New article: Infrared Contamination
Who can you trust? Getting the facts straight, and telling it “like it is” counts for a lot in a world full of misinformation. [This discussion concerns a recent “review” of the Leica M8; the website is well-known].
When you read a camera or lens “review”, you have a right to expect that everything will be told—good and bad. Writing about good points while deliberately omitting the bad, no matter what the reason(s), is unethical and misleading. If there are legal restrictions (eg a non-disclosure agreement), then it is better to publish nothing, rather than mislead by publishing only part of the story. No subsequent mea-culpa or “addendum” can rectify this breach of ethics. Honest mistakes are one thing; deliberate acts are another.
No objective reviewer should feel at ease submitting a camera or lens evaluation for “review” by the manufacturer prior to publishing it—instead, any points of clarification can be posed as questions, and the answers then incorporated into the full review.
Journalism has a long and time-honored history in the United States (though one has to question today’s journalistic ethics). Publishing a “review” which deviates from a full and fair report is a disgrace. Do not accept this—get your information from a source that values integrity and responsibility first and foremost, whose goal is Service*.
Purchasing decisions are often made using the available published information. Angry indeed might be a buyer to learn that problems were observed, but not disclosed.
Worse than committing an ethical breach is compounding the offense by blaming others, failing to take responsibility, and insisting you’d do it again! A very Low State* indeed!
This site will always publish the unvarnished facts.
Last night, I attended a talk by the Leica USA west coast and a Leica representative from Germany. I had a very brief chance to take a few quick snapshots with the M8. I had brought with me what I had previously determined to be potentially troublesome fabrics. Later, I performed the same test with the Nikon D200 and a Canon EOS 5D-IR. See for yourself how the M8 handled it in Infrared Contamination.
| Leica M8 | Nikon D200 | Canon EOS 5D-IR (infrared) |
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