JDPFu.com 2025

The Differences

Consumer Reports purchases each of the items they review just like you or I would. This means there isn´t any real incentive to skew the reviews towards any manufacturer´s desires. Impartial review. That is good. Of course, the testers at CR don´t always consider everything that any single person might deem to be important and they are a paid publication, so using their website or reading their magazines/books will cost some money. Fortunately, my public library has a subscription to CR. CR doesn´t appear to have experts in any specific area, but over time, the testers build more and more expertise. This is how you and I would become more and more knowledgeable about stuff.

TheWirecutter is also a review site. They appear to hire experts in the different areas to perform the reviews. I think they are almost always provided equipment to be reviewed by the vendors/manufacturers. This creates a possibility of bias. I´m not saying there is any bias, but if you were sent free stuff in the mail and asked to review it, wouldn´t there be some desire to be less harsh? After all, if you always write unfavorable reviews, do you think they will keep sending models for review?

Experts – Sometimes That Is Bad

I´m an expert in a few different areas. This means I´m great at picking out items in those areas for my needs, but it also means that I´m likely to suggest spending more money to others seeking my advice. Sure, there´s a good reason I think the more expensive version is better, but sometimes those features just don´t matter to THAT SPECIFIC user and the extra money spent is a complete waste.

This is the main issue I have with TheWirecutter. I´ve been in the market for PnS cameras a few times the last 10 yrs. Hit multiple camera review sites, TheWirecutter, and read hundreds of amazon reviews to help make the final selection. My budget was always much less than the camera and TWC review sites suggest. Why is that? Because they are ¨experts.¨

Sometimes having an expert recommend certain capabilities is a very good thing too. The best we can do is to just be aware of the expert bias.

Plus let us not forget that a $150 PnS camera today includes almost all the features and capabilities of a $1000 PnS camera from 10 yrs earlier. Oddly, these review sites seem to forget that and find new features that the $1000 cameras provide which are must haves now, for some reason.

• Best Cameras Under $500 – really?
• Best Cameras Under $200 – these are called budget for some reason. TWC calls them ¨cheap¨
• Best Cameras Under $1000 – really?

I suppose people spending under $200 might be convinced that their smartphone camera is good enough. IMHO, smartphone cameras are about the same as a $50 PnS camera today. If you spend $120, you´ll get 2x better photos. I´ve seen the differences first hand in my travels with a few companions who decided to bring only their smartphones to save travel weight. On that trip, their photos sucked compared to my $130 SONY PnS.

A few years later and we were all sporting $300+ PnS cameras. This year, I had to retire my Canon 300HS PnS which provided years of great photos for a new model with super zoom thanks to a new hobby. 30x is the starting point for zoom these days. It is still very compact, but about 2x larger than the 300HS. It is also a Canon, but I got it for under $200 – list price at release was over $500. There are things I love about my new camera and there are things I hate about it. i miss the old, built-in, panorama modes. Sure, this new camera can do that, but it is done by using manual settings, not choosing a pano-mode.

Their Incentives – Kickbacks on Purchases

Look at the links the review sites provide to Amazon and other online retainers. They aren´t the normal, short, links you and I would send to friends, they are the affiliate program links. Ok, that´s fine. After all, their skill in reviewing and passing that information onto you and I is worth something. Especially if we were already planning to buy it. I´ll use their link.

However, those affiliate links usually provide a percentage of the sale price. For Amazon and cameras, it was 22% the last time I looked, but they were running a marketing special at the time. 22%! Now if I´m an affiliate providing links, wouldn´t I be more likely to push the $2500 camera over the $50 ones? To keep the math easy, $500 is 20% of $2500 compared to the $10 for a $50 camera. That´s a big incentive to push higher priced models.
Electroncs have a lower rate of kickback and cameras are usually part of that group. Just 4% today when I looked.

• Amazon Affiliate Rates
• Get Paid More if more buyers use your link in a month.
• Make more using Amazon-Owned properties. Some have a flat 15% marketing fee.
• Amazon Specials – yes, they push different items for different holidays and to get more affiliates sending more people their way, they will often up the rate.

I really like this quote:

If your blog focuses on compact cameras, don’t be tempted to work in promotions for SLR cameras just because they cost more and your commission will be bigger.

Summary

Anyway, be certain that you understand how these review sites really make their money and think about their incentives to get you spending more than you might otherwise spend. Sure, they are nice people with families and mortgages to maintain, but imagine what you might do if your income came from recommendations like theirs does.

Perhaps your family should become an affiliate, just to get money back on your own purchases? I´ve discussed doing this with friends. It doesn´t really matter what they buy through Amazon, just that your affiliate link was used to get there and added to their shopping cart before it times out. That could be days later. Even at 4%, those kickbacks can make a difference. Of course, the kickbacks are highest on imaginary property like MP3 files and ebooks.