Amateur Photographer Poll

I thought the result of the Amateur Photographer Magazine Poll was interesting....link

Interesting, maybe they have a larger Pentax user audience than we might have imagined

Also I see Angela Nicholson has the K-7 up against the 7D this week, should be interesting to see how close she thinks they are

I bought a copy this lunch - in short K7 got 86%, 7D got 89%. Deciding factor being noisy AF (obviously with a WR kit lens), better menu layout in 7D and better low light capability of the 7D.

Chris

Considering the cheapest 7D price body only is £1200 and the K-7 £799 I would say the Pentax did exceedingly well (as Mr Kippling would say)

Might have to pop out and buy a copy.

It's the only photo mag I buy frequently, but this issue irritated me at the beginning and the end!

Editor Damien Demoulder's piece to kick things off seems to pretty much discourage anyone from buying Pentax by implying they're slowly disppearing from view.

And on the back page Roger Hicks (always good for a read even if you disagree with him) argues that not only should you try and buy the best, but that you should try and buy it new. Rather ignores the fact that for many people, the best is only attainable at secondhand prices. And that many people with more money wouldn't buy expensive new gear if they didn't know that there was a good secondhand market.

That said, I think it is generally vastly superior to the other mags, and the comparative test with the 7D (which sadly does seem to be a rather excellent camera!) was I thought pretty fair and well-balanced.

I have only recently started buying AP again. When I started taking photos in the early 1980s AP was little more than a soft porn mag. In the few months I have been getting it there have been some excellent articles (some of the photoshop ones have been very useful and the "icons" articles on historic kit have been interesting) but some of the other things they have published have been utter tosh. One or two letters have been so incorrect I have spluttered into my tea but there they are with no editorial comment as to why they are nonsense.

I feel the "have you used a K-mount camera?" poll to be bizarre. What the hell use is that piece of information? It makes no distinction between someone who borrowed his/her mate's ME Super in 1985 for a weeks holiday and a nerd like myself with 20+ k-mount cameras kicking around his flat. Completely pointless.

Oh well. K.

Have to agree with Kris on this one. It's such a strange, uneven magazine sometimes offering some excellent articles which are exptremely well written, other times you wonder what's going on.

In theory, being a weekly mag. ought to give it a considerable edge as regards topicality and latest news, but reading it, I rarely feel this editorial advantage is fully expolited.

In a way, I think the pressure of finding something (and boy, it does often feel like "something" or even "anything") to meet the weekly deadline is too exacting.

Lots of adverts, though...

Am I being harsh?

A.

Aren't those weekly magazines all like that?
Reviewing the latest camera, most articles about Canon or Nikon orientated, some photoshop tricks and a some tips & tricks to do some shots.
And 12 months later they reuse almost the same article again to fill pages.

You should look at the monthly or longer magazines, like B&W they have 8 issues a year http://www.bandwmag.com/
Or silvershotz which come with 6 a year http://www.silvershotz.com/
They don't really do reviews or news article like in the weekly magazines but is more orientated on photography and on photographers.