John_A_G wrote:
Jeff - exactly why photography magazine reviews have been completely useless for years. Every piece of gear is great. Price is usually the only thing they attack.
This is essentially why - for household products - people love Consumer Reports. They don't have advertising and they don't rely on free demos from companies. While I recognize DPR cannot go that route - this route really hits their credibility.
And, for those of you who don't know - I'm a Canon guy, not a Pentax guy. So, I am not part of the "DPR is out to get Pentax" club. I just believe that any corporation that relies on income from the products they review has a perception problem. Simon's response doesn't reflect real human behavior. His response is basically - "you should trust our integrity because we say so". In general, I think they do a decent job on reviews - I really do. I don't think they are biased toward one brand or another - at least not beyond whatever biases we as humans develop. But, when you start bringing sales and profits into things - that changes matters. SALES divisions drive companies. Again, just my opinion.
Unfortunately, John, Consumer Reports is BY FAR the most useless waste of tree pulp every printed since the Gutenburg Bible. Why do I say that? Well, perhaps it's for the very reason they claim they have no ability to be swayed by conflict of interest: the fact that they accept no advertisements and that they accept no free samples for reviews, but BUY whatever they review directly through the retail chain, just like a consumer would...
Maybe that's why I've consistently found through the years, on the several occasions I've decided to try a subscription to them again, that they choose to review only a limited number of brands in any particular product category, and then only a limited number of products throughout those brand lines. And they don't come around with a second round on those products to catch up the ones they missed -- at least not until the next year -- at which point they generally do the same thing all over again. I've seen this consistently with with all variety of consumer electronics, from HDTVs, to cameras to stereo equipment. In 2006, when I was looking into buying my first HDTV, they didn't even have the brand I was considering listed -- not a single model made by that brand. Not one.
Worse yet. Since the reviewers at Consumer Reports appear to be "generalists," they tend to usually review products on criteria that are often entirely irrelevant to those of us who are really into, and familiar with, stereo equipment, or HDTV, or digital cameras. Similarly, they generally skip many criteria most of us include VITAL information. It's like they just look at these things like someone who never heard of them before and TAKE A GUESS what are the "10 most important features," and then list those, with their take on how each rates.
Consumer Reports is essentially good for one thing, and one thing only... Buying cars.
I'd MUCH rather depend on the reviews in photography magazines and places like here, and I don't care that there may be some bias due to advertising concerns that causes them to never give a really "critical" review. If you read the reviews carefully, you can still see what the downfalls are, regardless of what the final "score" is. They'll generally nitpick the bad stuff, then give kudos for the good stuff and give that more weight in the final score. You just have to know how to read reviews.
Jeff
); even though I probably won't buy from there, for no other reason than being located on another continent, it's good to hear that.