Amateur Photographer & What Digital Camera: About the 'User Reviews' forum

Welcome to the new forum 'User Reviews' board. We thought it might be good to have a single board where members could post their own reviews of photographic kit that they have come to know through regular and extended use.

More or less anything associated with photography could be reviewed here, from camera bodies down to basic accessories. Got a favourite lens? Tell us what you think of it here. Or how about that new raw converter you've been trying out? Whatever it is, this is the place to share your experiences with the members of the forum. Sometimes other kit that is not explicitly associated with photography is nevertheless commonly used by photographers, and that can be reviewed here too. For example, wildlife enthusiasts might be interested in sharing details of binoculars and scopes, or landscapists might review portable GPS units, or whatever.

No other threads should be started in this board, unless they are, for example, admin threads started by the moderators. Please use the Q&A thread for queries about the use of the board.

Posting a Review

In order to make the reviews easy to browse the subject lines should follow a fixed pattern: first the category of equipment that is being reviewed (see the list below), then the manufacturer's name, and finally the model or other product name.

Equipment categories are as follows (we might add to it in time, if necessary):

A. Digital Camera
B. Film Camera
C. Lens
D. Accessory
E. Software
F. Film
G. Digital Printing Equipment or Media
H. Darkroom Equipment or Media
I. Services
J. Courses and Workshops
K. Other

For example, your subject line could be something like,

A. Digital Camera - Pentax - K20D,

or,

C. Lens - Olympus - ED 12-60mm.

Etc.

Please don't forget to put the fullstop after the category letter.

Please note that the initial letter identifying the category is important for being able to order the reviews by category, so please don't leave it out.

After that you have the freedom to review your kit as you wish. You may include pictures illustrating your review, if relevant, but please keep to the usual forum image posting rules. If you are reviewing something that is of restricted use - for example lenses that are only available in certain mounts - it would be helpful to include details at the top of the review, at least if it's not already obvious. Please do not include lengthy lists of specifications, though discussion of things like weight, size, or particular features might obviously form part of the review. A link to the relevant page of a manufacturer's web site would be appropriate.

Browsing the Reviews

As with the rest of these forums, you can browse in various different ways. If you simply want to be able to read reviews as and when they are added, clicking on the 'Posted on' column header will put threads in chronological order of the most recent post. A second click will reverse the order, making it easier to find older reviews. On the other hand, to browse by category click on the 'Subject' column header - that should put all the reviews into category order. Within each category reviews should then be ordered by manufacturer, and so on. Again a second click will reverse the order if you want to find something nearer the bottom of the category list.

You may comment on review threads as with any other thread, but please do not go off topic - keep your comments to relevant discussion or questions about the review, or matters directly arising from it.

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Huw Evans.

Amateur Photographer Magazine

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