Comments on: 5D Mark II Review – DPR

By: Aziel

Aziel — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:59:19 +0000

I don’t think it is useful at all. All they talk about is gear and engineering. Where is the actual photography? The forums are full of measurebators who complain about black dots on their highlights at max magnification rather than if anybody gives a shit about the pictures they take.

By: faca

faca — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:07:52 +0000

Again, it all depends on what your priorities are. As far as resolution goes, no compact in the market can touch the G10, and for that, you need the whole 15 MB it offers. As for the noise figures of the Pan LX3 (a great camera in itself) at ISO 800, its superiority over the G10 is, at best, subjective. And that is the ONLY reason why the G10 did not get a highly recommended rating. At 100 ISO, Luminous Landscape went as far as comparing the G10 to a medium format state-of-the-art US$40,000 camera. And you do not get a Highly Recommended rating? So you might say, what about the photographers who want to shoot at High ISO? And I say, what the photographers who need the resolution at low ISO? In everything photographic, there is a compromise, from lenses to bodies. The best at something should be recognized as such.

By: John Liu

John Liu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:06:55 +0000

I like DPR but for beginners like my wife, she finds the reviews at asia.cnet.com easier to digest. They tend to simplify terms and sprinkle examples to go along with it. Their reviews may not be in depth, but at least the reviewer knows what he is writing about. Read on his blog that he used to be a photographer and is taking some time off now.

By: Guillermo Luijk

Guillermo Luijk — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:03:45 +0000

I like to look at the Dynamic Range measurements, just to find out if finally they learnt what DR is, and how to measure it.

Unfortunately with the 5D MKII they insist in crazy figures:
- Constant DR from ISO100 up to ISO1600 of 8.4EV
- Higher DR at ISO3200! of 8.6EV

Maybe one day they learn that: Dynamic Range = Noise.

Regards.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:17:45 +0000

You are assuming that the copy of the 5DMK2 had that fault. As for “crappy AF performance”, I don’t have any problems.

By: Andrew Jennings

Andrew Jennings — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:40:11 +0000

What’s not to like? I find their reviews to be relatively unbias, and give more information than most owners manuals. Are they the no. 1 reason for my photo gear purchases? No, but they’re very informative before I make up my mind.

By: Dorkage

Dorkage — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:46:23 +0000

DPR offers a thorough review of the camera as it is in a lab setting, which is great for what it is. They can’t rightly test each camera on location for the week that would be required to find all the nuances. That’s what forums are for. Too bad the DPR forums are a troll haven.

I’d been sitting on the fence for a year before buying a 5D2 and though I’ve had Nikon equipment in the past I never felt that DPR was biased. Nearly every DSLR from the big brands gets a ‘Highly Recommended”.

The G10 review was skewed because they felt it was a poor value, if it cost $75 less they would have given it full marks. You must admit at the 800+ISO images were noisy for that $$. If the images were cleaner I would have bought one myself.

By: faca

faca — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:36:02 +0000

Frankly, over the past couple of years I have felt a definite bias pro Nikon and against Canon. Their subjective conclussions on the data that they presnet has a tendency to be more “forgiving” towards the Nikon (or even Panasonic, as of late) product and, when compared one against the other, most of the times they will give more importaance to the areas where the Canon is somewhat weaker, just to change the order of importance on the next review of a Nikon or Panasonic product, A perfect example was the G10 review.
I read their reviews and web site for the depth of info, But I always suggest to skip the conclussion.
I suggest the Luminous Landscape for reviews.

By: Hagen

Hagen — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:14:29 +0000

I like DPR but I use it in conjunction with other reviews. The other one I rely for interesting perspective and inputs is the-digital-picture.com where there are loads of lens reviews. He also has accessories and 3rd party canon-mount lens reviews.

I also go to SLRgear.com and fredandmiranda.com for the comments/reviews by owners.

And finally I ask the good folks at Henrys when I go to purchase. I usually have my preference but I’ll ask them for opinions on it and the other top 2 choices I had.

hagen

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:16:24 +0000

Amazon did buy DPR, and this allowed additional staff and reviews of lenses. However, I have not seen any change in the tone of the reviews since they were acquired by Amazon, except that they seem to be more complete. As to the 1D III, Canon tried to punish them for a poor rating on one of their cameras by witholding samples and information. They did not review the camera as a result.

Now, with Amazon Backing, Canon, Nikon, or anyone else stands to lose too much to play those games, and the manufacturers are lining up to get reviews and the exposure it brings by being on Amazon. Amazon benefits by more traffic to their site due to accurate information about the products instead of user reviews by clueless people.

When they gave a merely “recommended” review to the Canon G10, there was lots of howling, but they merely let the test data tell the story, which is what we want.

Actually, I really don’t care what their final set of numbers says, I read each test, how it was done, and decide what that means to the way I use a camera. After all, it can be fantastic for Wedding Photos but too slow for sports, or have low light sensitivity if I value that. Few cameras can do it all, at least for a low price.

By: Vignetted

Vignetted — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:13:24 +0000

The 5D markII review was very weak, did not make a mention of the problems it has encountered so far. Although it’s not meant to be a 1-series camera, we need more gutsier reviews which are willing to bare out all the cons (e.g. black dots, crappy AF performance) as well as the pros of the cameras. We also need the reviews to deliver the results in a more relevant format, leave all the graphs to the scientists, just show us more image examples to illustrate cameras/lenses performances

By: Coronita

Coronita — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:12:29 +0000

Did I say “hardcopy”?

By: Remko

Remko — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:22:00 +0000

DPreview for me is the best in-depth review material for digital cameras. No other source goes so far in comparing and testing image quality. Some of the stuff is just to detailed but hey you don’t have to read it all. And DPreview also should not be your sole source.

Of course they get previews and pre-info under non-disclosure. That’s what all brands do with press and opinionleaders. Since this is the web-age press doesn’t mean only hardcopy anymore.

By: Stark-Arts

Stark-Arts — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:19:38 +0000

Thats funny – most people believe that DPR is “nikon sponsored” more so than Canon…they never did review the 1D3’s and the lens reviews have been staggered toward Nikon as well.

The problem with any site is that the reviewers are always going to have a personal preference unless they are not photographers and are doing everything from a purely technical/scientific standpoint which unfortunately does not always “speak” to real photographers. “Feel” is a very important component in the use of and Slr – feel to me encompasses the ergonomics and the ease of use of the menus and the build as well. These are all things that are impossible to fairly compare as it is just preference…