D7000 Dust-Up

[egon4]

Hello Angela

I see after reading your initial test findings on the new D7000 you have now decided to try and justify again the very low overall rating by reducing you score on Build Quality to 3 stars !!
Now shall we be realistic, PLEASE. How can a camera with part alloy construction be given the the same score as the plastic Canon EOS 60D for Build Quality !
As to your rating on FEATURES between these two cameras. Again you seem to get carried away with the pivoting LCD screen, you get this on a Nikon D5000 if you are insistent for one. As for you raving about the in-camera rating system, so is it not better to view ones efforts on a larger computer screen rather than a 3 inch one.
What about comment on the Nikon D7000 following outstanding features :-
Viewfinder 100% coverage
150000 shutter performance (up 50000 from D90 )
2 SD card slots ( one for movies if req'd)
39 focus points (something the Canon 60D can not match )
6 frames a second ( Canon 5.3 )

Final the screen quality. Canon 60D 1040 pixols, D7000 920 pixels. Can you really see the difference in real life !!

Lets face it your Canon perference shows clearly in this totally unbalanced test.
Your reply would be greatly appreciated.

[Geoff Harris]

I'll reply on Angela's behalf.
The sun sets, the sun rises, and the day brings another accusation of Canon bias. Or Nikon bias. Or accusations from Pentax and Sony and Olympus fans that we favour Canon AND NIkon over their favourite brand. Sorry to be blunt, but really, YAWN.

I'll let Angela answer in more depth but to accuse her of Canon bias is just wrong. By all means disagree with her score or take issue with her technical points, but your bias argument is ill-considered and undermines the credibility of your otherwise well-written posting. What possible interest would I have in using a camera tester who is biased towards one brand?

Geoff Harris, Editor

[HinFrance]

Originally Posted by Geoff Harris

What possible interest would I have in using a camera tester who is biased towards one brand?

Geoff Harris, Editor

I don't meant to be rude Mr Editor, but if you actually don't know the answer to that question, then perhaps you shouldn't be working for a publishing group that sells a sister magazine dedicated to Canon users; and perhaps, although I may be wrong, of course, advertising revenue isn't important to your magazine?

The sun sets, the sun rises, commercial realities remain the same.

I'm not complaining about bias, I know and expect it to exist, I simply discount it.

Everyone has different views of the world, thankfully, and it is possible that Angela really does prefer the 60D for some unfathomable reason, despite it feeling cheap and plasticky and being a worse performer in almost every respect than its immediate competition.

Sorry egon4, get your bag of salt out and take a pinch. This is how the world works.

[egon4]

Originally Posted by Geoff Harris

I'll reply on Angela's behalf.
The sun sets, the sun rises, and the day brings another accusation of Canon bias. Or Nikon bias. Or accusations from Pentax and Sony and Olympus fans that we favour Canon AND NIkon over their favourite brand. Sorry to be blunt, but really, YAWN.

I'll let Angela answer in more depth but to accuse her of Canon bias is just wrong. By all means disagree with her score or take issue with her technical points, but your bias argument is ill-considered and undermines the credibility of your otherwise well-written posting. What possible interest would I have in using a camera tester who is biased towards one brand?

Geoff Harris, Editor

To the Editor

Thank you for your robust response and I commend your support for your colleague's opinion.
I fully understand that you have to have for commercial reasons a completely unbiased testing policy. It surely doesn't help that policy when in this case the testing can be so miscontrued otherwise.
We all have certain long standing perferences,however the scoring in this test doesn't,I feel,match the D7000's abilities and specification.

[jinky]

Nice as it is to see official responses to queries raised on here I think Hinfrance has hit the nail on the head pretty much. I make it a policy to read all reviews and note pros and cons. I then go and try out the camrea/ lens etc myself taking the flash cads / SD cards and then checking out results back on my bigger screen. You can feel the quality/ ease of use in your hand and you can see if results macth yuor expectations. If what you see is what you like yet conflicts with the reviews you can bet it is down to pixel peeping, reviewer bias or advertising impact. Just go with what you think and enjoy!

[Geoff Harris]

To reply to HinFrance's posting, yes, I work Future Publishing, who publishes PhotoPlus, a magazine for Canon SLR users.I was launch editor back in 2007.
But it's a separate magazine to Digital Camera. And anyway, to imply that Canon will only advertise in both magazines if we give their cameras high scores is simply wrong. I've been doing this job long enough to know that there will always be conspiracy theorists who won't believe me, but that's the way it is.
Canon and other makers and suppliers advertise in Digital Camera or PhotoPlus as it's a good way to reach their target audience. At no time do me or the advertising team have any discussion with Canon's media buyers about our review scores, and it's the same for all photography magazines. Period.
As I say, feel free to disagree with our scores or reviews, but I will come to the mag's defence when we get accused of bias
Geoff Harris, Editor

[Geoff Harris]

I guess I am the only one here who works on magazines (sorry if not), so I don't want to drone on about the business side of things, but what REALLY influences advertisers is circulation and response. So, suppliers, retailers and camera makers are more likely to advertise in magazines with larger circulations as they can reach more people. Simples, as the meerkats would say.

All serious magazines release their audited monthly circulations once or twice a year on the ABC website (www.abc.org.uk)

Advertisers also carefully monitor how much response they get from an advert in a particular magazine.
Both of these have much more influence over whether they book ads than what scores Angela Nicholson gave one of their cameras. So a camera mag with falling circulation and a rubbish reader-response rate will soon start to look thin on ads.

If Canon or Nikon violently disagree with one of our reviews it's nearly always the press officers who contact us, and we discuss it. I've never taken a call from the media buyers.

[greenwing]

I recall DC Mag's head-to-head of the Canon 7D and the Nikon D300s. They were declared pretty much equal, the only negative points being the Nikon's bewildering choice of RAW file formats, and the Canon's propensity to miss the correct exposure by 2 or 3 stops. Which one won the shootout, Geoff? Who reviewed them?

I laughed out loud, and bought the Nikon.

Chris

[Geoff Harris]

Crikey I can't remember, It certainly wasn't Angela. I know I took the D300s to Thailand and thought it was great but a bit of a brick. I agree that bigging the Canon up in the context you mention seems a bit remiss, but that's why we've strengthened our review team and review processes. A lots changed in the mag over the last year, hopefully for the better.

If DC Mag is such a blatant Canon rag, with such a blatant Canon bias, explain to me why Nikon, Panasonic, Sony et al don't pull all their ads and go somewhere more objective? After all, if our bias is THAT obvious why would they waste money in such a hostile media environment?

I'm going to bed, but I'm sure this one will run and run, so enjoy

(OK I confess. If you take all the quotes on the cover's spine over the last year, and put together the second and third and sixth letters for each quote, it spells WE LOVE CANON - DEATH TO EVERYONE ELSE. Bit like the hidden satanic messages if you play Led Zep IV backwards

[jinky]

LOL Geoff - I`ve been up all night looking at back copies and still cannot see that message
Hats off for replying though Geoff. Obviously feel strongly on this one and I`ve never seen so may responses from PR staff on any thread other than Amy who soldiers away on here.Nice to see the interest even in self defence and I think Geoff`s made his stance clear enough now to fade this thread.

Now back to those subliminal messages ....