I've been thinking about subscribing but would like to get some non-biased feedback first. Anyone care to chime in? Is it more leaning to the technical side or is it more practical? Similar to Thom Hogan or more like Scott Kelby?

Hello Neil,

I am a subscriber to diglloyd.com and would recommend it highly. Lloyd Chambers' articles are well written, easy to understand and informative. If you are interested in Zeiss lens reviews, I imagine Lloyd has the most comprehensive set available at a central location on the internet.

The articles do tend to be more technical, but in my opinion not overly so. If it helps, I rate Lloyd Chambers written material pretty much on a par with Thom Hogan's. If you like the latter I am confident you will like the former.

I have no exposure to Scott Kelby information and so cannot compare, sorry.

Hope this helps.

Rob
www.robbuckle.co.uk

I did.

His reviews are indeed very technical, mostly of lenses, and a few of bodies.

If you want all of the details possible about a lens' resolving power, issues of focus, contrast, then he he is your person.

I found him useful in resolving which of Nikon's ultrawide lenses I was going to acquire. I was willing to spend the long buck, but only to bust the budget for one, superb lens. There were choices, each with pros and cons. Ultimately, one rationalizes these things for one's self, but Lloyd provided a matrix of observations which allowed me to rationalize what was really an emotional choice.

If you want composition or lessons in how to shoot photographs, he would not be my choice. His approach is concrete and technical to lens choice, and some shooting technique, but as it reflects the ability to get, say, the maximum amount of sharpness.

I have subscribed to various topics on his web site. This is not a one-subscription-gives-you-access-to-everything kind of place, you pay a separate fee for each topic.

I have dropped all but one of my subscription but only because I had gotten what I needed by the time the subscription came up for renewal.

His Guide to Zeiss ZF/ZE Lenses was extremely helpful to me when I was putting my Nikon kit together. I think I'm ready for the D800E!

I currently have a subscription to his Guide to Leica since I am putting together a nice Leica M9 kit to cart around in my Harley saddlebags. This topic has been very helpful as well.

I suppose I should mention that he does have opinions.

The Making Sharp Images is a good refresher for working in the digital world and Advanced Photography had a few things I found of interest.

Bottom line: I feel the cost was well worth the return.

Thanks for the reviews everyone. I have wondered about what I could expect from his content. I wish he had enough sample material out for me to make a decision. I've seen from his mac performance guide what his writing style is and I was wondering if the camera stuff was similar. I used to really enjoy the technical aspect of photography a lot but really have been moving away from that to improving my images with artistry.

Hi there, I use Lloyd, and subscribe to his site. In particular I signed up when I started Digital Infrared Photography and found him very useful in getting to grips with that subject. As he regularly updates things I have continued to renew my subscription.
Andy M.

"I take photos of what I like, If
someone else likes it - that's a bonus!"
Andy M

Nikon D3 etc More than enough.
My Gallery http://images.nikonians.org/galleries/useralbums.php

Here are my 2 cents on his site, having been a subscriber for a couple of years now.

His site does offer a wealth of information, and much of it is considerably more detailed than other reviews or sources. But you should also go in knowing what to expect. You also need to know his market. If you do not have a high end budget, a lot of the information on his site may not be the most useful for you. Often his comparisons are between gear like $5000-15000 Leica lenses, the $20,000 Leica S2 system, medium format bodies, the highest end DSLRs, etc. If buying a single Zeiss prime is a big purchase for you, it may be hard to relate to his experiences, since he seems to often talk about the performance of this top-end gear, and use it as his benchmark for comparison. His DAP does include reviews of more "common" gear like the Nikon 24-120/4, 28-300 zoom, f1.4G primes, etc. but remember that when you read them, he is used to shooting considerably higher end gear. Therefore, his conclusions often are "well it's pretty good but they're no Zeiss/Leica primes".

I read thoroughly his guide to Zeiss primes (but have not revisited in a number of months), and perused his DAP section. Starting last year I do have a subscription to making sharp images, but I have been very busy with other things and not had the time to go through it in detail. From what I have seen, however, it seems to focus more on the various reasons of why you can't or won't get sharp images from your gear, instead of specific methods to actually improve the sharpness of your photos.

I could basically summarize what you will learn about making sharp images from his MSI articles with the following: if you want maximum sharpness, shoot only Zeiss primes (or Leica if you have a Leica camera), use a high end tripod, and manual focus only using zoomed-in live view. Anything else will fall short of perfection. I was a little let down by this, as I thought MSI would include more knowledge on how to actually maximize sharpness with the gear you have, such as specific sharpening settings/techniques, or good camera handling practice/discipline, etc. Now I could be wrong as I said I have not gone through all of it in detail, but that seemed to be the gist of that section of his website.

This is not to say I don't find his site useful, or that it was worth the money. But at the same time, I don't think subscribing year after year like he would like is worth the money. Updates and additions are not plentiful or significant enough to really warrant continuing subscriptions, unless he is going to review some specific gear you are very interested in.

Norman

Some of my pictures