Om Malik:
All I want to know from reviews is how it feels in hand, the pictures it makes and what is the actual performance from a daily usage stand point. The sensor size, the sensor type and what kind of processors mean absolutely nothing — what matters is the photos.
The challenge you have with the official reviews is that they don’t really post as many photos with their reviews, mostly because they actually are mediocre photographers and are unable to come up with visuals that can act as testimonials for the quality of the camera.
I wouldn’t go far as to say they don’t matter but I do agree with the overall premise – take the reviews with huge truckloads of salt. The only camera review site I trust implicitly is Digital Photography Review. Their reviews are both technical and creative and contain a wealth of information. But nothing replaces your own experience and word of mouth when it comes to camera reviews.
almost any hardware review (of any kind of hardware) eventually turns into hardware porn. I worked in photography in the 80s and 90s and the ads and reviews were always the same kind of hyperbolic missives about inconsequential features./
Years ago, Canon and Nikon fought for supremacy in the 35mm film camera world. Who was better? Neither. We always said if you could tell the difference be3tween hardware manufacturers, you were god.
The same is true of smartphones, computers and dishwashers.
I agree about DP Review, except that the site is a complete mess of terrible design and advertising.
Om must not print his images himself: Sensor size and resolution have a direct affect on being able to make large fine art prints and being able to have enough extra resolution to crop and still make a large print. Not to mention sensor size and noise.
So, sensor size matters to quite a few people who know what kinds of questions to ask.
I think it’s best to have a variety of sources including anecdotal reviews on personal blogs and Flickr.
In my experience, the most important piece of buying a camera is knowing clearly what you want. If you know what you want it’s no longer a huge open-ended search. Not specifically what you want, but generally: Smaller point and shoot vs bigger interchangeable lens system, etc.
I gave up on big, heavy gear many years ago when smaller cameras started having 1″ and APS-C sized sensors in them. Now one can buy a Ricoh GR/GR II, Fuji X70 or X100F, or even a Sony RX100 (any model) and make excellent images and large prints with the files they create.
The frustration only increases when the review does includes photos, because they almost never post a baseline “this is what it ought to look like” photo taken with a professional camera to compare against (for phone cameras, at least).
Malik loves to gaze at his own navel, but I do agree with part of his contention. I shopped for my first digital point-and-shoot camera the same way as I’d shopped for my first stereo receiver; set a rough minimum for features, then go look and see whether the device’s controls and handling make any sense.
I clicked the Digital Photography Review link in the RSS feed and it didn’t work, so I clicked the link to the story and was taken to Malik’s site. Sigh. 2017, right? 🙂
Weird…I just checked both places and it worked fine….
The RSS feed sent me to http://www.loopinsight.com/redirect?s=/feed/&u=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZHByZXZpZXcuY29tLw== which ended up 404. Not sure what’s going on there.
Did you do so from within a feed reader like Reeder? If so, that might be the issue. They sometimes handle the tracking string in the URL wrong.
I have issues with some of the points he’s making but in general he’s right: most camera reviews are bad. People are fawning over feature lists and insignificant nitpicks because the New Toy Syndrome™ is so strong in the first few days of using a new camera, they barely scratch the surface of what is actually relevant about that device.
Like Shawn, I trust DPreview’s work because in recent years they cover all of it; from the feel of the camera to the nitty gritty technical details. Another source I really like is The Camera Store TV. Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake do a fine job of conveying what makes a camera tick and what you can expect when using one.
One point that I don’t particularly like in Om’s article is this:
[quote]The sensor size, the sensor type and what kind of processors mean absolutely nothing — what matters is the photos.[/quote]
That might be the case when your budget is the Leica range but below that, it makes sense to talk about what a sensor can deliver in terms of usable image quality and how the sensor size will influence the depth of field of your pictures.
Of course, going back to what Om said; this should be substantiated with meaningful examples.
But flat-out saying this doesn’t matter would imply that it’s just as easy knocking the background out of focus with a prime lens on a micro four thirds camera as it is with a prime lens on a full frame camera.
Depending on what the reader is looking for this is a highly relevant piece of information.
What Om also didn’t mention—continuing the point above—is that with modern cameras the lens makes much more of a difference regarding what you can and cannot do with a camera, what kind of image quality you can expect, and how your pictures will end up looking.
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I don’t think it’s the feed reader. Looking at the raw RSS:
http://www.loopinsight.com/redirect?s=/feed/&u=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZHByZXZpZXcuY29tLw==Also doesn’t work.
The only reviews I trust are from Ken Rockwell. He actually knows what he’s talking about AND is able to take good photos. I’ve never seen a good test photo on DPR.