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Reviews By Madman, of Photo Products
Review Your products
Products I want to Review
Recent Reviews
Informal Reviews
Through the years I have been given many different products to review for
magazines both online and in print (mostly print). These products range from
Camera equipment, Computer Software and Hardware to Photographic accessories.
It is a task I enjoy doing both for my own knowledge and improvement as well as
for others. Some of these reviews have come because the magazine requested.
Later on, more have come because the manufacturer of the product simply shipped
me the product for review.
Do you want to know Madman's policy on the reviews you read?
Please contact me first as I have a policy of only doing reviews of products
that interest me. In general my policies are as follows, but if you want
even more details, contact me and I will answer your specific questions and/or
send you a more detailed treatment of the issue.:
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If I am interested in the product, and there are no significant costs on my
part to do a proper review, your only outside cost is delivering your product
to me. See shippingc below. If there are substantial costs for me to properly
do the review this can be discussed.
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Before printing any review, I submit it to the manufacturer
for comments. This is to provide the best service to those reading
the review. What I am looking for is to avoid making untrue/unfair comments
about the product, I give them the opportunity to convince me that I should
change the review before it is printed. This policy eliminates the need to
print retractions later, benefiting both the reader & the manufacturer. But
when the review is printed, I stand behind my comments. I am known as being a
very fair reviewer. "Paying money" to change the comments will not work
(and no manufacturer has even tried this fortunately.) If a company is changing
the product before the review is printed (and provides me with the new product
for testing) I make every effort to properly update the report.
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If the manufacturer of the product is initiating the review, I work with them
to work out publishing options. To date, all reviews I have written
have been published, but obviously I can not guarantee that in the future. At a
minimum, if we can't find an appropriate magazine, I will publish it on the web
and give you a link to link to it, and under this circumstance, I will also
give you non-exclusive rights to publish it on your web site/printed
materials if you prefer.
PRODUCT CATEGORIES THAT I AM PARTICULARILY
INTERESTED IN REVIEWING CURRENTLY.
While these are listed in my current "order of
preference" I have a strong interest in all of these products. If your
product is not in this list, I may still be interested. Send me a
short email and I will tell you how interested I am.
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I'm in the process of creating a review of blue/green screen products
right now which includes lots of information of when/when not to use this
method, why, how and tips. If you have anything that should be included in
this, talk to me immediately - the article has been started!
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Tools for creating ICC's for printers. Gretag Macbeth is providing their
Eye-One Photo and ProfileMaker Digital Camera module for this review.
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Photo Editing & maintenance software including especially Pro Studio
workflow/editing/presentation, also any Photoshop tools that make sense for a
pro studio.
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I'm also interested in "one off quick fixes." For example, simple to use
but powerful in effect Photoshop actions.
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Studio quality Digital cameras. I currently use a Fuji S2 Pro.
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New large format cameras. (Yes this is almost the exact opposite side of
the spectrum in virtually every way from Digital cameras. .) I currently use an
Omega45.
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Anti-Static products.
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UPS's
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Studio Light and gimics.
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Any IS/VR lenses. I currently use a Nikon 80-400 (which on my Fuji S2 is a
120-600)
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Any photo gizmos such as remote triggers, light color meters, blinds,
projectors, any that make sense for a digital Pro-Studio or for nature/wildlife
photography.
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High resolution Film scanners
All the below products were provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of
review.
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Primatte S100
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Cinematte
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Photek - Reviewed for NYN School of Photography. A wonderful large round
moon/sun style light softbox. Highly recommended to anyone doing portraiture
work. It is convenient for all studio and near-studio work and I continue to
use it regularily.
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Fuji 160 NPC & 160 NPS films - very high resolution. I made them my primary
2 negative films. I guess that means the review was positive! NPS I prefer for
Portraiture/Wedding work. NPC I prefer for outdoor/wildlife/landscape
work. But both are excellent films. Both of these films are "professional"
films and need to be refrigerated. (Note, due to my switch to digital camera, I
don't use a lot of negative film anymore. While I do work with the 4x5 camera,
in terms of sheer volume, I use very little film.)
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Vivid Details test strip. Reviewed in SilverStream Journal (online edition).
This is a Photoshop plugin (Software). It produces a range of pictures from
your picture applying a variety of corrections. It also has standard
photo-filters. For example, if you took a photo inside using daylight film or
the opposite, just apply the "standard" photo filter to color correct.
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I am currently working on an exciting short series of reviews of MediaStreet
ink jet inks & fine art and canvas papers, published and to be published on
www.imaging-resource.com . You can see the first two reviews there or
on www.MediaStreet.com
today.
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I am currently testing and preparing a review on "Digital Bootcamp." A training
package and Photoshop actions for Digital photographers.
If you are interested in non-photographic product reviews I have done, please
check my personal web site.
Q: Have you ever had a product review where the product was not good/great?
A: Yes. None in the photographic market, and only a couple in other
areas. Interestingly enough, the products that reviewed badly were picked by a
magazine for me to review - I guess manufacturers don't want to send their
lousy products for review! In some other cases, discussions with the magazine
& manufacturer allowed us to avoid spending time reviewing products that
would not have been good. Remember that I only review products that the
magazine(s) and I feel the readers will be interested in and I'm
personally interested in, this means that, before I do the review, I have
reason to believe it is going to receive a positive review. So two bad ones out
of several dozen reviews seems reasonable.
Q: If you like a product, do your reviews point out any negative points?
A: I generally point them out from the perspective of limitations or "who
should/shouldn't buy". Very few products are going to be flawless for every
purpose. I try to indicate where and how the product is good and where and how
it should be avoided. However, this is all done in the context of the readers
of the magazine. For example - a CO2 system in an Aquarium magazine will
be reviewed for it's applicability (strengths and weaknesses) to the aquarium
industry, where the same product was used for greenhouses - the strengths
and weaknesses in the greenhouse environment were not discussed as it was
irrelevant from the aquarium readers perspective even though the manufacturer
cares about both markets. And for what it's worth: Manufacturers generally
prefer if you don't use a product where it is weak, that way you do like their
products when you do use them, as a result they aren't too upset when
legitimate limitations are pointed out in the proper spirit.
Shipping:
DO USE:
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USPS Parcel (air or ground is fine)
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FedEx Express (if there is a rus and you don't mind the cost.)
DO NOT USE:
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UPS
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Purolator courier (Although these guys are getting a little
better as of late, so if you really don't like the above 2 options, you may use
this one.)
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FedEx ground
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USPS Expedited
Ship to:
Peter J. Horwood
RR 2, 263235 Range Road 12
Balzac, AB, T0M 0E0
CANADA
(403)226-0620
Mark the parcel with the customs declaration: NFR Sample
(Productname) and put a value of $10
For FedEx put down for shipping instructions. "2 Miles West and 2
Miles North of Balzac, Large White metal bldg, Blue roof"
Thoughout my web sites you can find non-official reviews. These are products
that I have an "opinion" about, most that I own and I have shared that
opinion for the benefits of my readers and customers. Please enjoy, but realize
that I am not as rigorous in testing with them, my comments are strictly based
on my personal experiences with the products. Eg. I like Nikon cameras but I
wish they had a greater variety of VR/IS lenses like Canon does and I wish the
Nikon F100 had a setting to prevent taking pictures when no film is loaded like
my 8008 and 801 do, but the F100 focuses faster than the 8008 and 801. Do not
mistake these comments for a careful review where I have tried to think about
it from many different angles.
Canadian retail supplier of some Photo
Mats  (For my US
customers: sorry the US company, where I buy all my
mats wholesale from doesn't sell retail)
Check out www.2filter.com where I buy most
of my filters. Also, check for
Great filters at excellent prices (At
a minimum, buy a UV filters for EVERY lens you own - just for protection)
Now-a-days, with digital, I don't buy many filters anymore, just the UV ones -
I like to apply the filter inside the computer.
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