Shutterbug

Most people, and most camera stores, buy Shutterbug as a reference book they use to determine the going price of new and used gear. Over the past year, though, I've seen these readers turning increasingly to E-Bay as the best source of used camera price information.


Shutterbug full of ads   April 23, 2007
Terry F
15 out of 18 found this review helpful

I recieved my first issue of Shutterbug after about 7 weeks from ordering it. I was disappointed in the mag. as almost all of it is ads, ads and more ads. As far as I'm concerned it should be given away for all the advertising they recieve in it. The articles they had in this issue were about very high end equipment that 99% of the readers would not be able to afford or use. Most of the ads do not even contain prices for the products, making them useless for shopping and comparing anyway. I did like the low price that amazon had for Shutterbug though, I would have really been mad if I had paid cover prices for it.


Cheerleading reviews, mediocre articles   August 14, 2007
Joseph Boone (Irvine, CA United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

In many respects, Shutterbug is the mirror image of Popular Photography & Imaging. The strength of Popular Photography is its quantitative product reviews. Shutterbug does little if any measuring when they review a product. Further, I have never once seen a review in Shutterbug that was anything less than gushing. The writer will go on and on about the strength of the product and never compare it critically to other similar products on the market. I realize that magazines are reluctant to offend potential advertisers but some shred of integrity toward readers would be greatly appreciated.

The relative strength of Shutterbug is reflected in more general articles regarding photographic technique. This is the area that Popular Photography badly stumbles and this magazine definitely manages to perform at a higher level of competence. Unfortunately, these articles are still pretty basic and repetitive. Any decent entry level book on photography would contain 99% of the advice you'll ever find in Shutterbug. So while the articles are better than the reviews, it's hard to say that they alone make it worth the price of a subscription. In the final analysis, I can't recommend Shutterbug to eithe beginners or advanced photographers.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this review, I flipped through an issue of Shutterbug at a local store. It looks like there has been a change in editorial policy as a product review took the tone of a true critique rather than being a puff piece as they so often did in the past. There still wasn't quite as much meat as I would have liked but this is definitely a step in the right direction for the magazine. Amazon does not allow reviewers to alter the number of starts given once a review is published or I would probably bump Shutterbug up a notch to 3 stars. It still is far from great, but I appreciate the fact that they've improved a bit.


Shutterbug Magazine (ads,ads, info, and then some more ads.   December 26, 2001
Dustin (Honlolulu, Hawaii)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

I find this magazine an excellent source for finding some current prices for equipment, but it falls short on the technical side. It is printed in a large format with many, many full page photographic dealer's ads. I have ran across some good articles, but find it more of a collection of... well... ads!


Buyer beware   October 31, 2002
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

This magazine bases its business on accepting advertisements from a large amount of mail order camera stores, of which many
use unscrupulous business practices and have been the center of many complaints. The magazine has yet to police itself of such unscrupulous advertisers in order to protect you,the reader, in your purchases of photo equipment. There is very little technical content found in this magazine.