Ken Rockwell?

Does this guy just test camera gear or is he an active photographer?

I think he's an active photographer. I don't think paid photographer, but just someone who takes pictures.

Check his web site. He is having a lot of fun and his galleries are worth viewing.
www.kenrockwell.com/about.htm

READ his ABOUT page. It is a fun article. People love and hate him but his is entitled to his opinions. You decide whether to visit or not. If you like him, go to the site, if not, avoid it. Let everyone form their own opinion lest your first stone breaks your own window.

I think he is pretty much earning his living blogging about photography. I don't believe he's ever worked as a professional photographer. I've heard he was an engineer, but I think the blog and related activities is all he is up to now. It seems to me he is both a photography enthusiast, he incorporates photography into his life and leisure time whenever possible, and a gear fanatic.

He's one of millions of other goof-ball, know-it-all, internet photographers writing about what they they know, but his blog has become more famous than most. I'm not a fan, but when I have visited his site I've found most of the information sound. I think his equipment reviews are as accurate or more so than the internet average. He obviously understands the traffic increasing value of controversy: there's no such thing as bad publicity. He's pushed a few sound bite opinions that have ticked off other popular photo-bloggers and gear fanatics, and so he's sort of the photo-blogger photographers love to hate.

He ticked off the guys over at Luminous Landscapes when he wrote an article about how the gear doesn't matter. Nothing he wrote was anything new, but I guess his web notoriety focused the accusations of heresy on KR. One thing I learned from that tussle was never tell the guy holding the $50K camera that the gear doesn't matter.

Another thing he said that seemed to make some people mad was that tripods were obsolete because of the great high ISO quality of DSLRs. Many, many years ago he made folks angry when he said the 6mp APS-C sensor spelled the end of 35mm film. Last I checked he'd gone 180 with that one. Now he says 35mm film is superior to digital sensors. He was calling film "real raw". They're all like political sound bites: not worth much of anything in the real world, but guaranteed to get people riled up.

and discussing.

I could do that!!

Baydream wrote: Check his web site. He is having a lot of fun and his galleries are worth viewing.
www.kenrockwell.com/about.htm

READ his ABOUT page. It is a fun article. People love and hate him but his is entitled to his opinions. You decide whether to visit or not. If you like him, go to the site, if not, avoid it. Let everyone form their own opinion lest your first stone breaks your own window.

From the sounds of it, you like him?

Henry Peach wrote: I think he is pretty much earning his living blogging about photography. I don't believe he's ever worked as a professional photographer. I've heard he was an engineer, but I think the blog and related activities is all he is up to now. It seems to me he is both a photography enthusiast, he incorporates photography into his life and leisure time whenever possible, and a gear fanatic.

He's one of millions of other goof-ball, know-it-all, internet photographers writing about what they they know, but his blog has become more famous than most. I'm not a fan, but when I have visited his site I've found most of the information sound. I think his equipment reviews are as accurate or more so than the internet average. He obviously understands the traffic increasing value of controversy: there's no such thing as bad publicity. He's pushed a few sound bite opinions that have ticked off other popular photo-bloggers and gear fanatics, and so he's sort of the photo-blogger photographers love to hate.

He ticked off the guys over at Luminous Landscapes when he wrote an article about how the gear doesn't matter. Nothing he wrote was anything new, but I guess his web notoriety focused the accusations of heresy on KR. One thing I learned from that tussle was never tell the guy holding the $50K camera that the gear doesn't matter.

Another thing he said that seemed to make some people mad was that tripods were obsolete because of the great high ISO quality of DSLRs. Many, many years ago he made folks angry when he said the 6mp APS-C sensor spelled the end of 35mm film. Last I checked he'd gone 180 with that one. Now he says 35mm film is superior to digital sensors. He was calling film "real raw". They're all like political sound bites: not worth much of anything in the real world, but guaranteed to get people riled up.

I couldn't have said it any better.

Well his stuff isn't boring, that's for sure! I take much of what he says w/a grain of salt but he does seem to have a certain amount of knowledge and makes it entertaining. Not too long ago his site had a tour of Adorama, and maybe B&H? - I forget now... but besides the tour being fun to see, he did have some nice shots of NYC posted from his trip there, so he does have some ability.

Like w/many things, especially on the internet, you can't always go by any one source. I think it helps to read a variety of articles/websites to get an idea of what the consesus is or to find a resource that over time you find to be consistently reliable.

Angie's List! ++++++++

What's already been said is accurate.

He's a really good landscape photographer with film.

It's honestly worth a look through the whole site. There is some good information on there, and some absolutely HORRIBLE information on there.

Very entertaining though.

It's a wild and woolly blogosphere! If you just want to sample some photography blogs, here are links to some lists -

www.ilovephotoblogs.com/i-still-shoot-film

www.e-junkie.info/2011/07/collection-of-...otography-blogs.html

Kelly Cook

That is a good set of lists Kelly. With Rockwell you either hate or love him. There seems to be no middle ground.

Odd thing was that none of my searches turned up a good list including one of my personal favorites -

www.andymumford.co.uk

Oh well, Google givith and Google takith away ....

I'm neutral. No, really. I sometimes read what he writes, but I also take it for what it his. A person who makes a living posting his opinion, NOT always facts.

Of course there are hard facts included. An f/1.4 lens isn't said to be an f/1.3. He calls it an f/1.4.

The focal length, nearest distance and etc. are also facts.

The conclusion he makes are his opinions, and I read them that way. I don't always agree, nor disagree. He's just another soul earning a dollar off the web. His views don't really affect me one way or another.

That's all.