March 22, 2011: Cannex, which has been rating home mortgages and other financial products since 1992, has started up a rating service for a range of consumer goods, including digital cameras, under the ‘Canstar Blue’ brand.
According to a recently completed survey of 2500 consumers, Nikon DSR owners are the most satisfied.
But curiously, when it comes to digital compacts, Nikon doesn’t even get a look in, with Canon and Panasonic in a dead-heat for top rating, and another five brands – none of them Nijkon – mentioned in the listings.
In DSLRs, however, Nikon dominated the results of a survey of buyers of new DSLRs purchased in the past two years, and was awarded 5 stars in every criteria including Overall Satisfaction.
The good news for camera makers and retailers alike is that across the board, satisfaction was high for all brands surveyed, with the results supported by comments from the majority of respondents who did not dislike anything about their DSLR. All brands scored at least six out of 10, in each category.
Some respondents commented adversely on the bulk of the DSLR camera, and the cost of purchasing additional lenses.
The lowest satisfaction scores were recorded for price; however again, scores remained reasonably high.
Following the digital compact survey Canstar Blue commented: ‘we could not split Canon and Panasonic when it came to overall satisfaction. With results too close to call, Canon and Panasonic share the Five Star Award.’
Once again, according to Canstar, respondents were pretty happy with their compact cameras, with all brands surveyed receiving at least a 3-star rating (or 6 out of 10) in every criteria.
Functionality and Design recorded the lowest ratings, with respondents reporting problems with battery life, screen size, and complicated menus, and many complaining that controls are not intuitive, making the experience not very user-friendly. (Some people also mentioned small buttons and large fingers being a problem.)
According to Canstar Blue, many people don’t seem to use the full functionality of the camera, either because they don’t want it, or don’t know how to use it. Respondents also mentioned that they were not happy about having to buy special accessories for certain brands of camera (including battery packs and memory cards) that would not work across different brands.
Panasonic and Canon also scored highly in other criteria, tying again for first place in Image Quality.
Panasonic came out slightly ahead of Canon in Functionality and Design. Both, however, were beaten by Fujifilm and Kodak when it came to satisfaction with price.
Baby Boomers are the most satisfied with their compact cameras, much more so than either Generation X or Y. Men are more satisfied in every criteria than women!
Canstar Blue also conducted a survey on consumer satisfaction with leading CE retailers, in which Retravision scored top rating. Clive Peeters and The Good Guys were in equal second place, followed by Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith.
Canstar Blue manager, Rebecca Logan, said discount prices and great staff were major considerations for consumers of electrical goods.
‘Customers value staff who really “know their stuff” when it comes to electronics retail,’ said Ms Logan. “People surveyed went out of their way to congratulate retailers who had helpful, knowledgeable staff.
‘More people actually commented on service than they did on price in this survey.’
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