Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I began subscribing to Photographers Forum magazine some time ago because I wanted to read the interviews by Ken Lassiter with people like the late Sal diMarco, more recently Ted Grant etc. Those interviews are definitely the highlight of every issue. I just received the Spring 2006 issue, which is as usual graced by one of Ken's long interviews, this time with French photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont. But as good as Ken's pieces are, the equipment articles are equally awful. There is a "what's new" section which, because of the production cycle of the magazine, is usually several months out of date. Worse, in this issue there is a 2-page article on Olympus DSLRs by a Rosalind Smith, described as a painter and writer from Newton, MA. The piece reads like an advertorial for Olympus, except that it is so badly written that I doubt Olympus actually reviewed it. It is basically an ode to the E500. To give you a flavour, here are a couple of quotes: "What's cool in the E-500 is that because of advanced features like the RGB histogram, pros and advanced amateurs will now want to add this camera to their 'must have' list." "Another handy feature is that the Olympus firmware is upgradeable online without taking the camera in for service." "As for lenses, Olympus is known for its Zeiko optics..." (the article consistently calls the lenses Zeiko instead of Zuiko--perhaps the author was looking at her watch while writing it...) I have yet to see a digital SLR without a histogram or one on which the firmware is not upgradeable by the user. This is simply one of the worst articles I have read in the past year, anywhere! If Ken is reading this, here is a suggestion: focus the magazine on photographers and photography, forget equipment. If additional revenue is needed, raise the price of the mag or try to sell more advertising, but please spare the reader from articles like this one. Nathan -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands SUPPORT FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUY DANISH PRODUCTS! General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog