You can learn a lot from the web if you know
where to look. Here are three photography websites that are
worth bookmarking and which offer a major resource to the
photographer.
The third, admittedly, only if you own an Olympus digital.
There are many photography websites that offer camera
reviews but the one that impresses me the most is Digital
Photography Review. Phil Askey's camera reviews are very
extensive. They are also technical but not so as you
are overwhelmed with terminology. These days he has an
'assistant', Simon Joinson, and the routine seems to
be that Phil Askey's reviews the digital SLRs while Simon
Joinson does the compacts.
They always provide a good selection of sample photographs
taken with the reviewed camera, plus the full image files
are available for download should you want to
look closely, say, for noise or artefacts.
One thing to be aware of when reading the SLR reviews
and looking at the sample photographs is that Askey's
uses a range of lenses to show the camera at its best.
That is, he doesn't just stick to the kit lens which
is almost always a pretty cheap lens.
So for me DP Review offers the definitive review of
a camera, but I still look around to see what other reviewers
are saying.
My next photographic website which is most definitely
worthy of bookmarking is dcviews. It is a specialist
news site for digital cameras and digital imaging, but
it most impressive feature is the huge database it maintains
on digital cameras as they are released into the marketplace.
You will almost always be able to find the camera you're
interested in; you can see its specification; the number
of web reviews that are out there; and with another click
you can get a list of online stores offering it for sale.
Very impressive! If you're thinking about buying a new
camera, then dcviews is well worth consulting. It also
has a section on lenses and links to reviews.
So let's say you're thinking about buying an entry level
digital SLR. I advise you check out its review on DP
Review. Say you decided on the Nikon D50. The next step
is to go to dcviews, find the Nikon catalogue page, then
the D50, check out any other reviews for a comparison,
and then click to see a range of current web prices.
This is a site for Olympus digital camera owners of
the C5050 upwards. It is a free resource for camera owners
to upload photos, share information, and ask questions
of each other. It has no connection with the Olympus
company.
