Cheap Photographic (Magazine) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Photographic

I learned most of what I know from reading this magazine and other "enthusiast" magazines like it. If you read it for awhile, you'll notice that the how-to articles repeat themselves fairly often, so the articles eventually get old. Although they are helpful for new photographers, they would be better off just buying a good textbook on beginning photography.

The reviews, like those in all magazines I've encountered, are almost entirely a waste of time. They will always be very positive (the mag won't bite the hand that feeds it), and don't offer meaningful critiques or comparisons to the competition. Find a good review website, like dpreview.

Garbage
I am cross posting this most of these photo magazines are published by the same company under a different name. I have read them ALL!

First, 77%+ of this magazine is advertisements. That leaves under 25% of material. The material that does remain is bare minimum informational and tends to just show "pretty photos". Coverage on camera gear appears skewed since EVERYTHING is GREAT. This leads me to believe advertisers sway them.

In short, this is an advertising pamphlet with a cover price. If you need information, typing "photography" in any search engine will give you more information in 30 seconds then a 10 year subscription.

I wrote the main company about the 77% issue and they stated that they are aware of the amount of advertisement and quoted a percentage higher then I stated. That this was necessary to continue producing a magazine of this quality.

Quality? OK, if this is quality then I don't know what to say other then the semi professional magazines are free of charge from the publishers, contain actual subjective information, and are produced on high quality paper with fewer than 30% advertising.

An Equipment Junkie's Magazine
Like most magazines aimed at the amateur, Photographic is predicated on the idea that better equipment equals better photography, and that to be a real photographer one must constantly be upgrading to the latest and the greatest. Sure, there are also columns and articles on "technique"- though often as not they're about using a particular piece of equipment you haven't yet purchased but which is obviously exactly what you need to makie those great Ansel Adams pics you've admired.

I read Photographic for many years- my father subscribed to it- and when I was a child I, too, bought into the idea that better gear would make me a better photographer. Fast forward 20 years, and I found myself doing some magazine illustration work with a 20 year old Nikon F2 and a hand held light meter. No automation, no modern electronics, and nothing in my camera bag made after 1978. And surprise of surprises, the photos came out just fine.