REVIEWS:

MY REVIEWS here generally involve two things: Equipment and Books. They usually reflect my personal experience with a particular item or book which I have purchased. I (so far 😉) have not been paid, or received any free items for review. I think that makes my reviews mostly unbiased (though they do always reflect my personal likes and dislikes, which can often be subjective). I am really trying here to give the reader a practical application of the reviewed item as it has been used in my own photography. I hope people find the reviews useful. I do not use a star or number based rating system. I see those (mostly on sites like Amazon) frequently and I have found that they have varying meaning, unless the reviewer explains their meaning of such a rating. Most do not, and many times the star rating reflects a bad experience a rater has that isn't necessarily related to the utility of the item (e.g., shipping or wrong item received). Instead, I have tried to come up with a more pragmatic rating system that is (perhaps overly) very simple. It consists of 3 possible ratings: recommended, suggested, and not recommended. "Recommended" is my highest rating and generally means I think you should buy it (or "beg, borrow or steal" 😆). "Suggested" means I think it is good and/or useful and is something you would probably like or enjoy. "Not Recommended" means basically: don't waste your time.

As a buyer, I am often looking for a real-life user’s opinion that is not necessarily a glowing recommendation and not a "rant"

Equipment

THIS CATEGORY tags when I talk about gear. I generally to not address things from a technical point of view. There are already some very good resources out there like dpreview.com, Vincent Oliver’s Photo-i,  for inkjet printers, Wilhelm Imaging Research.com for prints and print longevity, and Consumer Reports.org, as well as a couple very technical review sites like DXO-Mark, out there. There are also some good discussions and recommendations to be found on various forums, such as Nature Photographers Network (NPN), and Fred Miranda's venerable site.

hoping to answer the ultimate questions, would I buy this product and does this product do for me what I need, want or hope it will do?

AS A buyer, I am often looking for a real life user’s opinion that is not necessarily a glowing recommendation and not a rant. Surprisingly, that is often difficult to find, even on the vast worldwide web! I review products I either own or have used, from the standpoint of a non-professional user and hoping to answer the ultimate questions, would I buy this product and does this product do for me what I need, want or hope it will do?

ALL REVIEWS are biased. There are subjective factors that affect every reviewer and reviewing scenario. I often see complaints in reviews about issues that only relate to jpg images (often without that qualification mentioned). For those of us who shoot mainly raw this information can be misleading (especially if not specified in the narrative). On the other hand, for jpg shooters, it may be critical. A lot of features on cameras and lenses today cater to hand-held shooting. I often read an entire review and wonder, does this photographer even own a tripod? Again, things that are critically important to a mostly handheld shooter, might not be the slightest concern to a person who works  from a tripod. For example, image stabilization (IS). For my travel and street shooting, IS is important. For my landscape and outdoor shooting, I am 98% on a tripod and IS really doesn't matter to me. An "action shooter" will often have very different priorities from a landscape shooter. A good friend and I were recently discussing the relative merits of the ever more popular mirrorless systems. One major positive is (ostensibly) smaller size. But the limiting factor there is the physical aspects of optics. For now, it just isn't possible to make a physically small, large aperture lens. So even though the body is smaller, the addition of a wide aperture lens, re-levels the playing field. This will be important for sports, wildlife and other action shooters, as well as indoor event shooters who need the low-light capabilities of wide aperture lenses. For those of us whose primary focus is landscape, or travel during daylight hours, or architectural type shooting, we can mostly live without those wider apertures (the vast majority of my daylight shooting is done at apertures right around the "magic" f8). There are of course, specialized areas that will have their own needs. My point is that when reviewing a lens, it is important to put my biases in perspective and when reading the reviews, it is important to take both mine and your biases into consideration.

IN THAT spirit, I will note (at least the most important of) my biases here - in case I neglect to do so on the actual review. As my blog and website note, I shoot mostly outdoor, nature, landscape, cities and travel destinations. I am either in adequate natural light, or using a tripod (most of the time, both) when shooting. I only very rarely shoot sports, wildlife, or other action, and even more rarely, events in indoor or dark outdoor venues. I don't do studio work, portraits, or product shooting. When I look at an item of equipment, it is from that bias. Fast frames per second, very wide apertures (for the most part - I do like to use them on shorter focal length lenses to achieve bokeh sometimes), multiple card memory, tethered shooting, flash synchronization and the like are not usually considerations for me. I think from the perspective that I will use the camera or lens either on a tripod, or in adequate daylight situations. Because I travel a lot, size and weight are a large consideration, and might even outweigh other things, including image quality. I don't pixel-peep, so I find that a lens that isn't absolutely razor sharp across all of the image; in the corners, etc., when view at high magnification on screen, isn't an absolute requirement. If and when you do read my reviews, keep in mind that they are written from my own biases.

WHEN I purchase a new product, I use tools freely available on the internet to collect information about the product and its pros and cons. When it comes to things photographic, my first thought usually turns to dpreview.com. For mirrorless users (and for Nikon users), I also strongly recommend the writings and analysis of Thom Hogan for in-depth and (in my view) less biased information. I know that sites like these are often given review models from the manufacturer and there is a perception that their reviews are therefore biased. I don’t see that. In my experience, dpreview acknowledges that they are given review copies (my only "knock" on dpreview is that they are often not critical enough). I fear that the cost of purchasing the thousands of products they review would mean they simply couldn’t exist. So, I appreciate the factual information they provide and use that information in the “mix” of my decision-making. I also look at seller's sites where you can find customer comments. I generally find a mix of customers who have had good experiences and those who have had bad. The former will usually give a glowing report -- the latter a scathing “thumbs down.” For me it identifies known problems or potential areas to do further research, and I will often do the math and determine if the vast majority of comments are negative or positive. This doesn’t govern my decision, but it does influence it.

Books:

I READ. A lot. I have often referenced and recommended (or not) books about photography, and have also noted that I have several feet of bookshelf space crammed full of photography and digital imaging books. Like the equipment above, I will review books from time to time that I have purchased and read. Books I "Recommend" are books that I believe every photographer should have a copy of on their bookshelf (or hard drive). Books that are "Suggested" are books that I own or have owned. They have portions that are good or are special-purpose books, which means they may be useful for some and a waste of time and money for others. Books that are "Not Recommended" does not mean that they are "bad" books. It means that in my view, there is a better alternative out there, or they are such limited purpose that they may only be useful to limited audiences. Occasionally I may rate a book "Don't Buy." In that case I do not think it is worth the time, effort or cost.

As in all of my Blog entries, I welcome comments.