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From: wmartin@brl-vgr.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Equipment reviews in magazines
Message-ID: <1359@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 4-May-84 10:25:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-vgr.1359
Posted: Fri May  4 10:25:46 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 8-May-84 07:08:45 EDT
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Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 31

Equipment reviews by the trade or hobbyist press have traditionally
been suspect. The slick audio magazines never publish bad reviews
and this caused the growth of the underground audio press, dedicated
to the esoteric equipment and putting down the mass-market gear which
is what most of the slicks review. (This seems to have come full circle;
I recently read a comment in an underground which said "If we run across
something bad, we will just never mention it, as opposed to devoting
space to reviewing it." -- Maybe we now need an "underground underground"?)

In the firearms press, the slicks all praise just about every gun they 
test. Only in The American Rifleman will you see tests where they 
detail functional and safety flaws. This has led to the rise of a limited
"underground" gun press, mostly the publications of one place, called
Simco Media, who publish a series of irregularily spaced test and review
magazines (Pistolero, Handgun Tests, Popular .22s, etc.). They loudly
claim that they won't accept manufacturers' ads and that they buy all
the guns they test as regular consumers, from dealers or distributors,
as opposed to getting possibly-doctored test samples.

So, does this sort of situation exist in the photographic press? Are there
underground camera-review magazines similar to the above examples? If
not, since the audio undergrounds seem to have been successful as
a group (individual magazines have died like flies, but the trend has
continued for many years now), it might be a good opportunity to become
famous, if not rich, and write off acquiring tons of photographic gear
as a business expense without having to photograph weddings every weekend!
You too can become a publisher and get lots of cameras on indefinite loan,
tons of film and processing chemicals, innumerable accessories, etc. At
least, until you publish your first objective and accurate review!

Will