11 April 2010
Words II
12/04/10 16:55
Cameras, equipment and software are now performing on such a high level and with so many common features and characteristics that is is difficult to make a choice that suits your needs and emotions. Equipment reviews now excel in meaningless jargon that evades the clear language we need to make rational and reasonable choices. Below is an example of an actual review by the well-known Dpreview team.
Conclusion Snippet: Despite our (very minor) complaints, the EOS 550D is a very satisfying camera, and certainly offers the most compelling feature set of any nominally ‘entry level’ DSLR that we’ve used. It isn’t just about spec though – the 550D’s refined handling and excellent supplied software suite should not be overlooked. Although it doesn’t represent a huge improvement over the 500D, the changes that have been made are worthwhile, and well-implemented. An external mic socket, manual control and wide choice of resolutions and frame rates means that the 550D is worthy of consideration for serious video use, and when paired with a high quality lens, image quality is superb.
With all this taken into account, it is hard not to recommend the EOS 550D. Quite simply, taken as a whole, it is the best camera of its class that we’ve ever seen, and one of those rare cameras that won’t look out of date in a couple of years’ time.
When reading this text superficially it seems to give you a balanced and expert opinion. The conclusion: buy the EOS 550.
But is this text really informative. First a little game. Below is the same text, but with EOS 550 replaced by EOS 7D.
Conclusion Snippet: Despite our (very minor) complaints, the EOS 7D is a very satisfying camera, and certainly offers the most compelling feature set of any nominally ‘professional level’ DSLR that we’ve used. It isn’t just about spec though – the EOS 7D’s refined handling and excellent supplied software suite should not be overlooked. Although it doesn’t represent a huge improvement over the EOS 50, the changes that have been made are worthwhile, and well-implemented. An external mic socket, manual control and wide choice of resolutions and frame rates means that the EOS 7D is worthy of consideration for serious video use, and when paired with a high quality lens, image quality is superb.
With all this taken into account, it is hard not to recommend the EOS 7D. Quite simply, taken as a whole, it is the best camera of its class that we’ve ever seen, and one of those rare cameras that won’t look out of date in a couple of years’ time.
With the camera 1D MkIV in the text, the conclusion is still valid, as are all remarks. You could insert Nikon D3x or whatever camera you like and the text still sounds informative. Let us now comment the original sentences.
Despite our (very minor) complaints (is there any camera where you cannot have complaints about? Would it not be more informative to relate complaints to real photographic needs?) , the EOS 550D is a very satisfying camera (satisfying to whom and in what sense?), and certainly offers the most compelling feature set (fascinating and irresistible to what kind of person?) of any nominally ‘entry level’ DSLR that we’ve used. It isn’t just about spec though – the 550D’s refined handling and excellent supplied software suite should not be overlooked (what is meant by ‘refined’ and ‘excellent’ and why should you not overlook it? Most cameras are refined and excellent!). Although it doesn’t represent a huge improvement over the 500D (what must an improvement be to become ‘huge’?), the changes that have been made are worthwhile (for whom and why?), and well-implemented (please explain!) . An external mic socket, manual control and wide choice of resolutions and frame rates means that the 550D is worthy of consideration for serious video use, and when paired with a high quality lens, image quality is superb (that is a big claim: ‘superb image quality’ is not easy to stumble across, but maybe the reviewer has a different normative idea about what is superb and excellent and very good and so on) .
With all this taken into account, it is hard not to recommend the EOS 550D. (Any camera can be recommended on this list of comments!) Quite simply, taken as a whole (can you take the camera as a part?), it is the best camera of its class (define ‘class’ quite narrowly and every camera is the best of class) that we’ve ever seen, and one of those rare cameras that won’t look out of date in a couple of years’ time (‘rare’? what modern camera has looks that are outdated in a few years?.
All in all then the above text is a good example of non-information disguised as an expert opinion. We must face this truth: companies that sell photographic equipment have very often outsourced their marketing efforts to public relation companies that do know how to set up a marketing campaign but do not know anything about photography. I know from the experience I have with the Dutch magazine I wrote articles for, that marketing people give advertising money to those magazines where the articles are favorable for the product/company that is being advertised. There is a simple rule: the marketing person reads the article and counts the number of negative and positive remarks. The decision to advertise again depends on this ratio.
The equipment reviewers are not to be envied to say the least: camera development tends to create products that represent the common denominator of buyer wishes and most differences between camera types are small or only qualitative of character. Camera/lens reviews now have more in common with book or movie reviews than with technical assessments. The review cited above dwells on the look of the camera, the feature set and the fact that is an improvement compared to the predecessor and other competitors in the same class. There is one remark about the superb quality, but is the superb quality in the entry-level class the same as the superb quality in the professional class or the advanced user class?
There is not one single remark about the practical photographic experience and the real photographic results that are possible. Perhaps cameras are now so similar that it is impossible to make a review that defines the type of users that can benefit from the purchase of this camera. After all: book reviews and movie reviews try to inform the reader of the review of a particular book or movie what to expect from the novel or movie and for what type of reader the book or viewer of the movie can be a pleasant experience.
We seem to live in an information-saturated society, but the amount of non-information is increasing exponentially.
Conclusion Snippet: Despite our (very minor) complaints, the EOS 550D is a very satisfying camera, and certainly offers the most compelling feature set of any nominally ‘entry level’ DSLR that we’ve used. It isn’t just about spec though – the 550D’s refined handling and excellent supplied software suite should not be overlooked. Although it doesn’t represent a huge improvement over the 500D, the changes that have been made are worthwhile, and well-implemented. An external mic socket, manual control and wide choice of resolutions and frame rates means that the 550D is worthy of consideration for serious video use, and when paired with a high quality lens, image quality is superb.
With all this taken into account, it is hard not to recommend the EOS 550D. Quite simply, taken as a whole, it is the best camera of its class that we’ve ever seen, and one of those rare cameras that won’t look out of date in a couple of years’ time.
When reading this text superficially it seems to give you a balanced and expert opinion. The conclusion: buy the EOS 550.
But is this text really informative. First a little game. Below is the same text, but with EOS 550 replaced by EOS 7D.
Conclusion Snippet: Despite our (very minor) complaints, the EOS 7D is a very satisfying camera, and certainly offers the most compelling feature set of any nominally ‘professional level’ DSLR that we’ve used. It isn’t just about spec though – the EOS 7D’s refined handling and excellent supplied software suite should not be overlooked. Although it doesn’t represent a huge improvement over the EOS 50, the changes that have been made are worthwhile, and well-implemented. An external mic socket, manual control and wide choice of resolutions and frame rates means that the EOS 7D is worthy of consideration for serious video use, and when paired with a high quality lens, image quality is superb.
With all this taken into account, it is hard not to recommend the EOS 7D. Quite simply, taken as a whole, it is the best camera of its class that we’ve ever seen, and one of those rare cameras that won’t look out of date in a couple of years’ time.
With the camera 1D MkIV in the text, the conclusion is still valid, as are all remarks. You could insert Nikon D3x or whatever camera you like and the text still sounds informative. Let us now comment the original sentences.
Despite our (very minor) complaints (is there any camera where you cannot have complaints about? Would it not be more informative to relate complaints to real photographic needs?) , the EOS 550D is a very satisfying camera (satisfying to whom and in what sense?), and certainly offers the most compelling feature set (fascinating and irresistible to what kind of person?) of any nominally ‘entry level’ DSLR that we’ve used. It isn’t just about spec though – the 550D’s refined handling and excellent supplied software suite should not be overlooked (what is meant by ‘refined’ and ‘excellent’ and why should you not overlook it? Most cameras are refined and excellent!). Although it doesn’t represent a huge improvement over the 500D (what must an improvement be to become ‘huge’?), the changes that have been made are worthwhile (for whom and why?), and well-implemented (please explain!) . An external mic socket, manual control and wide choice of resolutions and frame rates means that the 550D is worthy of consideration for serious video use, and when paired with a high quality lens, image quality is superb (that is a big claim: ‘superb image quality’ is not easy to stumble across, but maybe the reviewer has a different normative idea about what is superb and excellent and very good and so on) .
With all this taken into account, it is hard not to recommend the EOS 550D. (Any camera can be recommended on this list of comments!) Quite simply, taken as a whole (can you take the camera as a part?), it is the best camera of its class (define ‘class’ quite narrowly and every camera is the best of class) that we’ve ever seen, and one of those rare cameras that won’t look out of date in a couple of years’ time (‘rare’? what modern camera has looks that are outdated in a few years?.
All in all then the above text is a good example of non-information disguised as an expert opinion. We must face this truth: companies that sell photographic equipment have very often outsourced their marketing efforts to public relation companies that do know how to set up a marketing campaign but do not know anything about photography. I know from the experience I have with the Dutch magazine I wrote articles for, that marketing people give advertising money to those magazines where the articles are favorable for the product/company that is being advertised. There is a simple rule: the marketing person reads the article and counts the number of negative and positive remarks. The decision to advertise again depends on this ratio.
The equipment reviewers are not to be envied to say the least: camera development tends to create products that represent the common denominator of buyer wishes and most differences between camera types are small or only qualitative of character. Camera/lens reviews now have more in common with book or movie reviews than with technical assessments. The review cited above dwells on the look of the camera, the feature set and the fact that is an improvement compared to the predecessor and other competitors in the same class. There is one remark about the superb quality, but is the superb quality in the entry-level class the same as the superb quality in the professional class or the advanced user class?
There is not one single remark about the practical photographic experience and the real photographic results that are possible. Perhaps cameras are now so similar that it is impossible to make a review that defines the type of users that can benefit from the purchase of this camera. After all: book reviews and movie reviews try to inform the reader of the review of a particular book or movie what to expect from the novel or movie and for what type of reader the book or viewer of the movie can be a pleasant experience.
We seem to live in an information-saturated society, but the amount of non-information is increasing exponentially.