What is the most reliable source for lens reviews? I checked out bythoms which I'm told is a good source but I notice that one of his reviews conflicts with every other review I've read on a particular lens. When you are looking an dropping $7K it's nice to hear what others are saying and to know whose opinion you should listen to.
Best Reviews
(9 posts) (8 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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I don't think there's a single source that's a magic bullet. Your best bet is to check out multiple sources (not just Thom, but also B&H, CNET, Amazon, et al.), paying attention to the reviews more or less in the aggregate. If something has a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews, pay extra-close attention to the outliers (the 1 and 2 star reviews). Yeah, some of these will be people complaining about the shipping turnaround or some other thing that has very little to do with performance, but sometimes you'll find useful info. If something crops up in a minor percentage of reviews, you can chalk it up to sample variations, but if 60% of the reviews mention awful chromatic aberration, or that the autofocus tends to hunt at the long end, then you know there's probably something to look out for.
Something else to keep in mind is the reviewer's skill/experience level. If, like me, you're an amateur who's still learning a lot, it helps sometimes to see what others at your skill level are experiencing so you know what you might be in for... especially since someone with less experience might not know how to do something that'd come as second nature to someone who's been doing it for far longer.
Conversely, given the amount of money you're looking to drop, the impression I get is that you've got a fair bit more experience than I do. Either that or you've got a lot of disposible income. Either way, good on you. :) So you'd probably want to take into account the opinions of someone coming from a similar place... if the good reviews are coming from more experienced photographers, maybe they see something, or are able to make something of/with the equipment that someone less capable couldn't? Or maybe it comes of having more realistic expectations of the equipment. I mean, you're not going to expect the same kind of performance from the 18-200 that you'd get from, say, a good fast prime.
But that's just my opinion. As previously mentioned, wait and see what some of the others here have to say, too. :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks for the advice folks. The B&H site was very helpful. Almost ready to take the plunge.
Posted 2 years ago # -
DPReview is pretty good.
Posted 2 years ago # -
There should b a sticky for stuff like reliable review links you know. I use many of the above and also fredmiranda dot com. But mostly I search about every forum I can find before I make the plunge, take some with a grain of salt and go from there.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Guys please do a forum search as we have a links thread. In fact we even started a wiki with links to several sites after members kept suggesting they wanted such a database but no one except Monty11, AdamZ, and myself ever contributed to the wiki and soon it was just spammed to death.
Posted 2 years ago # -
That link is REALLY useful, Niko. Is there no way to 'advertise' it, so that recent members become aware of it?
Posted 2 years ago # -
For brass-tacks, hard-nosed opinion, I've Googled and landed at sportshooter.com. Lots of pro shooters there that seem to know their gear and how it fares in real-world applications. Although not the prettiest, or most organized site around, I've found some very good, no-BS posts there that were helpful in making some purchase decisions.
Posted 2 years ago #
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