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How reliable is your camera?

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Bob Blount

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Consumer Reports readers reported on 187,000 digital cameras bought between 2002 and 2005 in their annual questionnaire.

The data below shows the percentage of digital cameras that have been repaired or developed a serious problem that was not repaired. Models within brands may vary, and design and manufacturing changes may affect the repair history. DSLR’s are not included but they have been generally very reliable.

Sony 3%
Panasonic 4%
Canon 5%
Olympus 5%
Fuji/Fujifilm 6%
Casio 6%
Nikon 6%
Kodak 6%
HP 7%
Pentax 7%
Konica/Minolta 7%
Toshiba 9%
Vivitar 10%

Consumer Reports considers differences of less that four points are not meaningful.

--
Bob,
Great Pro1 !
Wife's Nikon 3100
 
Dropped my G6 three feet onto pavement and it suffered no ill effects. I figured maybe the spin I imparted as I was grabbing for it kept it from slamming squarely into the ground.

The G6 probably (hopefully) has better materials than a cheaper model.
Bob Blount said:
Consumer Reports readers reported on 187,000 digital cameras bought
between 2002 and 2005 in their annual questionnaire.
The data below shows the percentage of digital cameras that have
been repaired or developed a serious problem that was not repaired.
Models within brands may vary, and design and manufacturing changes
may affect the repair history. DSLR’s are not included but they
have been generally very reliable.

Sony 3%
Panasonic 4%
Canon 5%
Olympus 5%
Fuji/Fujifilm 6%
Casio 6%
Nikon 6%
Kodak 6%
HP 7%
Pentax 7%
Konica/Minolta 7%
Toshiba 9%
Vivitar 10%

Consumer Reports considers differences of less that four points are
not meaningful.

--
Bob,
Great Pro1 !
Wife's Nikon 3100
Click to expand...
 
if differences less than 4 points are not meaninful as CR says. For example the top 8 are considered the same. And the last 5 are equal. Some in the middle are indistinguisable, being less that 4 points apart.

--mamallama
Bob Blount said:
Consumer Reports readers reported on 187,000 digital cameras bought
between 2002 and 2005 in their annual questionnaire.
The data below shows the percentage of digital cameras that have
been repaired or developed a serious problem that was not repaired.
Models within brands may vary, and design and manufacturing changes
may affect the repair history. DSLR’s are not included but they
have been generally very reliable.

Sony 3%
Panasonic 4%
Canon 5%
Olympus 5%
Fuji/Fujifilm 6%
Casio 6%
Nikon 6%
Kodak 6%
HP 7%
Pentax 7%
Konica/Minolta 7%
Toshiba 9%
Vivitar 10%

Consumer Reports considers differences of less that four points are
not meaningful.

--
Bob,
Great Pro1 !
Wife's Nikon 3100
Click to expand...
 
Statistics. Number of cameras used in the survey is more meaningful than the number of cameras sold. But, I assume, by inference, more cameras sold translates into more cameras used in the survey. But not necessarily.

--mamallama
 
All date is in percentages not numbers of cameras repaired or serious porblems not repaired. So the number in each group is not important. CR will not report data on a brand if they do not have an acceptable number of replies to make the data meaningful. They accept no advertising so own no one any allegiance.

Computer magazine are very good to Dell in product ratings since Dell is their single larges advertiser in PC Mag and PC World to which I subscribe.

--
Bob,
Great Pro1 !
Wife's Nikon 3100
 
Percentages aside, it has to do with statistical significance. In any survey, it matters whether you poll 10 samples or 10 million samples. Also matters is how the samples are taken. Apparently the CR statisticans only had enough samples to determine that a difference of less than 4 points was not meaningful. Yes, the number in each group IS important, if you want the statistics to have meaning.

--mamallama
Bob Blount said:
All date is in percentages not numbers of cameras repaired or
serious porblems not repaired. So the number in each group is not
important. CR will not report data on a brand if they do not have
an acceptable number of replies to make the data meaningful. They
accept no advertising so own no one any allegiance.

Computer magazine are very good to Dell in product ratings since
Dell is their single larges advertiser in PC Mag and PC World to
which I subscribe.

--
Bob,
Great Pro1 !
Wife's Nikon 3100
Click to expand...
 
mamallama said:
Percentages aside, it has to do with statistical significance. In
any survey, it matters whether you poll 10 samples or 10 million
samples. Also matters is how the samples are taken. Apparently the
CR statisticans only had enough samples to determine that a
difference of less than 4 points was not meaningful. Yes, the
number in each group IS important, if you want the statistics to
have meaning.
Click to expand...
You could probably estimate how many cameras were in the (smaller) samples by the margin of error stated (4%) The distribution is a very simple one - either a camera had a problem or it didn't. Once upon a time I should have been able to do this math, but not this evening. Or you could trust Consumer Report's statisticians and not worry too much about the details.

CR's methodology is to send polls to its readers from time to time, asking "do you own any of the following?" (lots of check boxes) "What year did you buy it?" along with the questions about problems and repairs. They surveys are bland with no obvious brand bias, and they use the ones that get returned. If you have more than one of the items they ask about, they usually ask you to answer based on the newest one.
 
Bob,

I owned Sony P9, W1 and Canon G6, S2. The W1 and the S2 have had repair performed. So in my case, it is 50% for both brands.

Daniel.
 
mamallama said:
if differences less than 4 points are not meaninful as CR says.
For example the top 8 are considered the same. And the last 5 are
equal. Some in the middle are indistinguisable, being less that 4
points apart.
Click to expand...
The list Bob provided are not POINTS but PERCENTAGES based on those points.

The 4 points reference is based on the original numbers used in the survey to create the percentages. One percentage contains a range of actual numbers (at minimum a .4 range). For most people (other than those obsessed with statistics), the 4 points aren't of much importance. This is all based on my memory of statistics class from years gone by, so there will certainly be others here who can provide a much more detailed and accurate explanation.
 
because now we have to guess what the mysterious points are. My guess, based on my experience with statistics and polls: One point is one percent as in percentage "points".

--mamallama
Toedtoes said:
mamallama said:
if differences less than 4 points are not meaninful as CR says.
For example the top 8 are considered the same. And the last 5 are
equal. Some in the middle are indistinguisable, being less that 4
points apart.
Click to expand...
The list Bob provided are not POINTS but PERCENTAGES based on those
points.

The 4 points reference is based on the original numbers used in the
survey to create the percentages. One percentage contains a range
of actual numbers (at minimum a .4 range). For most people (other
than those obsessed with statistics), the 4 points aren't of much
importance. This is all based on my memory of statistics class
from years gone by, so there will certainly be others here who can
provide a much more detailed and accurate explanation.
Click to expand...
 
Ignore the comment regarding the 4 points. It does not refer to percentage points, it refers to the original numbers in the sample. It's part of the statistician's formula in calculating the results - similar to when you hear "+ - 5% error rate".

For the purposes of this survey, the important information is that of the 13 brands identified, they all had a repair/serious problem rate of 10% or less. Of those 13 brands, Vivitar had the worst rating at 10%, 4 had a rate of 6% (Nikon was one), 4 had a rate of 5% or less (Canon and Olympus were equal in this range at 5%), and Sony had the best rating at 3%.

While knowing the exact number of cameras surveyed would be interesting, I have faith that CR has used a large enough base to ensure accuracy.
 
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