Hot Full Frame Autumn: New Cameras

[The View]

I think the latest JD Power customer survey is interesting.  It seems to me that average consumers are not so impressed with the image quality of 4/3.

http://www.jdpower.com/electronics/ratings...ra-ratings/dslr
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And Canons beat every other brand in image quality.

Pentax, Olympus, Sony trailing behind Canon and Nikon.

Nikon scoring in handling, it seems.

Do you know how these studies are put together?

[The View]

Canon got a lower score for "appearance"?   
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Appearance of the camera? Show-off coefficient?

[The View]

Erm... someone enlighten me, but I'm not quite sure how these JD power surveys work... do people have to actually prove that they are customers who own the things they're rating? Do they rate these cameras side-by-side, or just rate the ones they own? Or is this all anonymous and unsubstantiated? Can they vote more than once?

For anyone who's been over at DPReview and looked into the forums, you'll find people who claim that they bought a certain product and then go on that forum just to trash it, and many are found out as having never touched the product and being fanboys for a competing brand. Fortunately, such trolls seem to be largely absent here.

I, for one, find it fishy for a study to show the two leading, big brands recieving a 5 star rating in overall and the other three recieving a 2 star rating in overall.

Personally, as an honest customer, I find nothing dissapointing about the output of my Olympus E-330 at up to 12x16 at base ISO, and the newer models have considerably improved on even that, making higher ISOs and larger prints usable. I guess these "average consumers" unhappy with Olympus DSLR image quality must be printing 40x30 at ISO 1600 and up.

Also, it's noted that sony and pentax also recieved the same low rating for "picture quality," so apparently it's not a format-related problem. Based on the fact that sensors in many previous nikon, sony, and pentax branded cameras have been shared, I'd venture to say that it's more of a market share-related issue we're seeing here. And we all know how important that is to image quality.
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It's good to look critically at any review. Wasn't it the Standard & Poor that had not seen the housing bubble and the credit crisis coming, and burned many people with their judgements?

So, all fine, plus a grain of salt.

I guess it's up to every photographer to decide which tools he works best with.

I can imagine photographers feeling so comfortable the way Olympus builds cameras, that they don't care about certain loss of quality.

Those same people may also own a Leaf or a Phase One, depending on the job.

Many are enamored with reviews, as they think they can get the perfect camera the first time.

Not possible. And if all cameras had the absolute same image quality, you'd still feel better with one brand than the other just because of handling.

[Cartman]

And Canons beat every other brand in image quality.

Pentax, Olympus, Sony trailing behind Canon and Nikon.

Nikon scoring in handling, it seems.

Do you know how these studies are put together?
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I've not read a detailed breakdown, but from what I've picked up, and experienced first hand, they only survey people who have bought high-ticket items (companies pay them to use the survey as a reference) and who actually registered ownership of the product.  People only get one vote and they are people who actually bought the product.  The survey is tied to your address.

I think they don't report on the bottom performers so as to not embarrass companies they may collect money from in the future.

I've not liked their surveys with cars (it may be similar with cameras) because they seem to survey people within a couple of months of buying the car.  So you don't get to many bad things happening when it is that new, nor may you really know what you can and cannot get out of your camera.  With cars they call that an initial quality survey.  I think they do another one after three years called the dependability survey.

So no, from what I know random people cannot vote, you get only one vote, and it is legit.  On the other hand, you are getting votes from the masses and they may not know squat other than if they think it looks cool.  It could simply reflect that many people vote what marketing departments and/or their friends have convinced them the quality is, rather than what they themselves can objectively observe.  Moreover, it doesn't compare models or brands to others.

Still, it shows some people are satisfied and jazzed with their purchase, and some are not.  And the people who are happy may be stupid and clueless, and so may the people are not.  Make of it what you will.  

I don't know the details of how the camera surveys are run and the above is only my opinion from what I "think" I know.  The reality may be different.

[The View]

they only survey people
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While I think the major outcome of the study is pretty accurate...

... I usually don't trust studies and majorities.

I'd rather go with a decidedly individualistic judgement, where you can see where the author is coming from. (This is why I am very wary of pixel peeping reviews a la dpreview).

[Geoff Wittig]

And Canons beat every other brand in image quality.

Pentax, Olympus, Sony trailing behind Canon and Nikon.

Nikon scoring in handling, it seems.

Do you know how these studies are put together?
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Ignore J.D. Power surveys. It's not like Consumer Reports, where anonymous buyers go out and purchase products for review without any cooperation or role for the manufacturer. The resulting Consumer Reports reviews are therefore at least candid, and  they also make an attempt to test and evaluate products. By contrast, manufacturers actually pay J.D. Power to review their products. The methodology of J.D. Power reviews is also invalid; they simply circulate questionaires to consumers, with a review demographic that I suspect skews heavily toward older retirees. How else to explain their auto reviews that consistently place Buick (Buick! for God's sake!) at the top of the heap.

Regular consumer product reviews tend to do a really poor job on specialized products like digital cameras or printers. They lack the depth of experience to understand what they're reviewing. Which is why sites like this one are so useful.

[Cartman]

Regular consumer product reviews tend to do a really poor job on specialized products like digital cameras or printers. They lack the depth of experience to understand what they're reviewing. Which is why sites like this one are so useful.
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Since JD Powers doesn't review anything, nor do their employees, for the surveys, maybe the results mean that people who buy Nikon and Oly don't understand what they are reviewing, but Canon users do?  Or do you think Canon users didn't understand and Nikon and Oly users did?