New Monochrom - should I bother?

[algrove]

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...sure but when you stop subscribing to his site you can't get to read again 2 or 3 year old reviews for which you paid for!  

Good point Samir. Hope Jono convinces him to change his ways-soon.

[BerndReini]

Look guys, I do appreciate that Sean doesn't advertise on his site. His reviews seem very informed and objective because of it. Think about how much you have to pay for an issue of LFI and it puts things into perspective. The one thing he does have to change is his interface. I know he is paranoid about people stealing his content, but the annoyance of that interface especially on a mobile device will make me draw the line and demonstratively quit my subscription at some point.

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[Jager]

I really like Sean and very much agree with the sentiment that it is at times like these - the announcement of a new, much-awaited camera or lens - that his site is particularly valuable.  His reviews typically go very deep.  I also think that the cost of his annual subscription is reasonable.  I've been a subscriber for many years.

 

But I also agree that his site design is among the most horrid I have ever seen.  Without even getting into the deep inconvenience of not being able to access his site on many mobile devices, even with a powerful desktop computer his user interface just plain out and out sucks.  Coming from a long IT background, I think his site is among the worst user experiences I have ever seen.

 

I know Sean periodically drops by the forum here, so hopefully he'll see these comments, and they may prompt him to bite the bullet and redesign his site.  Absent that, I'll probably let my subscription lapse, once it expires.

 

I don't use floppies anymore, either.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Jager

[Geoffrey James]

I totally respect Sean's seriousness. There is probably more than I need in his reviews. You get a huge chunk of rural and small-town Vermont thrown in for free. (Though the prints always look a little dark to my eye.) The majority of the other bloggers on Leica are simply not photographers in my book, and I usually find the images so bad or pumped up as to be totally useless. Oddly enough, the obnoxious Ken Rockwell occasionally does okay things like testing every model of 50 Cron. Basically, I am cured of GAS. At some point I will have to acquire a 50 mm lens -- the last one, I swapped with a friend for my fourth 28mm. And so it goes.

[BerndReini]

Actually the official Leica blog consistently has some of the best photographs taken with Leicas. If I want to enjoy photos I go there.

[algrove]

Curious about SD cards for the M246. At least one person comments on using slower smaller SD cards to better keep noise in check. However, most others consider the Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/sec the optimal card for M240 ans M246.

 

So any new M246 users tried out both methods yet? Let's assume the cards have been SD Formatted and then formatted in the camera. We need to know the camera settings too.

[gpwhite]

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Look guys, I do appreciate that Sean doesn't advertise on his site. His reviews seem very informed and objective because of it. Think about how much you have to pay for an issue of LFI and it puts things into perspective. The one thing he does have to change is his interface. I know he is paranoid about people stealing his content, but the annoyance of that interface especially on a mobile device will make me draw the line and demonstratively quit my subscription at some point.

 

I join the chorus of cheers for Sean Reid's reviews. He writes with the technical care that Lloyd Chambers applies and seems less opinionated to me. In fairness to Lloyd, however, Reid gets reviewer samples to work with and might be reluctant to bite the hand that strokes him.

 

Reading the posts above, I could not withhold complaining that Reid's pages use a presentation scheme that is beyond awful! He doesn't send along the silly typo's that Thorsten or Puts inflict on their readers, but using a Reid review reminds me of e-mail when AOL first started using dial-up modems. Oh my!

 

And, while I am at my whining, how Reid could publish his original 28 SX review with its comparison to a sickly 28 SM, I do not understand. You would think Wetzlar could have thrown a production 28/ 2 into the shipping box with the Big Boy. Weird!?

[jonoslack]

I join the chorus of cheers for Sean Reid's reviews. He writes with the technical care that Lloyd Chambers applies and seems less opinionated to me. In fairness to Lloyd, however, Reid gets reviewer samples to work with and might be reluctant to bite the hand that strokes him.

 

 

I talk to  Sean often, and cannot emphasise enough his integrity. He simply would never withhold anything because of worrying about the hand that feeds him. Anyway, it's his readers who feed him, not the camera manufacturers

[SiOnara]

I join the chorus of cheers for Sean Reid's reviews. He writes with the technical care that Lloyd Chambers applies and seems less opinionated to me. In fairness to Lloyd, however, Reid gets reviewer samples to work with and might be reluctant to bite the hand that strokes him.

 

Reading the posts above, I could not withhold complaining that Reid's pages use a presentation scheme that is beyond awful! He doesn't send along the silly typo's that Thorsten or Puts inflict on their readers, but using a Reid review reminds me of e-mail when AOL first started using dial-up modems. Oh my!

 

And, while I am at my whining, how Reid could publish his original 28 SX review with its comparison to a sickly 28 SM, I do not understand. You would think Wetzlar could have thrown a production 28/ 2 into the shipping box with the Big Boy. Weird!?

 

Hopefully he will move away from the Flash based website at some point.  I would love to be able to read his site on the iPad or iPhone.

[asiafish]

I talk to  Sean often, and cannot emphasise enough his integrity. He simply would never withhold anything because of worrying about the hand that feeds him. Anyway, it's his readers who feed him, not the camera manufacturers

Happy subscriber and frustrated reader.

[dante]

I guess it's OK to mention that in his article Sean compares the old MM, M240 and M246. It is at times like this that subscribing to his site makes the entire year's subscription worth it.

 

I've never understood the veil of secrecy around this site. Maybe someone can explain it to me? Assume that I am a subscriber, that I did not sign an NDA, and that I am fairly conversant in copyright law. Go.

 

Dante

[kkcsm]

I've never understood the veil of secrecy around this site. Maybe someone can explain it to me? Assume that I am a subscriber, that I did not sign an NDA, and that I am fairly conversant in copyright law. Go.

 

Dante

 

It's his site and his content.  We can take it or leave it.  That's all.

[dante]

I talk to  Sean often, and cannot emphasise enough his integrity. He simply would never withhold anything because of worrying about the hand that feeds him. Anyway, it's his readers who feed him, not the camera manufacturers

 

Jono -

 

I don't agree with this supposition. The whole idea of a conflict of interest is not based on observed biases or things that people assure you of. It is based on the nature of relationships between someone who is supposed to be impartial and third parties. That is why ethics require that you disclose those biases to the audience.

 

Where reviewers receive pre-production examples of cameras and leverage that access to drive traffic to their own web sites (or subscription sites), I think there is always danger of a bias. Fujifilm has exploited this quite effectively by seeding preproduction cameras to people with budding photographic practices who (surprise!) crank out predictably uncritical "reviews" that come to dominate search engine results. This access gives them additional search hits and exposure that they, as photographic unknowns, would not get. And what comes out of it? It is not unlike the Saturday Night Live sketch where people are walking out of a show by a hypnotist, and every person interviewed says, "It was much better than Cats. I will see it again and again." The hand-biting issue was pretty clearly visited on the Leica world with the M8 infrared issue in the Luminous Landscape.

 

The United States Federal Trade commission requires disclosures by review sites that receive things of value, and many sites skirt the access issue by defining "someone of value" as getting to keep something for free. In an era where exposure, self-promotion, and web traffic are everything, that's much too narrow a definition.

 

Regards,

Dante

Edited May 29, 2015 by dante

[wolfloid]

On the subject of the M246 I am yet to be convinced of the 'Twice the resolution' of the M240 claim. It is not that I would dispute it, but I would like to see more evidence.

 

As regards Sean Ried's sometimes interesting site, I would agree that the interface is abysmal. I also think that it is quite unfair that when the subscription lapses all access to past reviews, which one has paid for, are lost. I also think that his B&W images are generally underexposed - he will claim that they are not, refering to his 'calibrated monitor' as if he's the only one who has one, but, I view thousands and thousands of B&W images on line, with a calibrated monitor, and none of them, literally none of them, look as dark and dull as his. He could also work on his rather laboured writing style. Having said all that I still subscribe for his meticulous tesing methodology.

[dante]

Wolfloid, I hear you. There is something muddy about the presentation of b/w images. Or maybe the images. But aside from Facebook, (which has terrible compression) I have seen few presentations of b/w pictures that look so flat. This exposure/ contrast issue goes hand-in-hand with leaving out a discussion of using color contrast filters.That is something that anyone who does serious b/w will want to know.

 

Just as concerning (at a more general level with other cameras) is the use of 850-pixel-wide converted black and white images from color sensors to illustrate the qualities of what are color sensors. That tells you virtually nothing about image quality to begin with: it eliminates color rendering information, changes perceived sharpness via resampling (particularly in areas where you want to examine sharpness, such as corners), and exaggerates acutance. It's actually pretty important to understand how color sensors do in a variety of light situations.

 

Finally, it would not kill anyone, especially where many test pictures are test pictures and clearly not intended to have commercial value, to let people see full-sized images to see right/left differences and various parts of a scene. That would add considerable value. But it will never happen where you have the twin problems of extreme copy protection and considering everything you write/photograph to be a state secret. 

 

D

[jaapv]

Look guys, I do appreciate that Sean doesn't advertise on his site. His reviews seem very informed and objective because of it. Think about how much you have to pay for an issue of LFI and it puts things into perspective. The one thing he does have to change is his interface. I know he is paranoid about people stealing his content, but the annoyance of that interface especially on a mobile device will make me draw the line and demonstratively quit my subscription at some point.

The irony is that it is quite simple to download .swf files anyway, especially in Chrome, so having this clunky site does not protect anything.

[Philinflash]

Curious about SD cards for the M246. At least one person comments on using slower smaller SD cards to better keep noise in check. However, most others consider the Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/sec the optimal card for M240 ans M246.

 

So any new M246 users tried out both methods yet? Let's assume the cards have been SD Formatted and then formatted in the camera. We need to know the camera settings too.

It maybe a bit early in the MM 246 product life-cycle, but the SDEP 32-Gb/95mb card, with over 800 image file capacity, strikes a reasonable compromise for my requirements.  We will see.

[Philinflash]

I join the chorus of cheers for Sean Reid's reviews. He writes with the technical care that Lloyd Chambers applies and seems less opinionated to me. In fairness to Lloyd, however, Reid gets reviewer samples to work with and might be reluctant to bite the hand that strokes him.

 

...

 

Favorable and unfavorable reviews are available on the internet on almost all products currently available to inform our purchases.  I am glad I was not discouraged by the negs on the M8 and I hope to have no buyer remorse on the MM 246.

[algrove]

It maybe a bit early in the MM 246 product life-cycle, but the SDEP 32-Gb/95mb card, with over 800 image file capacity, strikes a reasonable compromise for my requirements.  We will see.

Just keep in mind that 32GB cards have 2x16GB flash , but 64GB cards have one 64 flash inside making the later faster.  See ict's excellent analysis.

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Hallo,

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