FTC disclosure statement

Background

Here’s an article on the new FTC requirement for bloggers, social media, etc to disclose their relationships. Here’s the FTC site itself. Guidelines are vague, and mean whatever someone wants them to mean, so we’ll do our best to spell out what this site actually does.

This policy is effective Dec 1, 2009, but is consistent with past practice. Our intent is the highest ethical standards.

Mission

This site succeeds by long-term commitment to reader value, by providing valuable information and judgment calls to readers, to the best of our ability. Recommendations and advice are based on objective testing, subjective evaluations, and the sum total becomes the best advice we can offer.

We can’t spell out every possible scenario here, but the core principle is unwavering: the best guidance we can offer our readers, and we tell it like it is.

Loaner equipment

The very nature of this site makes loaner equipment mandatory; it would be financially infeasible to review equipment otherwise, especially high value equipment. Loans are of a limited time-frame, typically 1-2 months, but occasionally longer to allow for more in-depth coverage.

Free stuff

This site does not accept free cameras, lenses or other photographic equipment of any substantial value. Substantial value is defined as approximately $200 per item (lowest street price), or higher. The time (especially) and cost of returning such items costs us more than the items themselves.

There could be oddball cases. Any exceptions will be disclosed at the time of the first substantial coverage of that item (blog, review, etc). Merely mentioning an item again (or linking to it) is not grounds for a fresh disclosure.

Advertisers and discounts

This site accepts compensation from general advertisers (eg B&H Photo, Other World Computing, Amazon, Lens Rentals), because that’s inherent to the business relationship: this site charges for ads like any other publication; commissions, discounts, free shipping or anything similar are all just compensation.

Manufacturer discounts (eg Nikon, Canon, Zeiss, Leica, etc) are rarely offered and to date have always been declined, though we might purchase directly at the lowest negotiable street price. We can and will avail ourselves of any discount available to at least some segment of the buying public. We reserve the right to accept a reasonable discount when purchasing equipment for ongoing testing purposes, because it might otherwise be a challenge to purchase that equipment so as to provide a longer term perspective. We also reserve the right to accept like-value equipment exchanges/updates when it serves long-term testing purposes that serve the interests of readers.

Reviews

This site has never, nor will it ever accept payment for any review of any product or service. We choose what we want to review.

Advertisers and links

In some cases, commissions for sales made through this site are paid (e.g. B&H Photo and Amazon). Such links are a part of the financial support of this site.

It is the policy of this site that “commission” links are provided only on a win/win basis: your price is no different than if you visited that site directly, bypassing the links provided by this site.

This site accepts advertisements from a very small number of vendors, hand-selected selected for service, reliability and value, and based on our own satisfied customer relationship.

In some cases, this site is compensated for ads by general vendors, just as any magazine or other web site or publication would be. In some cases the only derived revenue might be from links (commissions).

Software

This site does accept free software (though we cannot always get it), because wide-ranging testing is often performed, sometimes on a sporadic or ongoing basis (see MacPerformanceGuide.com).

We deem free software a win/win for readers because it allows exploring much more than otherwise financially feasible. Software is deemed to have no significant value, because we can’t possibly use all but fraction of the software we review, plus it’s just about impossible to buy and return software that has been opened and installed (unlike hardware).

Software is not returned; manufacturers don’t want it “back”. That said, the stuff this site uses heavily (eg Photoshop) has long since been paid for and paid-upgraded many times over, at the usual street prices.

Our products

This site charges for various subscriptions, software, etc. We recommend our own stuff unabashedly. If you like our Stuff, you renew. Simple.

Consulting, lecturing, trouble-shooting

We charge for our time. Consulting and lecturing and trouble-shooting and the like that consume time or effort on behalf of another party constitutes a work for hire arrangement. We charge for this.

Any questions?

You can contact me —Lloyd Chambers