PopPhoto - Nikon D300 "Camera of the Year 2007"

[MarkBarbieri]

I've read that it was due to the fact that the D3 was released too late to be considered a "2007" camera for the purposes of their selection. It appears that their "year" is defined as Dec-Nov. The D3 will be in the running for the 2008 award and would appears to be a front-runner at this point. However, realize that "xxxxxx of the Year" selections usually involve criteria beyond what's the "biggest and baddest" thing on the market in terms of specs and performance. Compare the Toyota Camry and the top end Ferrari sports cars.... How many Motor Trend "Car of the Year" awards has Ferrari won? Which car would you rather race at Laguna Seca?

If find it extremely unlikely that the D3 will get it. They never pick top end cameras. To the extent that they are picking the best camera, it is the best camera in the price range their readership is likely to buy. That has more practical value for the readers and it has more practical value for their advertisers. It does diminish, however, the sense that the "Camera of the Year" is the best camera or most revolutionary camera.

It's not like the D3 is the ferrari of cameras....it's still standard production camera. It's not some exotic medium format back. It's just not typically marketed or sold to the demographics of Pop Photo.

You are correct that the word of a friend is worth a lot more than some magazine from NYC, but it's not "nothing" either. I don't consider PopPhoto to be the "last word" in reviewing equipment, but they seem to be joining the chorus in regard to this body.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the D300. It's very deserving of the award. My complaint is with the award itself. They have consistently rotated the award through the manufacturers that also happen to be their major advertisers. Maybe that's just a natural side effect because their advertisers also happen to be the ones selling the best cameras, but I personally think that they let their advertising policy heavily effect their editorial content. It's no coincidence that no manufacturer had two cameras in their list of finalists and pretty much everyone that sells cameras and advertises with them made it to the finals.

As for the old notion that PopPhoto's standard MO is that their attitude towards a camera maker is proportional to the amount of ad space they buy in their magazine... that accusation has been around since before my Dad was in the photo industry in the 70's. However, empirical evidence doesn't bare that out. Nikon has taken their lumps over the last 4 or 5 years in the trade press, but I still see lots of Nikon "double truck" ads in the photo rags. Also, I'd guess that the point-n-shoot lines of the big photo players is still their largest single money maker, so if making Nikon/Canon/Sony more money was what drives them, they'd be picking mass market products for the top awards. My local dealer had a waiting list for the D300 over 300 people long before the release, it doesn't appear that Nikon really needs trophies PopPhoto to drive demand for this model. They're going to be in "we're making them as fast as we can" model for a while, I think.

The P&S market is less driven by photo mags largely because photo mag readers tend to buy more sophisticate cameras.

As for the influence of advertising on editorial content, I suspect that the effect varies. I talked with a cousin a couple of decades ago about the subject. He worked on the editorial side of a a magazine (I think it was Home and Garden). They had very strict rules to prevent the sales side from having influence on the editorial side. He said that he knew others in the industry that were much less rigid in their separation between sales and editorial and that he was always nervous about the pressure to move in that direction. From my observations (and nothing more), I think that Pop Photo is, and pretty much always has been, very lax on separating their editorial and advertising policy.

With that said, I want to stress again that I think the D300 is a great camera and has a very strong case for being the top camera in it's class. In fact, from the little that I know, I would rate it higher than the 40D, the K10D, or the A700. I think, however, had PP rated the D200 as Camera of the Year, the 40D would have gotten it this year. Not because it's better, but because it's close enough that they'd want to "spread the love." If the D3 wins next year, I'll take it all back. I predict that Canon will introduce a succesor to the 5D (presumably the 5D Mark II) and that either it or a Pentax or Olympus product will win.

I hope your day at work goes better... believe me, I've had plenty of "not so fun" ones myself.

It's been much better so far. The likelihood that I will have to cancel my and/or my staff's Christmas plans has diminished significantly. It's just my future hope that the next time I have to order a major system be shut down for an extended period without prior warning that it not happen during the time that we're working on performance appraisals.

 

[Geoff_M]

If find it extremely unlikely that the D3 will get it. They never pick top end cameras. To the extent that they are picking the best camera, it is the best camera in the price range their readership is likely to buy. That has more practical value for the readers and it has more practical value for their advertisers. It does diminish, however, the sense that the "Camera of the Year" is the best camera or most revolutionary camera.

I guess it's a matter of perspective. You may view it as pandering to their readers pocketbooks, I view it as weighing "bang for the buck" as an important factor. Sure the D3 can kick the D300 around the block... at over twice the price, I would sure hope it would!

Maybe that's just a natural side effect because their advertisers also happen to be the ones selling the best cameras, but I personally think that they let their advertising policy heavily effect their editorial content. It's no coincidence that no manufacturer had two cameras in their list of finalists and pretty much everyone that sells cameras and advertises with them made it to the finals.

I think you'd a agree that the number of companies that make and sell dSLRs is a fairly small club, wouldn't you? And I'm guessing that they all advertise at some level in PopPhoto... you'd be dumb not to. I don't think there's a maker for them to "punish" editorially for not advertising. As for the apparent "one entry per customer" rule, I don't see anything underhanded by first picking the "best" camera (as they define it) from a given maker as a first step in the elimination process.

With that said, I want to stress again that I think the D300 is a great camera and has a very strong case for being the top camera in it's class. In fact, from the little that I know, I would rate it higher than the 40D, the K10D, or the A700. I think, however, had PP rated the D200 as Camera of the Year, the 40D would have gotten it this year. Not because it's better, but because it's close enough that they'd want to "spread the love." If the D3 wins next year, I'll take it all back. I predict that Canon will introduce a succesor to the 5D (presumably the 5D Mark II) and that either it or a Pentax or Olympus product will win.

I understand you're not slamming the D300. I feel what you're talking about is more due to the nature of the industry and there's a lot of flux in it. Each year brings a series of announcements and counter-announcements. As recently as six months ago people were wondering how much longer it would be before Nikon finally imploded... my what a difference a few months makes! There's been a pretty seismic reversal of fortunes between Nikon and Canon. Man, go look at the Canon forums over on DPArgue... they're starting to eat their young over QA problems with their top camera and there seem to be a lot of 40D owners in a funk too! For the first time in memory, you're seeing posts from people say that they're dumping their Canon gear and switching to Nikon for the D300 and D3. However, I'm sure it won't stay that way for long and it might be another maker that pulls the rabbit out of the hat. I don't think there's a lot of evidence that PopPhoto is putting their fingers on the scale with regards to their COY choice.

 

[Groucho]

Considering that the Pentax K10D is their pick for Advanced DSLR Camera of the Year, I'm not sure that they can be accused of just blindly following ad dollars - I'm sure Pentax advertising is a drop in the bucket compared to what C/N spend.

Similarly, the Sony A100 is their entry-level DSLR of the year and a Panasonic is their lens of the year.

That being said, all I know of Pop Photo is what's on their website, so I'm no expert on their magazine, but it seems like they spread the awards around. (And the Canon Mark 3 did get the pro photo DSLR of the year, so Canon fans have some consolation.)