And the winner is...

I have the very great pleasure of announcing the results of our Safari Group E-30 Kit competition...

Here are the ratings of all 17 impression pieces, voted by our Safari Group members below...

The numbers below are :
Impressions Piece - Rating out of 6 / Number of people rating

1 - 4.0 / 61 (David Gaunt)
2 - 3.4 / 81 (John Crouchley)
3 - 3.4 / 98 (Shirley Hollis)
4 - 3.8 / 99 (Steve Hallam)
5 - 2.7 / 100 (Mick Logan)
6 - 3.0 / 102 (Rod Souter)
7 - 3.8 / 103 (Andrew Cooper)
8 - 3.4 / 101 (Philip Storry)
9 - 4.3 / 103 (Vaughan Williams)
10 - 4.3 / 105 (Simon Angier)
11 - 3.0 / 103 (Tom Stoneham)
12 - 2.2 / 102 (Alan Tucker)
13 - 3.6 / 106 (Michael Knowles)
14 - 3.5 / 107 (Pete Delaney)
15 - 4.2 / 109 (Alex Bampton)
16 - 4.1 / 109 (Bruce Clarke)
17 - 4.3 / 110 (Rich Simpson)

I took the top 5 rated impression pieces, and e-mailed them without ratings to professional photographer, writer and reviewer Sean Reid, who very kindly accepted my invitation to choose a winner from this shortlist :

A) 9 - 4.3 / 103 (Vaughan Williams)
B) 17 - 4.3 / 110 (Rich Simpson)
C) 15 - 4.2 / 109 (Alex Bampton)
D) 10 - 4.3 / 105 (Simon Angier)
E) 16 - 4.1 / 109 (Bruce Clarke)

I first discovered Sean as a writer/reviewer when I read his 2nd opinion review of the Olympus E-1 here :
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/e1-2nd.shtml

Sean has a highly respected professional review site here :
http://www.reidreviews.com/reidreviews/

Which is funded entirely by his subscribers - something I found very refreshing in a world of advertiser supported, high traffic websites.

Here is Sean's verdict...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi Brian,

After much reading and re-reading of the five reviews I've chosen the piece that gave me the best sense of what the E-30 might be like to work with. As you instructed, I didn't look at writing style or structure per se but rather at content. I found the most useful review to be "C".

That piece is grounded more in observation/description than in opinion (a distinction that I think is important in reviewing) and it's approach was practical.

Now, of course, there were many aspects of the other four reviews which were quite useful and which were not necessarily all discussed in review C. To be sure, then, my best sense of the camera came from
reading all five reviews.

Thanks for asking me to participate in this interesting process.

Cheers,

Sean

Sean Reid
Photographer
http://www.still-photo.net
Publisher
http://www.reidreviews.com

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So, a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Alex Bampton, who wins the first prize - a complete E-30 Kit.

My heartfelt thanks to all 17 reviewers who contributed to this competition - the following top rated contributors will each receive an ME-1 eyepiece
magnifier.

Vaughan Williams, Rich Simpson, Simon Angier, Bruce Clarke.

The prizes will be presented at an appropriate Safari Group event in January.

Merry Christmas!

Brian