why the scoff and disregard for popular magazine gear reviews ?

[Tortuga68]

Give me a few $000s for marketing and I reckon I could get a house brick rated as a top product for divers

"Tired of uncontrolled ascents getting you bent? Meet the new gamechanger in negative buoyancy... available in a variety of textures and colours: the buoyancy brick!"

 

[DevonDiver]

"Tired of uncontrolled ascents getting you bent? Meet the new gamechanger in negative buoyancy... available in a variety of textures and colours: the buoyancy brick!"

Nah... why take all the fun out of it. Just throw a load of advertising money at a dive magazine and let them scratch their heads when the time comes for them to give it their obligatory glowing review. LMAO

 

[miketsp]

i've been in and out of the forums for about a year-and-a-half now and have always been aware of the scoff and disregard for gear reviews in the popular scuba magazines. thing is, i've never really heard WHY or what they're doing so wrongly. what is about XYZ Magazine's "Gear of the Year" issue that is so incorrect?

(not trying to troll, honest inquiry.)

As already stated, just how many negative reviews have you ever seen?

 

[Rhone Man]

What Andy said. The reviews are not impartial. The reviewers get given free gear and glossy pictures to put in their magazine, and the quid pro quo is that they will always say nice things about the gear, no matter how bad it is.

My absolutely favourite thing about British diving magazines is that they are not afraid to say that gear is "nothing special" or "crap" when they feel so minded. They are also very happy to dismiss things as "gimmicks" if they serve no useful purpose. Magazines in the rest of the world? No so much. Can't recall the last time I read a gear review that wasn't fabulous in a US based dive magazine.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I'd like to see some of those british mags. As everyone else has said the reviews of gear supplied by mfg's, not purchased by the reviewers, I never take seriously. I don't know if it is because they are cheapskates or because they are scared of losing the ad revenue but I have yet to see a US scuba magazine in print or on line that did not strike me as full of crap when it comes to evaluating gear. They will brag about having highly experienced divers and even gear designers do the testing but none of them do more than regurgitate the ads the companies place. The link to the knife-light review for example. What a crock of horse manure. No mention of the obvious downfalls. How can that be taken seriously? And it was admitted that the mfg submit products. If the rag relies on ad revenue do you think that they will admit an item would warm the heart of P T Barnum? There is good stuff out there. Very good. But it gets no more mention than the ridiculous and sometimes none at all because the mfg won't play the "here's your free stuff to review game" or it gets lumped in with junk that gets the same glowing praise.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

 

[Wetsuit 4 life]

I don't think I have ever seen a review that was not in some tropical environment, as far North as the reviewers go looks like California and I think that was to test dry suits

 

[Hatul]

A lot of "reviews" are really concealed ads. Another issue is, for the reviews they get products from the manufacturers which may be different from what you and I buy at the store.

One specific issue is the disregard of Force Fins by Scubadiving magazine because of a fight they had.

Adam

 

[koozemani]

If only the knife light came with an attached spare air!!

I've perused mag reviews with a grain of salt and found that all to often the specific piece of gear I'm looking at was never reviewed. Not only that, the entire brand received no mention in any issue for any product. I purely stick to user reviews on boards like this. I'm equally skeptical of product reviews placed on vendor sites, they are almost always the generic "I love this product" with very few detailed or well thought out opinions.

 

[TSandM]

Although magazine reviews are generally restricted to either the wares that manufacturers will supply for free, or the products of companies buying significant advertising, they are not entirely worthless. I do believe that objective data, like field of view on masks, is probably legitimate.


However, in the six years I have been reading such articles, I can only think of one or two products that were reviewed that would have had an ice cube's chance of ending up in my gear locker. The real spectrum of available dive products is not represented by these reviews at all.

 

[DevonDiver]

My absolutely favourite thing about British diving magazines is that they are not afraid to say that gear is "nothing special" or "crap" when they feel so minded. They are also very happy to dismiss things as "gimmicks" if they serve no useful purpose. Magazines in the rest of the world? No so much. Can't recall the last time I read a gear review that wasn't fabulous in a US based dive magazine.

Yeah, I do agree with that - they are a little more balanced. That said, I've found myself banging my head against a wall a few times, as the reviewers (esp. Mr John Bantin) seem to miss-understand some diving philosophies behind certain kit designs. Never sure if there was a skew to the article to favour certain manufacturers, or whether they just don't understand that they're trying to (badly) compare apples and oranges..

MARES PEGASUS VS HALCYON ECLIPSE - Divernet

I'd like to see some of those british mags.

Diving Gear - Divernet