2008 preview: professional reviewers are over. for good

it all started with the 10D , when no review reported anything about the AF that many many users reported immediately as a problem. Problems with lenses as well, no review ever saw it (the 70-300 IS vertical). It was because of us, the posters in the various forums. Now it happened again with the 1D Mark III.
And again no review reported anything about it. (only RG)

And when they did it was just to position themselves and hide the embarrassment for not seeing anything. It looks to me like RG broke the circle of "honor".. exposing the trick that all the others were using (don't test anything really, and come out with something..anything: as long as the others won't say anything they kept going like that)

People of the forums.. We Are the Professional Reviewers!

All the review sites (professional in the meaning that they do it for the money) don't really test the gear. Obviously. Maybe that's how it used to be with the printed magazines before..but now there is the Net and we (the users, professional photographers and advanced amateurs mainly) are able to review our own gear. And we get it right, pretty much all the time. And for free.

Basically the reviewers (DpReview , prophoto , letsgodigital and all the others) are useless if it wasn't for the users participating (for free) in the forums. They get the money and the users do all the free work.

but what do they do? Get this, people: they read the forums to get the reports. I kid you not. They have no clue. All they know are the press releases, but anybody can get those.. myself included ... They also are professional reviewers (not photographers), and again they know very little about cameras and photography in general. And it shows, clearly!

LOL

time for them to look for another job, since they can't really be real photographers (since they are not..LOL) and leave the forums to the people. (DPreview has been sold to Amazon.. and RG sold the forum to somebody apparently still jealous about RG for something I can't understand). In the case of DPreview I'd suggest to Amazon to get a real reviewer, and fast, before it will be too late.

Funny but this is the new reality: we don't need reviewers, we are!

and this very site here is probably the best : there are no "professional reviewers for the money" in here. Everything is transparent and perfectly clear. Great site!

happy new 2008 everybody

how true. i've always depended more on user reviews for purchasing decisions, after doing my own homework of course (ironically, "homework" includes reading mag/web reviews). but web/mag reviewers have something we don't - test charts/equipment/studi​o & all the time to explore the equipment thoroughly. now that you've brought this up, im still waiting for Phil Askey's review of the 1D MkIII, this camera was released sometime in 2nd quarter of 2007 and there is not even a preview, less review of it! i don't know if DPreview has "fallen out" with Canon (read a comment that they hv no sample to do testing!?) but kinda strange when other websites like Imaging-resource, Steve's Digicam & Luminous Landscape had already spent much quality time with the 1DMkIII.

Elements of truth yes, but this sure is sounding like a conspiracy theory to me.

Interesting observation.

And no amount of money spent on slick campaigns and glossy ads can overshadow the conceptions --real or imagined---expressed on the Internet.

When researching new gear, I always read forums.
I look at the reviews, but I base my decision mostly on actual users
from the forums. I'm also not much of an early adopter, so waiting until the
product is in someones hands in the real world makes it a bit easier.

I wouldn't expect a single mortal to know the whole truth. However I expect that squillions of users would.

Reviews are good because they contain lots of information on a single page. And readers/ potential buyers can then wade through all the stuff on a forum to find a few bits and pieces to form their own personal impression of a product. Both user opinions and reviews work together, I believe.

dave kadolph wrote in post #4568502
Interesting observation.

And no amount of money spent on slick campaigns and glossy ads can overshadow the conceptions --real or imagined---expressed on the Internet.

.. and I'm sure majority of people do not read internet BEFORE they buy a camera.

A good post from OP.

artyboy wrote in post #4568459
im still waiting for Phil Askey's review of the 1D MkIII

didn't think about that one. LOL

Now we have reviewers-for-the-money with "moods".. unbelievable! The Primadonna kind, still with no clue, but also with moods.

I really hope that all this will soon become a "thing" of the past , being the "reviewer" soon to be obsolete. (moods or no moods)

I do not trust reviews from any source that accepts advertising money from the manufacturer. My first research into any product is the internet and I look specifically for personal experiences in forums such as this.

antonello, great post and thanks for the insite.

This is from a newbe that bought an xti because it got great reviews. But then I didn't know how addictive this hobby is.

Thanks again!!

I've seen quite a few users perform well-controlled tests and comparisons and that is good. But I've also seen many, many more forum participants expressing opinions of products without any hard data to back up those opinions. Heck, I've probably done so myself on occasion. And, I've seen plenty of tests and comparisons that so poorly controlled that it's impossible to draw hard conclusions from them. So this cuts both ways.

To be fair, I've seen plenty of professional "reviews" that are merely opinion pieces with no measurements or physical evidence to back up those opinions.

Phil Askey's reviews are not perfect, but he tests the cameras, measures them, compares them, and shows his work. That cannot be said for all reviewers. Popular Photography Magazine shows some data, but Shutterbug Magazine shows nothing of the sort.

I don't know if I'd lump Phil Askey in there. He does not do real-world testing rather he points out all the buttons, settings and does lab comparisons. He actually does very little subjective evaluation and because he does not cover how it would handle during a real shoot he would likely not have found out the 1D mark III's focusing issues, but I don't fault him for that.

It's not just photographic reviews, its the same everywhere and its just business. Magazines cannot afford to bite the hand that feeds them (the advertisers). TV is exactly the same.

I remember the "Top Gear" presenters raving about a certain new small German car, until it failed a handling "Elk test" run by a Scandinavian magazine. After the car manufacturer tried and failed to rubbish the test, both in print and through the courts, "Top Gear" claimed that they had disliked it from the start.

Reviewers have to eat. But I believe it should be possible to write a review in such a way that, without actually saying a word against the product, the readers "get the message". Damned with faint praise maybe?

Richard

Lowner wrote in post #4571982
It's not just photographic reviews, its the same everywhere and its just business.

I agree.

but ... see?

some (many) sites do appear or at least they want to appear like real testers. Doing all the work deeply for us. That's the difference.

for example (and let's skip the 1DIII that wasn't easy to test -it took a real photographer to figure it out- ):

let's talk about the good old 10D: how do they test the gear? that's my question. They don't (really). Now that makes their "review" close to useless. If it wasn't for the users who immediately reported on the camera. And the reports came out immediately. Now the question is: what kind of cameras do they test? Seriously.. I mean.. come on

if it's meant to be a joke then it must be clear that it is (a joke)

Any profession has ethics and verifications, at some point: how do you feel if I (let's pretend that I review the solidity of bridges for a living) give a good bill of health to a bridge and the next day it goes down?

LOL

can I keep you with a real life story ?

a couple of years ago I brought my girlfriend's car for a complete tune-up. I specifically asked to check the car for everything because my girlfriend had a promotion and she had to travel every day from NYC to New Jersey.
The mechanics took the car under deep inspection and I paid a fairly good amount of money for it. We went to pick up the car and my girlfriend drove it out of the shop and was immediately pulled over by a Police cruiser because one of the rear break light was broken. The mechanic was right there and so was I following with my car.
I saw the face of the mechanic.. it wasn't a pretty sight. LOL
Of course they fixed everything immediately and it all ended up with a laugh, including the Police officer but if this happens again and again then it will be different.

eheh. It's true, this really happened

This thread made me think about information control and how powerful it is, and to an extent, how scary it is.

Trust no one.