Can you trust camera reviews?

DayDreamer

DayDreamer

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I tend to be influenced by reviews by the so called experts or the members of the public/user ones. But I feel let down in the last few days when buying a cheap small bridge type of camera for my wife.

It was (gone back and refunded now) a Nikon L120 which had loads of first class reviews but after taking a handful of test shots the IQ was nowhere near what I was expecting. In fact some of the shots were overly green and almost if the red colour hadn't been taken. An example being some red geraniums in our garden that were so so washed out and more pink/orange.

I am now upping the budget and looking at the Panasonic FZ48 but am scared to rely on the reviews unless there are better review site than the ones I have been reading?

So where would you look?
 
Perhaps try to find reviews that have a large range of sample photos (such as DPreview), and read user reviews too. Other than that just be sure to buy from a reputable retailer where you can be sure you'll have no issues sending it back if it's no what you want.

Only you can know if it's right/good enough for you.
 
Maybe reviews were done relative to the competitors in the same budget, and there is always variance and the occasional dud in large production batches?

And do you come from a DSLR photography background? Sometimes it can be very easy to forget how effortless some DSLRs make images that when we use more snapshot consumer orientated cameras, they can often disappoint.
 
You'd be as wise asking a cat on the street about a camera than look at customer reviews on most shop sites. Go to DPreview as somebody else says. At least with a pro-review you can have some degree of certainty that the person has seen more than a couple of cameras and has a fair idea what they're on about.
 
You may be expecting a bit too much which may not be helping. A £120 camera with a 21x zoom plus all the other features it probably has - it has to give somewhere.

You can usually find a group on Flickr and there is an L120 group where you get a good idea of many different images in the hands of many different users so worth looking for a Flickr group on your possible choices to see how it generally performs. (The L120 doesn't look overly impressive but again it is only £120)
 
I think reviews are like anything else you need a good cross section not just one opinion. There are a number of bias reviews out there.
 
Not a DSLR user but used to be a SLR user.

But because my X10 is so good I must be careful not to use that as a benchmark :D

I tend to look at DPreview, Steve's Digicams, Test freaks and read a few end users on Amazon. But sure will make sure I get the next one from an 'easy to return to' place. I use Amazon a lot and find their return service is superb and that's why I will use them for everything that the may sell that I need.

Looking in the likes of Comet and PCWorld is useless as the batteries are usually flat and the assistants have little interest in putting another battery in.
 
I had an FZ45 before I saw the light and was really pleased with it.

If it would help with your decision I could send you some RAW/jpeg files. PM me if you want them.

Heather
 
We had an FZ45 ( and still do) we're both really pleased with it. We call it the glovebox camera, having missed around 5 totally stunning sunsets last year on my way home from work.
 
I usualy check the web for reviews on gear and sites like this is as good a place as any too, Users dont usualy hold anything back if they think a product is not what they where expecting.
 
weybourne said:
To the original question - I certainly wouldn't trust Ken Rockwell reviews ;)
Click to expand...

lol, everything is amazing according to him!

My IXUS got excellent reviews and whilst it's a good enough camera there are a few things they never mentioned such as it's not so good if the subject is moving and if shooting HD for any length of time you start getting waves on the screen - I'm guessing from it overheating as it was roasting!

The slow motion is great though!
 
I had a few Panasonic Lumix FZ models before moving onto a dslr and can honestly recommend them. The colours were faithfully represented, the IQ was tremendous and the controls on the later models were fantastic. If I had to go back to a bridge camera I'd definitely be looking at the FZ150. Whilst it may not have the reach of some of the superzooms with mid 30's zooms like the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS and Olympus SP810UZ it does have a Leica lens and a great set of features.
 
Thank you all so much for the help & to Heather for offering to send me some jpegs. I'm OK as I have studied loads of samples on Flickr thanks.

So we took another look this morning, at Comet, and my wife likes the feel of the FZ48 so I will give it a day or two more to make sure before ordering :thumbs:
 
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