The value of reviews ?

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Patrick66

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Patrick
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Hello,

This will probably be a dim question but here goes anyway..

What is the value of reviews ?

I am thinking about purchasing Camera A. Review one says that its great, it does what I want, the images are nice, its low light performance is decent, it fits my criteria.

Review two says that the images are poor, its not well built, its low light performance is to be avoided, etc etc...

So now I'm in two minds. I am wondering if its for me. But I am also wondering if the second reviewer has had a "bad" camera.

My local camera shop is very limited in its stock and there's not another one for miles around. I cant borrow or test one out so I am going in blind, so to speak, on my purchase.

Any thoughts ?
 
A single or even two reviews on their own are worthless, research is needed!

Probably the best way to get that is on places like this, where you stand a high chance of talking with folk who actually own said item and will be a lot more honest than any review site.
 
Ask us! What camera is it?
 
Reviews and opinions need to be taken with a pinch of salt. No-one but you knows what your expectations are like, and what your preferences are. The trouble with reviews etc is that we all have our level of expectations which is why one person say that camera A or lens A is really good, whilst another says they are bad. OK, so a bit of a generalisation and there is of course some equipment that are generally regarded as good or bad by everyone, but you get my drift.

What you need to do is get a general consensus, and then look at why people are saying it's good, or why they're saying it's bad. Someone might critique something heavily, but it might not be something that bothers you, or would affect the way that you shoot. DXO mark is a good place for looking at how good the actual sensor of the camera is, how good the dynamic range is and how well it handles noise etc, but it doesn't tell you how good the ergonomics are, how good the AF system is, what functions it has etc which are all vitally important factors when choosing a camera.

I tend to like photographylife as they seem to offer a concise unbiased review on equipment. DP review has some useful stuff, as does cameralabs and photozone.de. There's plenty more out there, these are just a few. Forums are great too, but you can get a fair amount of brand bias sometimes ;) :p
 
Forums can be unreliable, not many people who will admit to shelling out a fair whack on a crock of crap
 
snerkler said:
DXO mark is a good place for looking at how good the actual sensor of the camera is, how good the dynamic range is and how well it handles noise etc,
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That is a whole heap of a can of worms there!

To the OP, as TGO says research research and some more research. Take nothing as gospel and add every piece of information you bring together and judge it as a whole :)
 
I always read a variety of reviews. Few reviews are as black and white as the example you give, and even magazine reviews, concerned to keep sponsorship sometimes hint at or publicise issues. I don't think there is much stuff these days that is poor is you are buying a branded camera or lens, rather the equipment may not be as good as another in certain circumstances. I read a number of websites, Amazon reviews, facebook groups, you usually get the gist pretty quick unless you are a first day adopter. A recent example was the Fuji X pro 2, took a few days for an issue with it losing it's settings to surface, or the Nikon a year or two back with some autofocus problems. Some of these things may not surface for a couple of days or even a few hours testing on review (sometimes pre-production) samples.
 
I read multiple reviews. Make sure you look at ones with good sample images and compare. The digital rev YouTube ones are quite fun.

You can search by camera model on Flickr so that's another way of seeing what image quality is like.

Owner forums are another place to look plus general photography ones as you can find a wide range of views on various bits of gear.
 
It is very easy to get bogged down reading reviews. There are so many out there and it can take just one bad review to put you right off something which you had up until then considered to be the one for you. This is how I find it. I honestly think you can over-research. At some point you just have to take a balanced view based on a cross section of reviews you have read, go to your local outlet and pick some up, feel them, play with the controls a bit, then bite the bullet, trust your instincts and jump in. As has been said the opinions of others are based on their usage and preconceptions. Yours will be different.
 
I second what SuZ said search Flickr and take a look at what images on there are like, you need to look at more than a couple of review sites as each tend to favour particular brands. I know someone who does reviews of kayaking equipment and said he doesn't feel he can give a bad review if it's been gifted to him but just does not publish a review so in essence only publishes good reviews?
 
I wouldn't worry too much. We tend to want to justify our purchasing decisions after the event anyway. Whichever camera you end up buying I'm pretty sure you'll be very happy and within a couple of weeks you will find countless reasons why it's so much better than the other one you nearly bought. Wow, what a lucky escape that was, eh? Sure, there are a few things which aren't perfect about the one you have but it's all minor stuff and those plus points easily outweigh the couple of negatives. By the time you've then invested more in your system you'll be slightly more unbiased but you'll be in too deep by then :)

At least that's how it worked out for me and probably everyone else here...
 
Whatever you buy dont read any reviews after or you will be looking for any less than positive points brought up in the review and probably end up selling ;)
 
Perhaps its easier to think of the process rather than detailed reviews e.g. how did you choose your current car, bike, TV etc. If you apply the same logic it should help determine what's important for YOU in a camera and then take it from there
 
No product is perfect, so decide what features/benefits are important to you and look for something that ticks those boxes. Accept that there may be some negatives, as long as they don't impact on the things that are important to you. I rely upon user opinions as much as reviews, accepting that few people admit to making the wrong choice. I am having a dilemma over a long lens at the moment, it is a toss up between 2x Sigma, 1x Tamron and a Nikon. What makes it worse is not being able to get my hands on any of them to try them out where I live.

Sad as it may sound, when I bought my most recent car amongst other things I wanted power folding door mirrors which were an optional extra on the model I was interested in. I wanted any colour other than black too. The dealer had a pre-registered metallic black model without power folding mirrors which was £6k less than a factory order & I could drive away with it within days.... guess what I chose?
 
Canon Ambassadors have been reviewing the new 1dxmkII they all say how much better it is Well they would :) you have to read between the lines of several reviews then decide .

Rob.
 
broc said:
Sad as it may sound, when I bought my most recent car amongst other things I wanted power folding door mirrors which were an optional extra on the model I was interested in. I wanted any colour other than black too. The dealer had a pre-registered metallic black model without power folding mirrors which was £6k less than a factory order & I could drive away with it within days.... guess what I chose?
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:eek:

I'd have deffo gone with black, don't you know black cars are faster ;) :p
 
snerkler said:
:eek:

I'd have deffo gone with black, don't you know black cars are faster ;) :p
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Black cars need washing more frequently or the dirt slows them down. Buying the black one allowed me to spend some of the savings on my D750. Having 245BHP on tap is fun :D
 
broc said:
Black cars need washing more frequently or the dirt slows them down. Buying the black one allowed me to spend some of the savings on my D750. Having 245BHP on tap is fun :D
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Yep, I'm now on my 6th black vehicle :eek: I do miss horsepower, now on my first sensible car after years of performance cars :facepalm:
 
snerkler said:
Yep, I'm now on my 6th black vehicle :eek: I do miss horsepower, now on my first sensible car after years of performance cars :facepalm:
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I have had loads of mostly sensible cars, my latest is a retirement present to myself, a BMW 428i MSport Auto convertible :D:D
 
Very nice. Was a BMW man myself, had 5 of them (not all at the same time :LOL:)
 
Very true, even things like little pockets for storage on the back of the seats are options on BMWs!

I can't handle the suspense OP, what camera was it? If it's not a D750 it's rubbish ;)
 
The problem is a lot of reviews are written by either fanboys or people who've just had the camera for 5 mins, its all very well to list some of the high points or low points of a camera or lens but at the end of the day a full review can't really be done until you've been using it regularly for a while.

Even some can't be objective, just look at some of the threads you see where someone criticises a camera and look how many leap to its defence.
 
Just read the review for it on Ken Rockwell's site (if it's there).

If it's a new camera it'll be the best thing since sliced bread and you won't be able to breathe anymore unless you buy one (from Adorama of course).

If it's an older camera it will be crap and you must buy the afore mentioned new one or your friends will no longer talk to you and your wife / girlfriend / boyfriend will leave you as you obviously haven't got any sense as you ignored what Ken recommended.
 
They are optional extras on most large shiny cars, or have them fitted but no bulbs etc fitted.
 
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