Rating the various photo news groups/review sites/forums
RichA
Dpreview.com: Good reviews, if you avoid the language part (which is
phrased to manipulate) and concentrate on the testing. The forums are
a hyena nest. As long as you only post some images and don't
criticize any product whose forum you are on, you might like them.
Don't do equipment reviews or tests, you are bound to annoy someone.
Vociferous posters will scream not to pixel-peep and then go on to
tell you why their equipment is great, especially when you pixel-
peep. Still, a HUGE number of participants, the busiest forums on the
net.
Forum.ManualFocus.org: Small forum, concentrating on using generally
older lenses on old and new cameras and on older cameras themselves,
typically SLR and rangefinders. Pretty decent for opinions on old
lenses, mostly economical ones, odd ones. Lots of advice on
repairing, cleaning old stuff.
Rangefinderforum.com: The rangefinder forum. Highly intensive
discussion on all kinds of rangefinder cameras, their use, fixing,
maintaining. A really good forum. Classified ads too. When forums
are high enough in quality, and the people are too, you can run a
classified dept without fear of rampant fraud happening.
Fredmiranda.com: Primarily a high-end Nikon and Canon hang-out,
equipment and use discussion. Probably the best place for those
interested in esoteric and high-end lens use on Nikons and Canons.
Participants, many are in a higher income bracket and you get some
funny stories on their quests for the ultimate in optical perfection.
Photo.net: You'd think with a URL like that, there would be major
participation. There are a number of forums here dealing with all
kinds of equipment, but activity, except in the Canon and Nikon
forums, but nowhere near the likes of Dpreview's activity level. Not
bad.
APUG: The largest bastion of the film fanatics. A huge number of
forums dealing with every aspect of film camera use from shooting to
darkroom to large format. The forum to go if you like film. You
could spend years there going through the back messages.
Forumgetdpi.com: A good set of forums for various camera
manufacturers, lots of activity in the micro 4/3rds and 4/3rds forum,
especially for those who mount all kinds of different lenses on those
bodies. Pretty much apolitical (unlike Dpreview) and lots of good
information. Oddly enough, could not get on tonight, something was
up.
Photozone.de: Mostly calmly-stated lens reviews. They aren't selling
product like some forums, and their reviews avoid the effusive and
needless sales rubbish you read on others. Just the facts. Also,
interesting basic forum layout, like a tree.
Usenet: The only really free forums, unmoderated. Not as much
activity as years ago, since providers declared war on usenet. Some
useful stuff, spam, unrelated topics.
Luminous Landscape: A high brow Canadian site that does reviews on
very high-end and regular equipment. Run by a real photographer.
Good for reviews if you want your opinions handed to you. No
scientific testing, just opinions on how cameras function in the
field. Good all round site. They also sell video tapes and such with
lessons on how to use Photo Shop, take landscape photos, etc.
Nikonians: Great Nikon forums, but it's a pay site. Dpreview is good
for Nikon stuff and it's free.
Forthirdsphoto.com: Very good site for Olympus/Panasonic/Leica 4/3rds
gear, selling, using, etc. Good for rumours on new stuff. Civil, way
more so than the Dpreview Olympus and micro 4/3rds forums.
l-camera-forum.com (leica) A huge forum for all stuff Leica. Very
good for those immersed in that brand.
sobriquet
flickr: Lots of interesting stuff to find there, but the people who
maintain flickr are a bunch of retards, so you can't expect a decent
interface, though the first impression might
be that is has a sleek interface with many features.
picasaweb: Offers better quality than flickr (e.g. significantly more
free space for a free account and less restrictions in general), but
the search options are not as elaborate and there are less community
features.
piratebay: Not really a photosharing site, but you can still find
digital photo collectors there who like to exchange their collection
with other photography/art/porn lovers while ignoring the spurious
threats from the intellectual property mafia.
NameHere
wrote:
rec.photo.digital
rec.photo.digital.slr-systems
Overrun with role-playing trolls and wannabe snapshooter photographers.
You'll be lucky if you see one post per month with factual information. The
largest TROLL offenders being RichA, PiddlyPuppyGang Weisselberg, Alan
Browne, Paul Furman, SavageQuack, SMS, J. Clark, Erick Stevens, Robert Coe,
Bruce, George Kirby, Annika, Chris H, Bob S, Ofnuts, Charles, Scott W,
Chris Malcolm, John McWilliams, Bowser, Ray Fischer (fishing as all trolls
do), et. al.
The list of resident role-playing pretend-photographer trolls is far too
extensive to list here. You only have to watch how often they post. They
live in newsgroups posting everything from their mommies' basements.
They've never even owned one camera in their lifetimes. The closest they
ever came to a real camera is from online ads, reviews, and downloadable
manuals from which they garner all their blatant speculative ill-informed
and inexperienced misinformation.
nos...@nospam.com
http://www.nikonuktalk.com/
On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:19:40 -0800 (PST), RichA <rande...@gmail.com>
wrote:
>They're all different, most offer something of value.
Rich
news:oqd3j5dqt02fsti7t...@4ax.com:
All except for the brave, "name here." Anonys---.