Reid Reviews

[Huck Finn]

I have just renewed my subscription to Reid Reviews for a second year. I then read my first article of the new year - actually a draft of an article that is a work-in-progress - "50 mm Rangefinder Lenses for the M8." Wow! What an excellent article comparing 1 Voigtlander, 2 Leica, & 2 Zeiss lenses. 😱

I was reminded why I willingly pay my subscription for this website. It's not that the articles are better than those you will find elsewhere, it's that you simply won't find articles like Sean's elsewhere. Period.

I noted that the recent article is a draft. This is another feature of the site. It is interactive. Sean actively solicits feedback from subscribers a she is in the process of writing it. You can't find that anywhere else.

I eagerly look forward to each new article & there is usually more there than I can digest in the first reading, so I find myself re-reading articles several times & then referring back to them for reference.

I know that this is an unabashed plug for Sean's site - with which I have no connection. But I feel that it is also a service for RFF members who may not know about this site. Not only are the reviews excellent, but there is an emphsis on rangefinder equipment. Sean is a long time professional photographer who shoots with rangefinder equipment himself. 😎

He also leads motorcycle tours of New England & Canada. 😉

 

[bmicklea]

I just got a subscription late last year and love it! I couldn't agree more with your comments Huck (though I may be suspicious about your name 😉 ).

I don't think there is a "best" review, just a reviewer who most closely matches your outlook and I've found that Sean's approach to lens and camera reviews works perfectly for the kind of things I find important and interesting.

If you're reading Sean, great work and keep it up!

Now I'm going to have to shut my office door, pretend I'm deep into a spreadsheet and go read that review of the 50mm lenses!

 

[back alley]

i mostly agree with huck's sentiment but am a bit disappointed that all sean's testing seems to be with the m8 camera.
one of the things that initially drew me in was the combination of testing with the rd-1 and film and more film tests were promised at one time. that promise or at least the advertising of it on the front page seems to be gone now.
i still have time left on my subscription and will wait to see if film testing returns before i decide if i renew.

joe

 

[Nachkebia]

Yeah usually excellent reviews, but only on M8 and thats sad, I understand that gives more subscribers but still....

 

[leica M2 fan]

And Today is his Birthday , Happy Birthday to Sean.

 

[ywenz]

$32.95 now.. yikes. I don't think I"ll be renewing. I also can't seem to remember my login/password anymore.

 

[Huck Finn]

$32.95 now.. yikes. I don't think I"ll be renewing. I also can't seem to remember my login/password anymore.

You're kidding? 😕

What would you pay for a magazine subscription with a lot of articles that you would never read? Every one of Sean's articles is a winner. And with more coverage of rangefinder gear than you'll find anywhere. The price seems cheap to me.

To eah his own, I guess. 🙂

 

[ywenz]

You're kidding? 😕

What would you pay for a magazine subscription with a lot of articles that you would never read? Every one of Sean's articles is a winner. And with more coverage of rangefinder gear than you'll find anywhere. The price seems cheap to me.

To eah his own, I guess. 🙂

Oh I originally subscribed because I wanted to see what the deal was on the GRD. Then I bought one. For casual readin, I'd perfer Men's Journal or something like that, which is $9.95 a year for 12 issues. Great deal..

I get more RF reading than Reid's site on the various internet forums dedicated to RF.

 

[visiondr]

I too would like to see more reviews of lenses with 35mm versus the M8 or RD-1. I want to examine how lenses perform in the outer ranges. When you slap a lens on a camera with a 1.5 or 1.3 crop factor, you can't see the effects the lens has on the edges. I'm using 35mm. It's a small format and users need every bit of high quality imagery across the entire frame (or at least they should have the data on prospective purchases to make informed decisions).

That said, Sean's reviews are great.

Ron

 

[ferider]

Happy birthday to Sean, BTW.

I'm thinking about signing up today ....

Roland.

 

[alexz]

I also used to be Reid's subscribed for last 3-4 months, mostly getting into it to make an educated choice of 50mm lens for my M6 - obviosuly led me to current 50mm/2 cron (although was pretty much close to the Zeiss counterpart).
However, what I was a bit off is the fact that was mentioned already in this thread - he seems to focus on digital too much for my liking, len's aspects are nearly fully focused on M8/RD-1 and almost no aspects related to their film performance.
I contacted Reid about a month ago regarding the issue and proposed for his further work probably to change the approach - first go over common/film/digital issues then to separate the digital-specific topics - so that hose who do not interested in digital-only performance will not waste their time trying to fish out film-related info. He basically agreed and promised to cosider thisi kind of approach.

Alex

 

[jlw]

Sean's a working professional (apparently high-end wedding and business interiors, mostly) and so naturally he tends to concentrate on what's useful in his own work. Hence the concentration on digital and on lenses for the Leica M8 and for whatever DSLR he's shooting currently.

The upside of that is that you get reviews that emphasize practical, real-world information about how images from various lenses look, as opposed to numerical data. The downside is that if your own interests and activities don't match up well with the author's, you won't find a lot of utility in the information.

 

[back alley]

i would think that the reality for most rf users is still film based and not digital.