wmartin@brl-vgr.UUCP (05/04/84)
Equipment reviews by the trade or hobbyist press have traditionally been suspect. The slick audio magazines never publish bad reviews and this caused the growth of the underground audio press, dedicated to the esoteric equipment and putting down the mass-market gear which is what most of the slicks review. (This seems to have come full circle; I recently read a comment in an underground which said "If we run across something bad, we will just never mention it, as opposed to devoting space to reviewing it." -- Maybe we now need an "underground underground"?) In the firearms press, the slicks all praise just about every gun they test. Only in The American Rifleman will you see tests where they detail functional and safety flaws. This has led to the rise of a limited "underground" gun press, mostly the publications of one place, called Simco Media, who publish a series of irregularily spaced test and review magazines (Pistolero, Handgun Tests, Popular .22s, etc.). They loudly claim that they won't accept manufacturers' ads and that they buy all the guns they test as regular consumers, from dealers or distributors, as opposed to getting possibly-doctored test samples. So, does this sort of situation exist in the photographic press? Are there underground camera-review magazines similar to the above examples? If not, since the audio undergrounds seem to have been successful as a group (individual magazines have died like flies, but the trend has continued for many years now), it might be a good opportunity to become famous, if not rich, and write off acquiring tons of photographic gear as a business expense without having to photograph weddings every weekend! You too can become a publisher and get lots of cameras on indefinite loan, tons of film and processing chemicals, innumerable accessories, etc. At least, until you publish your first objective and accurate review! Will
rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (05/08/84)
Will Martin is correct about the over-rating of photo equipment in standard
photo magazines - it's the same thing with audio equipment, and probably a
lot of others.
An alternative is Consumer Reports. They generally rate a bunch of related
products at the same time, which is nice for comparison. However, there
are two negatives (sic). First, they take a long time from when they do
their shopping to when the report finally sees print; models may be
discontinued in the interim. Second, I've seen an increasing number of
reports by CU that are poorly researched and/or badly presented.
--
...Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile. Dick Dunn
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303) 444-5710 x3086dsg@mhuxi.UUCP (GREEN) (05/10/84)
[] Reviews of photo equipment in Consumer Reports are relatively useless. It has always seemed to me that they were like the reviews of a couple of bright High School kids who were given some toys to play with. Their review two summers ago of the photofinishing industry was a joke. All of their reviews are read by by people in the industry for the sole purpose of finding something good to allude to in the Sales Promotion literature sent out to the field salesmen of the Marketers, e.g., "Please inform your accounts ( camera stores ) of the review of such-and-such equipment in the January 1990 issue of Consumer Reports ... enclosed are some excerpts from that review ... Good Luck and Good Selling, your V.P. of Sales". In my opinion, the best place to get accurate information is from the manager or owner of a photo equipment repair shop. You should ask about a specific model or brand. If you ask for advice as to which camera to buy, you'll probably get thrown out ( "Whats better a NOKIN ZZ or a NONAC SL8 ?). But if you ask "What do you think of the ZINGER-3?, in terms of durability?", you'll get an honest answer and a recommendation to find a YEICA IIIg, in good used condition. If I were shopping for a camera ( which I'm not since I have at least one good one of each format available, including a few classics ), I would make sure I know exactly what format I need, what is the mostly likely environment I will use it in, and what features do I need and want. I would then compare that list against what is available, and buy the camera at the most REPUTABLE dealer as close to my home as possible. In my experience, the differences in features between equipment in a similar price range is negligable, and all of the "Lens Testing" that will make you think you've got the best piece of glass available will be for naught if your photofinisher's chemicals are one degree off in temperture, or if the lens on the printer/enlarger has a fingerprint or dust! "No photographer is as good as the simplest camera" by ? David S. Green Bell Labs 201-564-2290 mhuxi!dsg