Product reviews!

[Sidebyte]

It's amusing and also amazing to read the reviews (cameras PC's etc.) of new products introduced into the marketplace. Invariably the reviewers claiming unbiased opinions are in fact highly biased. I'm sure much of this is a result of not "biting the hand that feeds you" syndrome. My gripe in reading the reviews from years past to the present offer little actual help to consumers and potential buyers......if they stuck strictly to the specs. of course, their dissertations would be flat and colorless but at least honest. I am amused by the plaudits heaped on a new item, thoroughly discounting the former models that two years in the past they lauded with equal plaudits but now it turns into a P.O.S. in comparison. I have to discount their opinions because the older item is NOT reduced in function or usefulness by the new one....true the new one might be better than "sliced bread" but it doesn't detract from the usefulness of a previously fine instrument...it's still a fine instrument and equally as capable as it ever was.
With this in mind, I have to thoroughly discount reviews on new equipment other than the facts and specs., they speak for themselves. I few of the notable writers that are craftmen themselves write a comprehensive review based upon actual results without embellishments. Like photography reviews that are based entirely on the results out of the camera, sans opinions and biased opinions. I have bought a couple of cameras based upon not only the specs but also enlargements created and displyed by a specific camera, i.e. my Nikon D1H. I bought it entirely based upon the results displayed by some of the best professional photographers works. Working photographers who buy and use the equipment themselves.

[dc2]

Sometimes there appears to be more more spent on marketing products than giving customers what they really want .

[mikej]

Marketing is not about giving people what they want... it is about convincing people to buy things they don't want or need. That is why the US is a nation of full closets and garages.

Mike