Camera Labs

Hi,

I absolutely 2nd Tomis, i am so new to this and i really learnt alot browsing through CL!! Kudos /great job CL/Gordon!

Terry

I really like Gordon's reviews and tips. Them being unbiased really helps first time DSLR buyers like me.

"to prove that I'll just wiggle my fingers in front of the lens"

Just out of interest Gordon, if you were to become completely uninvolved with cameralabs, and weren't testing cameras, what would you spend your money on for a personal dslr?

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Canon 50d, 50mm f/1.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO, Sigma 10-20mm, Lowepro backpack, Velbon tripod, Manfrotto 679 monopod, Hoya filters

www.flickr.com/amr276
Comment and help me learn!

Hah, nice try, but you won't get me to side on a particular brand!

To be honest, I would base the decision on the lenses I needed at the time.

Gordon uses pinholes exclusively.....

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Some say he uses pinhole sunglasses.

I've always found Gordon a wee bit pro-Canon (e.g. in the S95 LX5 comparison he gives the edge to Canon, which I think is a stretch). I think it's a small, unconscious bias, and it certainly didn't seem to affect his comparison of the 60D and D7000. There are also sound historical reasons to be pro Canon, especially in the point-and-shoot market.

My biggest problem with the reviews is the "value" part, because the camera is what it is independent of its SRP, and it's up -- or should be up -- to the buyer to pick based on the deals available at the time, not the price at the time of the review.

I often think Gordon tries to give similar/identical percentage scores to directly matched cameras (usually, all the top cameras in a given category have scores within 1% of each other) and uses value as a kludge to even out the scores.

You can read what you like into the reviews, but believe me, I'm not biased toward any system. When you've used them all for the best part of 20 years in a journalistic environment, any preference is soon lost.

As for the scores, they are just basic guidelines and the value figure is based on the launch RRP - just a snapshot, nothing more. As I always say, please read the whole review.

I can certainly understand Gordon being brand-neutral. I just took two classes from a well-known photographer in his field of crime scene photography, and he was able to name major features he liked best in cameras from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Sony, saying each had at least one thing they did better than their rivals. This instructor's personal most-used DSLR is a Canon 40D. He is issued a 50D, with its kit lens, at work. His large-format personal film camera is a Mamiya. He mentioned one particular high-tech feature, which I don't exactly recall, and he said the first company to put that into a DSLR will be his next purchase. I can tell he hopes it is Canon, but if not, he is not stuck on a brand.