Each time a new camera is announced, the internet is swamped with so-called ‘hands-on previews’ or even ‘hands-on reviews’. You can find many ‘hands-on previews’ of the Canon EOS-6D already. It sounds like these people really tested the camera, so if you are in the market for this particular model, you click the link to the website, only to find out that these did not test anything at all. A ‘hands-on preview’ is nothing more than the official press release plus a couple of pictures of the website guy with the camera in his hands. Sometimes it’s not even that and they only publish the official press images. No review, no test shots, nothing else. It’s just ‘click bait’, intended to draw more visitors to the site.

So where do these ‘hands-on’ previews come from? Some weeks before a camera is really available, either as a pre-production test sample or as production units, the camera company organises a press conference for the official introduction. They usually have a few samples (pre-production samples or even mock-ups) available, so the journalists can take a sample in their hands to play with it. They are not allowed to shoot any real pictures, often that’s simply not even possible. As soon as I take such a camera in my hands and look at it, that’s your ‘hands-on preview’. And if I also think about whether I like it or not, that’s apparently already a ‘hands-on review’ for some.

Next time you see a ‘hands-on (p)review’ link in Google, don’t be fooled by it. The words ‘hands on’ mean they didn’t do anything but hold it in their hands. If it was a real test, they wouldn’t use those words, because you can’t test a camera without holding it in your hands anyway…

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