Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert

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kitzone
OUR tests explained
The
UK’s most
in-depth
reviews
putting equipment through its paces in the field is at the heart of the Digital Camera testing process
TrustedTests
Rigorous Accurate Independent Fair
Digital Camera is
brought to you
by the UK’s most
experienced team
of photography
journalists, which means you can
trust everything you read on our
pages and can buy your next piece
of photography equipment with
total confidence. in case you need
anyfurther convincing,here’s why
our tests are the best:
depth
at Digital Camera we take great
pride in the rigorous nature of our
testing process. every product and
service is tested in appropriate
circumstances and a combination
of real world and objective tests
are performed to ensure all
products and services arecredibly
DigitalCamera July2010
graded. take a look at the opposite
page for more details.
passion
We believe the best way to test
a product is to use it as it was
intended, so our real world testing
involves taking equipment on a
proper shoot – whether outdoors
or in the studio – and testing it
exactly as you would use it in real
life to let you know whether it’s fit
for purpose or not.
Objectivity
although scientific data won’t tell
you everything about a product,
it’s a great way to draw direct
comparisons and sense check our
real world conclusions, so we’ve
devised a series of controlled tests
for cameras and lenses that
supplement our real world testing
with benchmarks.
independence
Digital Camera is 100%
independent and never swayed
by the influence of advertisers
or pR firms. the tests you read
in the magazine are our genuine
unbiased opinions and Future
publishing, the company behind
Digital Camera, has a strict code
of conduct on testing.
transparency
the RaW files of every test image
we shoot can be downloaded
from our website, photoRadar
(www.photoradar.com/testing).
this means you can check the
quality for yourself and even run
your own tests if you wish.
How we test
Digital Camera’s test policy is
the most strict and rigorous of
any photography magazine. We
believe the only way to bring you
a genuine and reliable verdict on
a product is to test it in both the
field and in the lab, so we use two
sets of criteria to test slRs and
lenses – real world testing and
objective testing.
Real worldtesting
the first and most important pillar
of our process is real world testing.
We firmly believe that the best
measure of a product is how it
performs in the field (or studio)
doing the job for which it was
intended. the majority of our
testing time is therefore spent
using products in this way, so we
can report back on how they cope
under a number of different
lighting scenarios and conditions.
the first part of our real world
testing involves telling you how
a product handles and our
impressions of its performance;
the second is about examining the
image quality produced, so we
take a number of photographs
under different conditions with
every camera and lens we test
so you can see the results our
experts managed to achieve in the
field for yourself.
Benchmarking
the second pillar of our testing
policy involves testing the image
output of cameras and lenses
ourscores
and awards
explained
two philosophies underpin
our scoring system:
transparency and flexibility.
transparency involves keeping
our scoring accurate and
explaining whywereach averdict.
Flexibility enables us to change
our scoring criteria to ensure that
each product and service is
scored on appropriate criteria –
a tripod, for instance, needs to be
judged on different qualities than
adigital slr. each of our tests