If you're a regular, you might notice I've been incredibly productive lately! Or, to be completely transparent... my new AI coding assistant, Claude, has been helping me execute my blueprints.
Long-term followers of the site will be familiar with its origin story as a project I built from scratch during the year I spent out of work thanks to COVID. Now that I'm back to being a working events photographer, I simply haven't had the energy to spend on the massive updates I know the site needed.
One of the realities of dealing with Crohn's is that I can't always sit at a desk and grind through code for 12 hours a day anymore. But the used camera market doesn't sleep, and keeping track of 40+ retailers requires constant work. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about AI tools, but for people living with chronic illnesses like myself who don't have energy to spare, it is a gamechanger. To keep UsedLens growing without burning myself out, I am using Claude to bring my architectural vision to life (and it has been incredibly exciting!).
This latest series of updates brings usedlens.co.uk to a new, faster server. Over a focused sprint of directing Claude, I've completely migrated the website, rebuilt the price alert system, added a new blog tool, and migrated the older posts across. Then, before I'd even figured out what to write this morning, we spun up a new comments system so you can keep in touch.
Consider these website changes the tip of the iceberg, as I am concurrently progressing the next evolution which will enable more intuitive and natural searches.
Right now, as you read this, my desktop PC is running a local AI model that is methodically reading, tagging, and categorizing all 154,000+ listings in our database. It's learning the difference between a vintage 1950s rangefinder and a modern mirrorless body so that soon, you won't have to type exact model numbers to find what you want.
Feel free to reach out via the contact form or comment below. Please do let me know if you find any bugs or just want to say Hi!
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