Loading Profile...
Great site - well done...and thanks for making the task of choosing cameras, that much easier!
Regards
Joseph
SUGGESTION: Do not include the Popularity points "above the line", but allocate them seperately "below the line" and show two different scores if necessary. In fact I would suggest that the entire Miscellaneous points should be given "below the line" together with points for some useful extra features which may make the camera more attractive for some.
Let me give an example: the Lumix TZ10 vs the Sony HX5v scores 100 against 79. The TZ10 is awarded 100 points for popularity as against the HX5v's 40 points. Technically therefore, if one were to remove the Popularity points, the HX5v would have 183.4 points against the TX10's 182.3...making them almost equal (actually giving the Sony a slight edge).
I agree that popularity can be important for buyers, which is why I suggest that if you should allocate points for this and other features (in the case of these two cameras, you include points for GPS), then such points should be allocated seperately and "below the line"...and let the user do the math!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share this thought. Keep up the great work!
Help get this topic noticed by sharing it on
Twitter,
Facebook, or email.
Twitter,
Facebook, or email.
I’m
frustrated
Snapsort should lessen the effect of points for "Popularity".
-
EMPLOYEE
I’m
confident
Hi Joseph, glad you like the site and thanks for taking the time to give us some feedback.
When you say 'below the line' are you saying that Snapsort should calculate and show Popularity scores, but not include them in the totals?
I looked at the score of the comparison of the Panasonic TZ10 vs the Sony HX5v.
1. I do in fact see points for GPS, Snapsort gives points for having a GPS in the travel-zoom category.
2. You're right, the cameras score very closely if you ignore popularity. Something I love is that because Snapsort explains its scores in detail, it enables you to understand why it made its recommendation and then perhaps make your own decision based on the numbers.
- Alex
Follow Snapsort on twitter.
Become a fan on facebook. -
-
I agree with Joe. I really do not care for the popularity either which is very misleading when comparing technical specs of 2 cameras. Ex: Nikon P100 vs Fuji HS11, Nikon wins by popularity. Same for canon s95 vs Panasonic LX5.
-
-
-
-
I’m
happy
I agree as well. I was writing the same suggestion and saw a thread already existed on the topic. My comments:
I was surprised to see in http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon_EOS... that the 550D scored 90 versus the 7D at 84. Sure, they're pretty close... but I expected the score to go the other way.
I viewed the breakdown of score and saw the culprit: popularity.
After feeding Snapsort's numbers into a spreadsheet, but factoring out popularity, the score shows up as 89 for 550D and 95 for 7D. Ahh. Much better, because I don't care what is popular.
But maybe popularity *is* actually important to the masses. If users tend to view and buy the 550D more than the 7D, then it's reasonable to assume that an arbitrary user should be prodded towards the 550D over the 7D because there's a higher probability he would prefer the former.
Ultimately, it would be nice if I could define my own scoring system (or set my own weights, or select what matters to me, etc, etc) so that popularity doesn't confound the scores as I see them. -
-
I’m
happy
It's an interesting question!
On the one hand, popularity could be giving some indication as to how happy people are with that particular camera - which is otherwise hard to quantify.
Conversely, I guess that a camera that has been released for a year with many happy/interested users will score above a recently released camera, simply because the latter has not been around long enough!
Maybe a resolution would be to add less of a weight to popularity? -
-
Great ideas/discussion here.
Using popularity and weighting it as we've done currently works well in that it enables the system to make general recommendations that apply to many people.
The system is transparent it scoring, so if someone looks into it, and sees that a popular brand camera (say Canon) is beating a less popular brand camera (say Pentax) because of popularity, then they can use this information, and make their own decision, either "brand popularity is not important to me, so I'll get the Pentax and I know I'm getting a great camera same or better than the Canon" or they could say "I think I'll be less adventurous and buy the camera more people choose every day".
In the future we hope to:
1. Pull in more information about the image quality, usability and reliability of cameras so we can rely less on popularity
2. Provide more personalized rankings of cameras, letting users influence how much weight is assigned to each criteria.-
Sounds cool to me.
-
-
-
-
-
The popularity system on this site is the one reason I WILL NOT recommend this website to any of my friends or family seeking advice.
A comparison website such as this should be focused around identifying the best value and best performing cameras. I couldn't care less how many people walk into a store and walk out with a BRAND A compared to a BRAND B, if BRAND B is better camera then it should be the winner in a head to head comparison (all popularity here does is provide self gratification to the masses who believe they have the best camera in the world, being BRAND A, because the salesman said so).
I'd recommend that popularity be removed from the comparison page altogether. Then at the bottom of the page have an option to turn it on in the 'below the line' format as alluded to above. -
-
I couldn't agree more with this discussion.
I believe popularity should be used to make a decision when two cameras are really close (within a few points), but 50 points is really really way too much.
By the way I have proposed custom scoring in another topic... but only few users will notice the exact scoring system, and there is definitely something wrong with the default setup. -
-
I agree that popularity shouldn't count as much but I wouldn't take it away either. Right now, I'm seeing that problem with popularity when trying to buy a Used Sony A35, and that problem is...there is none on Ebay / Amazon. There are fewer choices for the A33 and A55 for used also. Which means if I were to sell it, there are less people out there buying (i.e. bidding up the prices or selling faster).
Also, I just took an intermediate DSLR class. Most of the people there are using Canon or Nikon so if you ask around to see "hey, how do I adjust my focus points" or "where is the menu for metering", no one knows how to get there on a Sony >_<
That being said, I would count popularity but as maybe 20 or 30% of what it accounts for now. Or even use the users' vote to score popularity instead. -
-
I wanted to start a thread and realized that this was already here! Popularity is a real bad parameter!! It needs to go!!!
-
Yes, "by below the line" I mean exactly what you said. I guess it takes a determined person to seek top get deeper into how or why the scoring came about.
In the case of this particular example, had I not read other reviews I would not have been so surprised with snapsort's verdict/score - 74 for the Sony as against 100 for the Panasonic - and I would have simply discarded the HX5v and opted, without much further thought (the gap was too big!), for the TZ10!
Re the miscellaneous unusual features, which together with the Popularity aspect I am suggesting that you rate "below the line", in this particular comparison I felt that the Sony's Sweep Panorama feature would have been worth a mention and some points - always "below the line" of course.
Incidentally, "above the line" this time, i agree that the TZ10 should have gained points because of the larger sensor, but i suggest you include some weighting for cameras which, like in the case of the HX5v, make up for this by having a better type of sensor - a CMOS in this case.
I realise how difficult it must be to come up with a totally objective and workable rating system, but I do hope that you will agree that first impressions count and that, as can happen because of the Popularity weighting, one may end up with people choosing cameras simply because they may have aroused curiosity or because they or their makers are more popular than others. Snapsorts objective must be to indicate the best digital cameras...and not the most popular ones!
Thanks for bearing with me. By the way, I was using your website to help my daughter-in-law buy a camera for my son as a birthday present. she ended up buying the Sony...also because she felt that her husband would love the Panorama feature.
Ciao, regards and thanks.
Joseph