Good photographers make images that are successful using the characteristics of the tools at hand, or by acquiring to tools needed to accomplish that goal. Having a thorough understanding of the unique qualities and/or limitations of those tools is essential in producing "good" photographs. Just saying it's "talent" oversimplifies what is a complex mix of knowledge, skill, and inspiration.

Almost all reviews come down to opinion (with the exception maybe of DXOmark if you consider that a review), some are just more methodical in their construction of that opinion. One must always be aware of this when considering a particular reviewer's "verdict". However, there is great value in opinion as long as you consider how that opinion was formulated.

If this is the "real world" then I'm getting off... Just a little too freaky for me!

(Aside: Do you think they actually comb the mannequin's hair before they shoot? ...totally creeps me out!!!)

As some of you may know, I am new to camera, when I was wildly researching reviews all over the web for camera purchase I came across his site.

At the beginning, I was completely wowed and impressed with the all round coverage of Steve Huff's site, and attracted to the repeatedly used term of "real world camera review"....

However, as I begin to understand and know more about cameras, I am seeing Steve Huff as more and more of a "con man"....I know this sounds like a pretty harsh word to use. He reminds me of a local car accessories owner who wowed everyone with charisma and charm,...with plenty of fans chanting their devotion to him all over the internet forum....just like what Steve's fans are doing.

I am going to quote several examples of Steve Huff's articles that made me change my mind completely -

1. There's one review of Leica (can't remember model) name, but it is a camera based on Panasonic LX5... He called this Leica & Panasonic good value when compared against another camera....
Even though the Leica is much more expensive than Panny LX5, which is practically similar hardware....
That is silly just because it carries Leica name.

2. His love and devotion for OMD EM5 which resulted him in putting in biased comparison tests against X-Pro1 and NEX-7 in low light.
In one of the comparisons, the picture showed OMD EM5 with much clearer and sharper picture in low light. This is gonna be misleading to alot of readers, especially the newbies.
When I written there and questioned the credibility of the review because X-Pro1 did badly is not because of poor low light performance, it is because of poor auto focusing in low light. It was a shot taken with mis-focus.

What Steve replied in the comments section? He immediately accussed me of being Fuji owner who naturally defends Fuji brand.

I replied back and stated I am Panny GX1 owner who loves MU43 format, and love to have EM5 but ended up buying GX1 due to budget reasons.
I told him in the reply that for such comparisons, he should get the optimum performance from each camera, and state a remark that XPro1 is hard to achieve this in "real world" due to poor focusing to avoid misleading readers.

Guess what,...he never replied since.


You see, this guy Steve even before EM5 is launched, he had already branded this camera as the future king of MU43 format,...he is aggressively hype-ing the camera up, we all know he loves compact size range finder design,...and he loves Olympus.


3. More continuous posts to hype up EM5,...there is one taken in low light with lots of shadow in one of outdoor shots, then Steve used post processing to bring out the shadow details in the photo to praise the camera's ability. But come on, we all know you can put nearly any camera's photo's shadow and bring it out in post processing, and most people will be impressed with the result.

Don't misunderstand me, I personally thought EM5 is a great camera and recommended it to my friend (if her budget permits),...what I disliked is biased review and blind ******ism.

4. Steve's continuous Leica worshipping.
The worst example he gave was a comparison of two BW baby shots, one taken with NEX (5N if i remember) and the other with Leica M9.
NEX shot was a different picture
M9 shot was a different picture at different angle with very shallow DOF.

Then Steve called sometimes camera do matter in that article when comparing the shots, and said something like,...at certain times a camera like Leica will give you the look that the NEX cannot achieve..

This is complete nonsense when using totally different shot for comparison

You have to take all this with a grain of salt. These guys are trying to make a living on the new web 2.0 frontier. Most aren't really photographers or even qualified testers or reviewers just enthusiasts with something to say and they have created a good audience and advertisers. Some of what they say is true but much is just opinion.

Everything needs to be taken in context, I would not rely solely on any one but if several of these reviewers have similar praise or problems with a product then it is worth taking note.

I love reading and watching all kinds of things about photography online. I subscribe to lots of youtube channels, read several blogs,I check Facebook and Google plus and some of my favorite forums like mu-43, fredmiranda.com, dpreview.com and get dpi.com as well as a few others.

Lately I have been enjoying reading mingthein.com he has a really good blog, has integrity and is into m4/3 as well as Nikon and Leica. As a matter of fact he has a really interesting blog post today on the current state of the photo industry.

Check it out if you have a time:
Ming Thein | Photographer

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some of my photos here:
http://500px.com/lisaosta
http://www.flickr.com/photos/losta
http://gplus.to/LisaOsta

Lisa,

Agree with you that we have to use our own judgement and look at various reviews to draw our conclusion on certain product.

I have just briefly gone through Ming Thein's blog, yeah, seems like a no-nonsense bloke who writes well, straight to the point, and covers everything very well about the subject he writes, very analytical person.
And like you say,...seems to be credible.
Thanks for highlighting this to me.
If anything, this is the type of blog and reviews or write ups that I would love to follow.

And yes,....I happen to be from the same country as Ming
but from a different state.

I love what he writes about "Today's state of photography", especially about the self proclaimed professional photographers,....yes,...there are plenty of those in this country, a few of them I know personally.
If a newbie and a mediocre photographer like me is allowed to criticize,.... let me tell you this, their work and photos are simply horrible.
One of them "specializes" in shooting girl photography,...using a Full Frame camera..... What I see is poor colour, uninspiring post processing,...all the time same boring model post,.... poor background choice.... all the usual shallow Depth of Field thing,...posting the uglier angle of the model...and so on.
And they have the courage to leave watermark in their Facebook photo.

I also do post some pictures on facebook (for pleasure and sharing rather than promoting),....and I swear I would never leave a watermark of my name on the photo with the current quality of image that I have....it would be very embarassing.
I do not know if I will ever improve to a level that gives me confidence to do things such as leaving watermarks on my own photos.

Bob you make a very good point.

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 Silver & Black Olympus 45mm F1.8, Olympus 12-50mm F 3.5-5.6, Nikon G Adapter, IMADO MC 135 mm F/2.8 AIS lens, Tokina 28mm f 2.8 Nikon AI lens

Even a newbie will get that perfect shot every once and while. When posting any of your work on the web its always wise to put a copyright logo on them.

You never know when some graphics person will need it for a project.

W.

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 Silver & Black Olympus 45mm F1.8, Olympus 12-50mm F 3.5-5.6, Nikon G Adapter, IMADO MC 135 mm F/2.8 AIS lens, Tokina 28mm f 2.8 Nikon AI lens