Nigel Atherton
WDC Editor
Reged: 16/05/2006
Posts: 486
Loc: Ministry of Magazines, London
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As part of our annual awards feature we're asking for your nominations for the best cameras and accessories of the year. Categories include compacts, DSLRs, lenses, accessories, printers, and software.
You can cast your vote in any or all categories, but please state (in one or two sentences) the reasons for your choice(s). Thanks
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Barney
Baht 'at
Reged: 16/12/2005
Posts: 11487
Loc: Harrogate, North Yorks
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I'm always deeply sceptical of any awards given by requesting nominations from members of the public.
As a Nikon user I have limited knowledge of the other manufacturers products and how they work in the real world. If I had just bought a D200 then, could I really nominated it if I hadn't used it side by side with an S5? Likewise, a Canon user won't know how the Nikkor 70-200mm AF-S f:2.8 fares when they nominate their Canon 70-200 lens.
I'd much rather see awards given by stringent independent testing than the man in the street.
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"Wrong on so many different levels."
Blog - Contre Dour - Capturing the ordinary for posterity.
Flickr
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Mr_E
journeyman
Reged: 25/07/2007
Posts: 60
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I totally agree and I'm glad that someone has actually raised this issue. If I am in the market for a new camera I will only take an award seriously if it is from an independent panel who were able to scientifically and objectively make a comparison of all of the competing products.
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JDCB
Bench Free Zone
Reged: 15/05/2006
Posts: 1236
Loc: On the Edge of the Fens
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Is there a category for "Best Camera System"? When I first bought an SLR, it was on the basis that it allowed me access to a system of lenses, flashes, accessories and so on. It's not such a narrow field: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Samsung, Olympus, Leica, Hasselblad, Mamiya, etc.
It may prove harder to judge in the totality but not impossible, and the results IMHO are of much more relevance to someone making a buying decision than whether any particular model of current DSLR is better than any other rival model in late 2007. Cameras come and go, and are not that important in the grand scheme of things. Systems are much more important.
James
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Nigel Atherton
WDC Editor
Reged: 16/05/2006
Posts: 486
Loc: Ministry of Magazines, London
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Perhaps I should have made clear that the WDC team are choosing the award winners in each category. I agree that public awards (such as those run by certain competitors) are pretty meaningless, since few if any of the voters have had a chance to compare rival products side by side, as we have.
But since everyone has an opinion about this we thought it would add a nice extra dimension to give over a double page spread for a vox pop of readers views too. This will immediately follow the awards pages themselves, but won't influence our decisions (which have in fact already been made). We're also planning to get some quotes from some independent dealers too.
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Barney
Baht 'at
Reged: 16/12/2005
Posts: 11487
Loc: Harrogate, North Yorks
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Ah, it was the "You can cast your vote" which confused me! 
If it's just quotes form users I've not bought anything that has been released this year. All my kit tends to have been out a few years now and even my next purchased lined up the Nikkor AF-S 70-200 f:2.8 has been out for a while now.
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"Wrong on so many different levels."
Blog - Contre Dour - Capturing the ordinary for posterity.
Flickr
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El Sid
Going potty
Reged: 14/04/2003
Posts: 10755
Loc: Sussex-by-the-Sea
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I'd nominate the Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 zoom in the lens category.
Since purchasing this lens I have been consistently amazed by the performance and quality it delivers. There are better lenses on the market but I'm not sure that they deliver quite so much for such modest cost.
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Nigel
Completely BSRIPN 
ElSid Gallery
Terrorist?............or potential photographer?....... 
There are no people more opressed than those who willingly opress themselves
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Dave_Cox
old'n'grumpy
Reged: 12/07/2006
Posts: 4366
Loc: The back end of nowhere!
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K10d - just for the way that I've been able to match digital imaging with my personal style of photography
.
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Growing old disgracefully!
http://snapper56.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave2006/
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john_g
Pooh-bah Hoo-ha
Reged: 09/05/2007
Posts: 3213
Loc: Surrey
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I'd vote for the Samsung GX-10 twin lens dSLR kit. The Pentax version of the camera has won awards but the Samsung is every bit as good, is cheaper and comes with a two year warranty.
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John
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_gass
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bagpuss
Sporadic Pam
Reged: 08/04/2006
Posts: 9330
Loc: Camulodunum
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Well, I'm voting for my Fujifilm S5 Pro - very user friendly, solidly built, great flexibility thanks to its different "film" modes. Its dynamic range is its star feature though; capable of producing superb monochrome images - which is not always easy with digital.
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 Ooooooo eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oooooooooooooooooooooooooo
In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move.
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Nigel Atherton
WDC Editor
Reged: 16/05/2006
Posts: 486
Loc: Ministry of Magazines, London
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The S5 Pro is our 'Hot or Not' camera next month. Could we get a slightly longer quote from you on what's good and not so good about this camera? Do you have a web gallery of images taken with the S5 Pro that we could look at?
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PapaLazarou
Mr Joyful
Reged: 04/01/2006
Posts: 206
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I also second this, I think there is a danger that if somebody -particularly enthusiasts or non-pros- have spent a lot of money on a bit of kit then they aren't going to be as open to the idea that they bought the wrong thing or it isn't that good.
The number of folk who say the canon 18-55 kit lens isn't really all that bad is a case in point.
To be a total hypocrite, I bought the sigma 70mm macro this year and without any lab testing or group testing I'm very happy with it.
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john_g
Pooh-bah Hoo-ha
Reged: 09/05/2007
Posts: 3213
Loc: Surrey
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Quote:
I also second this, I think there is a danger that if somebody -particularly enthusiasts or non-pros- have spent a lot of money on a bit of kit then they aren't going to be as open to the idea that they bought the wrong thing or it isn't that good.
The number of folk who say the canon 18-55 kit lens isn't really all that bad is a case in point.
To be a total hypocrite, I bought the sigma 70mm macro this year and without any lab testing or group testing I'm very happy with it.
Doesn't this just perpetuate the myth that there is one 'best' camera kit? Technical testing is, of course, important but it's far from the whole story. And, even if the technical side of things were all that mattered, even then no one product would be 'best'. Consider lenses... what matters most? resolution? distortion? chromatic aberrations?
The other thing that worries me is the number of times that people here belittle the Canon lens (and, no, I don't use Canon). I've seen some great pictures taken with that lens and some lousy ones taken with 'better' Canon lenses. In my opinion it's insensitive to say things that might lead people to become disillusioned with the kit they own - we can't all upgrade on a whim and, I suspect, not many of us need to.
It's the vision and imagination of the person behind the camera that makes great pictures, not the box with the glass on the front.
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John
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_gass
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PapaLazarou
Mr Joyful
Reged: 04/01/2006
Posts: 206
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Quote:
The other thing that worries me is the number of times that people here belittle the Canon lens (and, no, I don't use Canon). I've seen some great pictures taken with that lens and some lousy ones taken with 'better' Canon lenses. In my opinion it's insensitive to say things that might lead people to become disillusioned with the kit they own - we can't all upgrade on a whim and, I suspect, not many of us need to.
The point of the thread was to get opinion on kit, my opinion as a canon user, who has this lens and formed my own opinion by using it is that it isn't very good.
I took a nice shot with it stopped down at f11 and the edges were soft with obvious barrel distortion (as some the objects were vertical, or they were in real life) I wasn't expecting great things from the lens and it didn't deliver them.
If folk don't want upset by bad reviews of kit then why bother doing them at all? We live in this namby pamby culture these days when you can't call a spade a spade anymore without fear of offending said spade.
The lens is crap crap crap for any serious use, the best advice I can give anybody thinking of buying a 400d or 40d is to go for a better lens bundle.
That is the kind of advice I would want as a buyer, not that the poor wee lens is misunterstood or came from a broken home or is okay for snapshots (if thats what they are taking then buy a compact, one presumes that if they are buying an SLR they ar buyng it for better results)
Anyway. Come back and tell me how you get on when you've used one.
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Fen
BAD WOLF
Reged: 12/03/2002
Posts: 25738
Loc: London'ish
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Quote:
The lens is crap crap crap for any serious use, the best advice I can give anybody thinking of buying a 400d or 40d is to go for a better lens bundle.
But as has been said elsewhere, some version of that lens are very good.
Being as I was converting over from another system I got the 'kit' lens with a load of other gear I at the same time and I guess that my version of the lens is a good one as I've got some cracking photos with it. No distortion, no softness, no problems as well.
But as you say... "The point of the thread was to get opinion on kit, my opinion as a canon user, who has this lens and formed my own opinion by using it"
Just because your opinion differs from mine (or others) doesn't mean that my opinion (or yours) is less worthy of being said.
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Fen .......... My Fen's AP Galleries - My Blog - My Flickr
"Apologies to right-eyed shooters. You're screwed."
- Joe Mcnally
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PapaLazarou
Mr Joyful
Reged: 04/01/2006
Posts: 206
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Quote:
But as has been said elsewhere, some version of that lens are very good.
I have the mark2 version, and it's not much cop. Might be that i have a bad example, but then there do seem to rather be a few bad examples kicking about.
Quote:
Just because your opinion differs from mine (or others) doesn't mean that my opinion (or yours) is less worthy of being said.
Thanks for your blessing. My response was to somebody who hadn't actually used the lens, I have, which I think you would have to agree makes my opinion on that specific item of kit a little more informed (worthy?)
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Fen
BAD WOLF
Reged: 12/03/2002
Posts: 25738
Loc: London'ish
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Quote:
I have the mark2 version, and it's not much cop. Might be that i have a bad example, but then there do seem to rather be a few bad examples kicking about.
No, don't agree with that.
It's like a lot of the things you read about on the web...
If someone has something bad to say about something they'll shout it from the rooftops to make sure more people can hear them.
If someone has something good to say about something, they tend to keep it to themselves.
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Fen .......... My Fen's AP Galleries - My Blog - My Flickr
"Apologies to right-eyed shooters. You're screwed."
- Joe Mcnally
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Benchista
Which Tyler
Reged: 11/08/2000
Posts: 42234
Loc: Everywhere and nowhere, baby
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Quote:
Quote:
I have the mark2 version, and it's not much cop. Might be that i have a bad example, but then there do seem to rather be a few bad examples kicking about.
No, don't agree with that.
It's like a lot of the things you read about on the web...
If someone has something bad to say about something they'll shout it from the rooftops to make sure more people can hear them.
If someone has something good to say about something, they tend to keep it to themselves.
Yup. In fact this discussion makes me think of what some Editor's saying at the back of a certain mag this month...
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Nick
www.nbrphoto.com
Light and Shade II - the new blog
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PapaLazarou
Mr Joyful
Reged: 04/01/2006
Posts: 206
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The bad reviews didn't stop me buying the kit with the lens, the performance does limit my useage of it.
Beleive it or not, I am an adult capable of forming my own opinions, I operate a camera for a living (albeit a television camera rather than a stills) maybe i'm just too fussy, maybe I have a bad example, maybe all the bad/mediocre reviews got bad examples too, maybe we are all wrong, maybe we are all liars. Maybe we've been brainwashed.
Read my posts back, you'll see that I also give praise where I feel it is due, the cheapest lens canon make (50mm f1.8) is a cracker and always has a place in my kit bag.
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Fen
BAD WOLF
Reged: 12/03/2002
Posts: 25738
Loc: London'ish
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Good Gawd...
Talk about over reacting to someone else who has an opinion - who also made a point of not saying anything against you!
I think you need to get out with the camera more and relax a little
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Fen .......... My Fen's AP Galleries - My Blog - My Flickr
"Apologies to right-eyed shooters. You're screwed."
- Joe Mcnally
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