Popular Photography & Imaging

Now to the bad part: I find that the articles that are not related to products reviews are primarily intended for novices, and they are very repetitive. If you've subscribed for more than a year, you will find that many basic subjects are treated over and over again. And I have always been disappointed in the subjects of the articles, which are just very unimaginative. Photography is such a huge subject, with many interesting and idiosyncratic techniques available. There is no need to stick to the same handful of subjects. It's uninspirational, and it's bad editing, frankly. I do like Herb Keppler's monthly column. He's a plain-spoken guy who usually has something useful to say. More evidence of editorial laziness is that Pop Photo essentially puts their annual product guides in the magazine. This means that several of their issues are dominated by pages and pages of charts telling you what is available this year in SLR's, point-and-shoots, film, zoom lenses, etc. There is very little else in those issues. Other magazines put their product guides in a separate publication that is available on the newsstand.

In summary, Pop Photo has a wide audience and a lot of potential, but needs a better Editor. The product reviews and tests are worth the price of the subscription to me, but that is really what the magazine excells at.


Good general purpose mag   October 26, 2001
Alan B. Humphrey (Seattle, WA United States)
48 out of 48 found this review helpful

Pop Photo is a good general purpose photography magazine. The coverage of new trends and products is good and the techncial reviews of equipment can't be beat.

There is a tendency for the editorial staff to be combative with letter writers (check the letters to the editor). This can be annoying, and fortunately they've mellowed out a bit over the past couple of years.

Good travel photo column, and the readers photos segement is the first thing I look for every issue.

One caveat, if you're a digital photographer looking for in-depth digital how-tos this isn't the mag for you.


Some good advice but overall not a great magazine   December 28, 2004
Chris Goguen (Halifax, MA United States)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

I have been a subscriber for a few years and have found alot of the articles repetitive and not all that educational. Recently I have subscribed to Shutterbug which is a much better magazine for both the novice and professional photographer. Its articles are insightful and even after many years they still can teach this old photographer a few new tricks !!!!


A disappointment   November 12, 2002
C.M. (Austin, TX)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

As a budding amateur photographer, I was hoping this magazine would have good tips and interesting articles. But, instead, there's a lot of product reviews for things that I don't need. It's fine to have one section on products, but I didn't know that's what the whole magazine was about. I have a year subscription, but I just keep throwing the magazines away when they arrive. I don't have the inclination to look through them anymore.


The most solid magazine for Film & Digital photography   June 13, 2005
Tom Boucher (Wake Forest, NC United States)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

I subscribed to multiple photography magazines at first when I started getting serious about photography. I subscribed to 'Photography' and 'American Photo' and this one, Popular Photography and Imaging.

Of the three this magazine has the most balanced amount of reviews, 'how tos', digital imaging related topics (Photoshop, etc) as well as some nice contests. Also they seem to sponsor more 'mentor series' type products where you can go to some locale and shoot photos for a reasonable fee.

Of all the magazines this also had something that was important to me - half the magazine isn't ads. Photography was the worst offender of this, there'd be 50 or so pages of weak articles, and then 50 pages solid of ads. While this one does have a chunk of ads near the back, it still has a 'back page' article and articles mixed in among the ads. And only 25% of the magazine is advertisements.

They also support a nice online website (popphoto.com) and have a forum where people can logon and ask questions. While not as heavily trafficked as say dpreview.com the authors and editors do read and respond to questions. Overall a great magazine for the hobby.