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| Publisher: Hachette Magazines, Inc.
Category: Magazine
List Price: $54.00
Buy New: $14.00
You Save: $40.00 (74%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 181
Format: Magazine Subscription
Type: Consumer magazine
Subscription Issues: 12
Subscription Length: 12 Months
Issues Per Year: 12
First Issue Lead Time: 6-10 Weeks
ASIN: B00005N7SB
Release Date: November 23, 2001
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 months
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| Customer Reviews:
Good product reviews August 14, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I've been a reader of Popular Photography for some time and find it useful, but certainly not perfect. The strength of the magazine is that the testing of cameras and related gear is very quantitative in nature and allows you to compare similar products objectively. This is obviously the first priority of the editorial staff and they do a good job of it. The only thing I would fault on their reviews is that they aren't always pointed enough in pointing out one product's shortcomings compared to others in the same category. They do, however, offer more of this type of feedback than just about any other magazine I've seen so it is a relative weakness at worst. Some magazines, like Shutterbug, just offer gushing subjective reviews for every product they cover and Popular Photography definitely lives up to a much higher standard.
With regard to the remaining content, the magazine plummets in terms of quality. There are frequent "how to" articles that have sunk to a point of being almost laughable. Never a strong point, in the past six months I've seen more and more articles demonstrating techniques to achieve an effect in some photo that I would delete if I had taken it... yet it's held up as some sort of shining goal that I should aspire to. It seems to this reader that the editorial staff needs a good shake up and the magazine a good going-over from top to bottom to get things on track.
Overall, I consider this magazine worth subscribing to. But only barely. At the low per-issue cost of a subscription I'll get enough product information to make it worth my while. But if you aren't into photo gear and have no intention of buying a camera in the next year or so I don't think I'd recommend it for you.
 Good Photography Magazine April 23, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I won't repeat the other reviewers too much, but this is a good general purpose magazine. The biggest benefit is the magazine's product reviews. At just about $1/issue, this is a decent read. A portion of the magazine is dedicated to ads like most other publications, but the good content stays up front.
They have some good travel pieces and will have some informative technical articles at times. The technical pieces vary in the degree of difficulty. Sometimes they are very beginner and other times they are more informative and advanced. Overall, the magazine is a good buy at the subscription price.
 Uninspired Magazine of Limited Usefulness March 22, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
As others have said, this magazine is maybe useful if you're a total beginner. Every issue is essentially the same--so much so that I can't even tell them apart from looking at the covers. Also if you own a camera already, much of the magazine is irrelevant product reviews.
This magazine truly caters to the lowest common denominator. Letters to the editors are petulant and unnecessary (one even complained about the use of the word "photo" instead of "photograph"). Don't expect a single to issue to go by without some uninformed digital vs film mudslinging.
This magazine is not about photography as art so much as photography as a technical process. The pictures included are usually techincally very good and aesthetically interesting, but very very conventional landscapes, wildlife, and portraits. Don't expect any innovation and risk here. For a magazine that focuses on the art of photograpy consider something like JPG magazine.
If you're a beginner this may help you out, and if you're on the market for a new piece of equipment the reviews could be useful. Otherwise, expect to find the same information rehashed ad nausium, ignorant pundants trying to sound important, and columns and articles that manage to spend several pages saying nothing. Oh, and you can see some nice but generic pictures.
good magazine, a little late with reviews January 16, 2007
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
A good magazine with good mix of articles, how tos and ads. The only problem is that they are a little slow with review of new products
Nice magazine for the price, but skin-deep reviews and weeks behind on the latest news December 24, 2005
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
The Good
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* This is a nice magazine for the price.
* It has some informative articles, which maybe useful to newcomers to photography in general or the digital aspects of photography.
* If you are getting started in photography, or you are at a beginner/amateur level, this magazine can be very helpful as a stepping stone
* If you are an experienced amateur/pro, you can still like this magazine, but don't expect many in-depth/advanced topics.
* The Monthly Lens reviews are helpful to SLR/DSLR users
* For people who like to flip through magazines and even look at ads from different vendors, this is a good resource.
The Not so good
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* The technical reviews of digital cameras are skin-deep compared to the in-depth technical reviews by the online photography sites (such as dpreview).
* Sometimes the reviews are word-smithed in such a way that they avoid saying negative things, so -at times- you have to pick-up on what is not said in the review in order to figure out if there's something wrong with a product.
* The "News" are 4-12 weeks behind real time.
* If you expect in-depth or pro-level articles, those are rare.
Consumer beware segment
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Towards the back of the magazine there are plenty of ads from various mail-order vendors. Some of them are very reputable, honorable and reliable vendors such as B&H and J&R.
However, some other vendors are less than stellar - to put it in mildly. You will recognize them by the too-good-to-be-true super-low prices, and they usually practice "bait & switch" among other things. These have been documented on various websites and photography forums. If you are not familiar with all these, and you see prices that are very low, you may want to do some research before purchasing.
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