Commentary # 20 ~ June 2007
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There is No Such Thing as a Free Equipment Review

June 2008


- by Craig Wassel


Photography is in the midst of revolution, and the revolution is not just in the technology in the gear (whether film or digital), but also in the way work is presented and the way information about photography is delivered.

Whether we are passionate beginners or seasoned but still passionate professionals, the opportunities we have to get industry news, reviews, and to learn are greater than they have ever been. Yes, I am referring to the internet. With it, we now have an amazing number of very talented and knowledgeable photographers sharing with us what they have learned, and seemingly for free. The sharing ranges from film and darkroom, to the digital format, to equipment reviews, and everything in between.

Yet for some of us, it's still not enough. Some of us want a guarantee that what we are reading is 100% accurate and true, and some seem to want everything for free as well. Nowhere is this more true than when we want reviews and information about bodies and lenses.

Let me first address the accuracy issue. Some point out that the online information explosion is not good because so much of it is diluted, inaccurate, and/or provided by less than expert people. This is why you can comb through this entire site and not find any equipment reviews. Reviewing equipment is an entire subdiscipline, and simply being a photographer does not necessarily mean one is properly equipped and prepared to write meaningful and accurate reviews. Even if I were proficient at reviewing equipment, I would not do so because there are already so many other great photogs out there writing very, very good ones.

The trick is to find out who writes the good reviews instead of believing everything in the first one we find about "camera X", "lens Y", or whatever. We have to treat them like going to school. The purpose of education is not to teach us what to think, but how to think. With much reading and learning and photographing under our belts we can make good judgements about whose reviews are worthwhile.

Now let's move the to the topic of free reviews via an anecdote.

There is a particular photographer's site that I visit on a regular basis. I do so because after much reading and evaluation, I have come to respect his photographic knowledge and the value of his information. Not all of his reviews are free, though. He charges for the ones that are exhaustive and comprehensive. Last month he blogged that he recently received some not-so-friendly email from readers complaining that he charges for the comprehensive ones. I was quite annoyed when I read this, but I'm sure not as annoyed as he is when he gets such email. I was annoyed because there is a huge amount of information he provides on his site that is free, and yet he has some malcontent readers that complain about spending a few extra dollars that might help them make the right two thousand (or more) dollar investment in gear.

In reality, free reviews don't exist. That goes for the readers as well as the reviewer. For us - the readers - we have to put in the time to not only learn who provides good reviews and information, but we need to also THINK about what that information means to what we are trying to accomplish with our photography.

Most importantly, free reviews are anything but free for those who write them. As I noted above, it's not enough to be an experienced photographer to write good reviews. It takes an investment in acquiring the necessary skills, knowledge, and equipment. It takes time and money to host and maintain their websites. More importantly though, it takes hours and even days to write a good review. That means that while we may be out capturing something worthy of our portfolios or even the shot of a lifetime, an equipment reviewer may be taking generic shots and typing pages of text.

Let's bear this in mind the next time someone is kind enough to share with us for free, or even asks for compensatoin for their valuable expertise and time.

"Shoot a lot of pictures. Experiment. Don’t go out with preconceptions of what a picture will look like. That will block you from being receptive to something new and exciting."

~ Mason Resnick ~








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" . . . The trick is to find out who writes the good reviews instead of believing everything in the first one we find about "camera X", "lens Y", or whatever. We have to treat them like going to school. The purpose of education is not to teach us what to think, but how to think. With much reading and learning and photographing under our belts we can make good judgements about whose reviews are worthwhile . . . "



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