New camera, but what about the reviews?

I thought it would be nice to have a really small digital camera to carry at pretty much all times, so I have settled on the rather smart looking Pentax 750Z. Sue's S5i was a bit on the small size for me, so the 750Z seemed appealing and has a very useful 7.0MP

And I'm very please diwth it so far, the pictures are full of detail, the colour is excellent and the sharpness just about right after my usual 50% USM.

However, I read the reviews first, and if I had taken any notice of them I wouldn't have bought the camera, would I? According to dpreview and various magazines the camera is noisy, not particularly sharp and poorly put together. I just don't agree with them!

I don't know if anyone else feels that, especially digital, reviewers are very, very harsh on the cameras they are reviewing? AP, for example, only really seemed to like the Pro models and maybe the Nikon D70 (although I haven't been that impressed with any of their test pictures).

I just wonder if there are so many perameters that they just don't have the time to really test the cameras. So, if say a Pentax had a fairly soft image that sharpened up beautifully with USM, maybe they don't try that. maybe they prefer a sharp-straight-from-the-CCD model that washes out highlights, but they don't try it on a high contrast subject, and so on....

Do you take any notice of reviews? Are they fair? Are they biased against Pentax or anyone else? :

I don't think its quite a bias against Pentax - more like an obsession with Canon/Nikon.

I suspect it's the product of the "EOS era".

Pre EOS there was a "Big 5" of Canon/Nikon/Pentax/Minolta/Olympus.
In the early days of autofocus, there was EOS/Dynax with Nikon following close behind. Olympus gave up immediately and Pentax were slow to follow (the SFX).

Olympus went digital early (my first digital was a Camedia 800L) but Pentax seemed to stagnate.

Now Olympus are away on there own with the 4/3 system (and sticking to XD cars on the compacts), Minolta are too expensive with only the Dynax 7D and Pentax are overshadowed by the marketing/advertising strength of Canon/Nikon supported by fawning reviews.

Personally, although I always read the reviews (extensively!) I still rely on "hands on" for a buying decision which is why I am now a happy owner of a iST DS, and not an EOS 350D or D70.

All we can do is "keep the faith" and spread the word that there is an alternative to Canon/Nikon - and its a good one.

The problem is that Canon "sponsors" DP Review, and places a lot of ads in the photography magazines.

He who pays the piper, calls the tune.

DP Revies is a rubbishy site anyway. There's so much unimportant detail that you can't see the wood for the trees.

And why they can't review every camera with the same Tamron lens is beyond me.

G

Certainly reading some of the reviews in magazines etc, it is fairly obvious that the reviewer hasn't properly sussed out what an item can and cannot do! On a review of the *istDS, (which I don't own, but I own other Pentax equipment) even I a non-expert could see that several things were inaccurate in what the reviewer said it could/ could not do. And all this under the heading of 'Reviews you can trust'! I guess there could be the same sort of errors about equipment from other manufacturers.
Andy

Not only in reviews but also in Camera Clubs members seem to be against Pentax. When a judge says " That's good and sharp" I pipe up with "Must have been a PENTAX then " and the members groan and say "Rubbish, Canon rules".

Hi,
In these times it is the companies with huge advertising budgets who 'rule the waves'. Hence the Canon/ Nikon era. The vast majority of people just buy what they are sold.....reviewers are no diferent , hence what seem biased reviews.
I would suggest there is no bias against Pentax particularly, just against anything that is not Canon or Nikon!!!....the reviewers are just suckered in also by all the marketing hype...sad but true.
Go buy Pentax, Contax, Leica et al....that's what I do and totally ignore reviews!!!!
Cheers Steve.

At last someone else with an Pentax Optio 750z, I thought I was in the minority. I got mine last year from my partner , long story, but Pete Bargh (EPZ) had awarded me eds choice on my Starlight Shadow image. My partner who studies all the reviews thought if I could take a pic like that with a Canon Ixus II 3.2mp what could I do with a Pentax 7mp. Due to time constraints I have not been able to test the outdoors much, but with macro functions, details and colour are superb. It gets the thumbs up from me.