"CanNikon Review" - NOT DP Review anymore. How sad :(

[withthegrain]

The review priority based on popularity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People buy into a system based on reviews; in this case there was no Olympus review to consider when making their purchase. Next season, people who may have considered Oly had there been a review are already "in" a system, and they will then have there attention naturally drawn to the new review within their brand.

I am sympathetic to the fact that this is the high end camera and not likely a "impulse purchase". But, if such priority were given to the e620 replacement (if there were one), I would be pretty concerned.

 

[Diogopin]

If its about popularity than it brings little added value. The premise is that they are doing a controlled experiment with a standardized set of measures. This means that they claim to test cameras in a fair playing field. By adding their subjective opinions which are clearly made before the tests, they are reducing the value of their reviews. I don't think that the next time I read a review, that I will give it as much weight as I did in the past.

I think that by admitting that the E5 review was not on the priority list makes it obvious that the results of the review were decided before the camera was taken out of the box. Its like basically saying we'll test the most popular products first and then we'll look at the rest. Imagine if motor trend only reviewed Toyota, and Honda, while ignoring smaller brands like Saab. I also think that DPreview is all about popularity. They read these forums and if they see people complaining they just write the same thing.

Every review site is about "popularity" and you are kidding yourself if you don't think so.

I was obviously talking about the order the reviews are done in, not the content. Movie critics will review the blockbusters before the art house flicks, car magazines will review the corollas and civics before the ferraris and concept hybrids, and so on.

As far as the "objective" vs "subjective," I find it funny given the reaction to DXO. DXO is just electronic data from the sensor, and yet it is apparently also crap around here because it doesn't include subjective stuff like "olympus colors," "the lightness of the system" etc. etc.

 

[Diogopin]

The review priority based on popularity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People buy into a system based on reviews; in this case there was no Olympus review to consider when making their purchase. Next season, people who may have considered Oly had there been a review are already "in" a system, and they will then have there attention naturally drawn to the new review within their brand.

I am sympathetic to the fact that this is the high end camera and not likely a "impulse purchase". But, if such priority were given to the e620 replacement (if there were one), I would be pretty concerned.

Except that this isn't about brand, but about market niche. Entry level olympus cameras get reviewed just as fast as the rest.

And no one spending $1700 on a camera is doing so based on any single review.