The eleventh installment of the One Minute Rant. Each audio is one minute or less and focuses on a very specific topic to engage readers here on the FR to comment and start a dialogue! Just click on the RANT logo to listen.
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Figital Revolution 
Agreed, but this has been done before in print. Stereophile releases its Recommended Components issue each year which is just a rehashing of their own reviews within the past year. Filler. For the blogs who are doing this today it generates traffic, and to drag it out over ten days is smart marketing.
Good point- its been done in print to death. It may drive traffic and be smart marketing on their parts, but from a discerning reader’s point of view it’s crap and not content!
Viva la Revolution-
Stephen
You got me thinking, though. Perhaps we need other “top 10” lists… 10 things I learned this year about photography or about my own work, 10 pictures I found and loved, etc… more content and inspiration rather than gear talk…
I agree. I have an “offer” to make here on the FR when we hit 250,000 hits (next month it seems like) that is along this line.
Cheers-
Stephen
Another reason I’m happy to be a mostly film photographer, making my buying decisions years after the hype over a particular piece of gear or outfit has blown over.
Funny how the magazine headlines now are the same as the ones from 20 years ago: This Year’s Hottest New Cameras, bla, bla, bla, or a promise of a big knock-down compairson between rigs that too often turns out to be … inconclusive.
These top ten lists do have a certain use for me. As a film shooter, Digital SLRs have not yet gotten to the point where I feel that the quality to cost ratio justifies the purchase of such a camera, and I think that day is still three or four years away. Digital point and shoots only got to that point a couple of years ago, and I expect a lot more from an SLR than a point and shoot. Since I do not follow advances in DSLR technology very closely, and since I read very few if any photography magazines any more, the year end top ten roundup issues are the one issue a year I buy, to keep me apprised of the advances of the last year. I appreciate the side-by side comparisons of the various features, but I can tell that I would be sick to death of it all if I followed these various magazines monthly. Yes, there is a certain advertising aspect to it, but these are commercial products, and since one would not expect a widgets company to sponsor a blog or magazine about sprockets, it stands to reason that photography equipment companies would sponsor photography equipment blogs and magazines. As long as the source is being objective in answering the ubiquitous “which camera” question, and not simply pandering to their advertisers, I have no problem with that. If I were to find out that a blogger or magazine editor was being bribed or pressured in to fudging their opinions, I would vote with my feet and my five to ten dollar a year photo magazine budget (not counting B&W and Communication Arts), and go elsewhere for my information. With all of that said, I do realize that the usefulness of these lists is fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and I agree that the market is definitely supersaturated with such comparisons.
My favorite camera right now is a Canon A35F. It is a fixed lens rangefinder from 79′. I do have a digital SLR and film SLRs. But, I am getting growing fond of my olympus Stylus Epic, even if it does make a little noise.
I’m sure if honesty were to prevail then camera mags would get to a point when they publish the “Top 10 Camera ad’s” of the year in their journals, I’m getting fed up when my favourite mag here in the UK – the respected Amateur Photographer barely even covers the subject of photography each week any more in favour of constant new digital camera reviews …. and when they run out of new digital cameras to review what do they then publish? Why comparisons and stand off tests of all these models that they have only just reviewed a matter of weeks previously!
Arrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
I want to learn, not buy and support the likes of Canon & Nikon! It’s so refreshing to find sites like Figital Revolution or the much maligned Ken Rockwell’s site – Even Ken’s got fed up of it all, switched to Leica M series and done countless lens reviews of gear that’s not been on sale new for decades. Praise be to you both and all others that follow your lead!
Excellent post. This is excellent stuff!!
Thanks for this blog. I like what I read. I wish more blogs were like this. Thank you.