willingly contribute to it as well, either in terms of donating money, or else in donating time and effort, or both; and of distributing some of the work among any such volunteers.

Perhaps you should think about some means of attracting and vetting potential volunteers to help with the work involved in running this project. I was thinking, last night, as I was entering my equipment, and uploading the photographs to prove that I had them; I was wondering was there some automated process that evaluated these photographs, or did it require the work of a live human being. You seem to have answered that question, and I wonder what the chance is that your project may become popular enough that you and your wife are unable to spare enough time to process the verifications as fast as they are being submitted.


One matter of individual data about which I am wondering. Your site tries to offer an estimated value for each item, as well as a total, both for new and used instances. Most of the values it came up with for most of my items seem plausible. The values that it came up with for my F2 seem possibly a bit on the optimistic side, but not outrageously so. I have a couple of very old lenses,for which the estimated values seem unrealistically high.

Both are non-AI lenses, made in the 1970s, and dated according to the site at Nikon Lens Versions and Serial Nos. I believe I paid about $90 for each of these lenses, used, in 1986.

One is a 50mm ƒ1.4 lens, made in 1972. Lenstag is valuing it at $216 new and $188 used. This is a model that was last made in 1973, so there obviously wouldn't be any new instances of it now. I suppose if there was, $216 might be a plausible price for it, but $188 seems like an awfully high appraisal for one that is more than forty years old, unless it gets some of that value from being an “antique” or something similar. I'm thinking it likely that Lenstag is averaging this in with a variety of more modern 50mm ƒ1.4 lenses, as although individual models and variants come and go, there always seems to be some 50mm ƒ1.4 lens among Nikon's current lineup at any time.

More startling is a 28mm ƒ3.5 lens, made in 1975. Lenstag appraises it at $896 new and $764 used. Again, there's really no possibility of a new instance of this lens, as this version hasn't been made since 1977; and it looks like the last instance of any 28mm ƒ3.5 lens made by Nikon ended production in the early 1980s.

That last one is the one that really made me wonder. Is it possible that my 28mm is really worth that much? I can see the 50mm's value being overestimated, just as a simple matter of having not made any distinction between it and all the other 50mm ƒ1.4 models that have been made after it, and averaging it together with all these more modern variants; but there haven't been nearly as many variations on an ƒ3.5 28mm lens, and most of the variations that did exist were made before the variant that I have.
 

trevorsehrer

New member
I applaud you for this contribution of effort and resources to this cause. I can see some long-term concerns, of course. Since this project makes no money, it's continued existence is going to be wholly dependent on you continuing to care enough about it to put in the time and resources to keep it going, without any tangible reward, or else on somehow getting others to willingly contribute to it as well, either in terms of donating money, or else in donating time and effort, or both; and of distributing some of the work among any such volunteers.

Perhaps you should think about some means of attracting and vetting potential volunteers to help with the work involved in running this project. I was thinking, last night, as I was entering my equipment, and uploading the photographs to prove that I had them; I was wondering was there some automated process that evaluated these photographs, or did it require the work of a live human being. You seem to have answered that question, and I wonder what the chance is that your project may become popular enough that you and your wife are unable to spare enough time to process the verifications as fast as they are being submitted.


One matter of individual data about which I am wondering. Your site tries to offer an estimated value for each item, as well as a total, both for new and used instances. Most of the values it came up with for most of my items seem plausible. The values that it came up with for my F2 seem possibly a bit on the optimistic side, but not outrageously so. I have a couple of very old lenses,for which the estimated values seem unrealistically high.

Both are non-AI lenses, made in the 1970s, and dated according to the site at Nikon Lens Versions and Serial Nos. I believe I paid about $90 for each of these lenses, used, in 1986.

One is a 50mm ƒ1.4 lens, made in 1972. Lenstag is valuing it at $216 new and $188 used. This is a model that was last made in 1973, so there obviously wouldn't be any new instances of it now. I suppose if there was, $216 might be a plausible price for it, but $188 seems like an awfully high appraisal for one that is more than forty years old, unless it gets some of that value from being an “antique” or something similar. I'm thinking it likely that Lenstag is averaging this in with a variety of more modern 50mm ƒ1.4 lenses, as although individual models and variants come and go, there always seems to be some 50mm ƒ1.4 lens among Nikon's current lineup at any time.

More startling is a 28mm ƒ3.5 lens, made in 1975. Lenstag appraises it at $896 new and $764 used. Again, there's really no possibility of a new instance of this lens, as this version hasn't been made since 1977; and it looks like the last instance of any 28mm ƒ3.5 lens made by Nikon ended production in the early 1980s.

That last one is the one that really made me wonder. Is it possible that my 28mm is really worth that much? I can see the 50mm's value being overestimated, just as a simple matter of having not made any distinction between it and all the other 50mm ƒ1.4 models that have been made after it, and averaging it together with all these more modern variants; but there haven't been nearly as many variations on an ƒ3.5 28mm lens, and most of the variations that did exist were made before the variant that I have.

Hey Bob,


Yeah, Lenstag does depend on me still caring about it but I also have a blast running the thing and it's not that expensive to run since I do all the development (as well as everything else myself). Hosting costs are the only real expense but Lenstag was designed to only be used occasionally by its users so they're totally reasonable given the size of the userbase. And (thankfully) I have no shortage of potential volunteers to help fill in or otherwise assist (I would happily pay them for their work, too), so labor won't be a problem long term. The verification system has also evolved to be crazy-efficient just because it's easy to tweak it for big productivity gains, so on evenings where I have a few thousand verifications to do, I can usually knock 'em out, minus the typos I have to fix by hand because it's a hassle to get the images uploaded in the first place and I want to make sure photographers don't have to spend a lot of time on Lenstag. :)


Happy to hear the value feature is mostly accurate. It's been the most difficult part of the project and continues to be an uphill battle (as mentioned earlier up the thread). I'm on an airplane right now so it's difficult for me to check other 28mm & 50mm lens prices in the database but if you want to PM me your incorrectly valued lenses as they are in Lenstag with accurate prices I can update them once I get to ground.


FWIW, some lenses like the Canon (am I allowed to write that here? :) 50mm f/1.0 greatly increased in value after they stopped producing it and I've hand-edited the price to reflect its current value on the secondhand market. Not saying that's the case with your lenses but it could be (I've done hundreds of manual adjustments for users, so it's possible that I've just forgotten).
 
You got around to verifying all my gear pretty fast. Good job. I do have insurance on all my gear but they did not ask for serial numbers on all the gear so I did not have all of that info. Your site made me do that and the photo made me verify it so that alone is worth the effort. We could probably use your service to prove the ownership of our gear if it were ever stolen and recovered by the police. Anything extra we can do only helps us in the long run.

Thanks for a good service and you responding here makes me trust the service even more. WE have had people dropping in to promote something and we never hear from them again.
 
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