How we rate cameras
A camera page here is a summary of what many owners and reviewers have already said, sorted and counted, with a link to every source. When we test a camera ourselves, the page says so, and says what we tested.
Where the opinions come from
For each camera we read four kinds of sources: hands-on reviews from photography publications and independent blogs, long-term owners in forums and on Reddit, customer reviews on retailer and marketplace pages, and video reviews. We look for people who actually used the camera, and we mark which quotes come from owners.
We do not use Amazon customer reviews or star ratings. For video reviews we work from what the reviewer says on camera and link to the exact moment. Our video notes are drafted with the help of an AI model that watches the video, and each note links to the moment it describes so you can check it.
Before a quote goes on a page, a script downloads the source again and confirms the exact words are there. Quotes we cannot re-check that way, for example from review widgets that only load in a browser, are left out of both the quotes and the counts.
How we count
Every opinion is one person's view on one topic, such as the light meter, the battery or image quality. We tag it as positive, negative or mixed. A long review can contribute a few opinions on different topics. We cap how many opinions any single website can contribute, so one loud source cannot tilt a camera's page.
On each camera page you see how many opinions we sorted, from how many sources, and the share of positive opinions per topic. The numbers describe what people wrote. They are not lab measurements, and small counts deserve less weight than large ones.
What we never do
- Republish full reviews. We quote at most a short sentence and link to the original so you can read the rest.
- Show other sites' star ratings as if they were ours.
- Say we tested a camera we did not test. Pages built only from other people's opinions say so at the top.
- Let a retailer or brand pay for a better verdict.
How guides and film pages are made
Guides that answer a question, such as where to develop film or whether instant film survives airport X-rays, start from official sources (manufacturers, the TSA, the stores and labs themselves), then the pages that already rank for the question, then forums for real-world experience. Every number on the page links to where it came from, and a script checks that the supporting text really appears on the cited page.
Film stock pages work like camera pages: we collect what photographers say about each film's color, grain and latitude, count where they agree, and show photos actually shot on that film.
Prices and links
Prices come from US sellers' own pages on the date shown, and change often, so treat them as a range. We never use Amazon prices. Some links to sellers may earn us a commission at no cost to you. That never changes what the page says about a camera.
Photos
Photos come from our own testing or from Wikimedia Commons under open licenses, credited under each image. We do not use AI-generated pictures to show what a camera's photos look like.
About the name
Camera Dojo is under new ownership. It is not affiliated with the original Camera Dojo blog and podcast that ran from 2007 to 2013, and the original site's presets and courses are no longer available here.