Originally posted by Lord Lucan I am utterly baffled as to how you read that lot into my comment, or how you see any insult in it. If you read the original post in this thread and follow the link there to "thephoblographer" website, with the news item that this thread is about, you will read these words :-
Referring to your question, P&S and mobile photographers, the potential purchasers we are talking about (or at least what I was talking about), are not likely to be numerous on this forum, although I am glad of any that are and welcome them as potential Pentax users.
Nor was my comment an insult in any case, actual or intended. I had not heard of mirrorless cameras myself until after I joined this forum 18(?) months ago after updating my DSLR kit. I never looked at anything but Pentax but if I had gone for advice in a camera shop I have no doubt the salemen there would have soon have told me about mirrorless, and I would have listened too, if did not already have legacy Pentax glass. My point was that at that stage many of those new buyers mentioned in that link would have dropped their original idea of a DSLR and gone for mirrorless. That does not make them stupid, it's a personal choice.
Far from my having a "people who choose DSLRs over mirrorless are stupid" mindset, (or did you mean "mirrorless over DSLRs" - your point here seems muddled), you in your second sentence say :-
So you are calling people crazy if they go mirrorless. There's an insult if you are looking for one, but I'll take it as a figure of speech.
I have no problem with people going mirrorless. I have a problem with people thinking they are smarter than people who don't because they did.
Quote: I am utterly baffled as to how you read that lot into my comment,
Quote: I would not be at all surprised if most of these users do not know the difference between DSLR and mirrorless
Quote: Exactly. They have heard of SLR cameras, and not of mirrorless ones, and naturally want a digital one. However, wait until the salesmen start talking to them.
Is it still baffling? The assumption that the people in the survey don't know what mirrorless is, hence more ignorant than almost every camera enthusiast on the planet. I have never heard of a study criticized before based on the assumed ignorance of the participants. Certainly as a crazy assumption that in 2018, not 2011, there are camera enthusiasts who don't know about mirrorless. But humour me. Post a survey or something where a single person in the target sample doesn't know mirrorless is an option. The way to counter research is not speculation about the knowledge of a study's participants, it's better research.
I mean really folks, you can't just start piling negatives on every bit of research, just because you disagree with it. What's the point, I see some of research, I think needs further study and file it away until I have more data. I don't start posting reasons on line why it doesn't mean what it seems to mean, unless I actually know something.
In this case, I take the study at face value. It means exactly what it claims to mean. There is simply no plausible reason to doubt it. All the factors of what might happen later are irrelevant. The study doesn't address how much the sample knows, or if they will eventually buy a DSLR or a mirrorless. The study says what it says. Live with it. Speculation without further study doesn't clarify the issue.
For all we know, the study's participants actually know more than the average consumer about mirrorless cameras, and will buy a DSLR, just like they said they would. Suggestions to the contrary are simply not researched to the same level as the original study. In fact they are not researched at all. And in fact, some of the people who plan to by mirrorless may end up buying DSLRs. The numbers don't suggest which way that's going to fall. But it would be an interesting subject of a study.
That being said, if you can get your hands on the original data, you can come up with a different interpretation than the authors did. That is often the case. I never make final judgement on study until I understand the design and implementation and actually see the raw scores so I have some idea what I'm dealing with. Until then it's pretty much just canon fodder. An awful lot of studies post conclusions not consistent with their data. This is just newspaper fluff.
And if you are going to speculate, why not speculate both sides of the argument? Questioning the reliability of those who say they'll buy DSLRs but not that of those who say they'll buy mirrorless is just a biased criticism. It's not even well thought out speculation.
Last edited by normhead; 10-09-2018 at 02:19 PM.