I don’t believe that paying attention in journalism classes, the school newspaper, or my internships at various major publications fully prepared me for camera reviews. They gave me an idea of what I should be doing, but the truth is that it didn’t make me fully grasp the idea that I should interpret, literally, that everyone will want to be a camera reviewer. Echo chambers and social media have only made this even more of a democratic process only for it to be funnelled through what some sort of algorithm tells you to look at. Algorithms do the choosing for lots of us and cater based on personalizations. That means that they don’t give you a true full selection akin to walking into a butcher shop and picking your own slice of lamb shoulder as it stares back at you behind the refrigerated glass counter. And here’s the bigger truth, the point of a review isn’t to be unbiased. After all, you can’t spell camera without “me.”
Undoubtedly, I have a bias when I review cameras. And so does everyone else who is qualified enough to have the experience to test and use so many of them. But my biases come with honesty that doesn’t try to please a manufacturer or try to sound like what everyone else is saying. Just this past week, I’ve had multiple emails back and forth with a lens manufacturer who found our last lens review disappointing. But my experience is because I’ve been holding their latest product against all the lenses that they’ve made in the past, which I adored. Their latest product, however, appeals to a whole other audience. And to me, I look at it with the confusion that the world looks at the Marvel Cinematic Universe with after Avengers: Endgame.
The other day in a call, I realized that most of the camera reviewers on that manufacturer’s call weren’t around to even know what the Sony RX1 was. Let alone, they never used it.
At this point in my career and at 38 years old, I’ve become the old man living mid-life renaissance. Most of the media hasn’t been able to survive.
After nearly 20 years of reviewing cameras, you’re bound to have a bias. A bias means that you’re being honest instead of giving your manufactured interpretation of the truth.
And so, this short post it really to let people know that yes, the Phoblographer’s reviews are biased. It’s not just those that come from me. But the site’s output is biased because at this point, we’ve got the most experienced team around.
You can’t spell camera without me.
When we say that modern cameras are getting boring for photographers, we mean it.