Welcome to PhanBusters

NEW!! Sick of the Peter and the other Canon fanboys posting photos of Canons at sporting events? Here are some pics to post right back at them!

If you've spent any time on dpreview.com, then you've heard of him. Peter Phan, the Canon obsessed wannabe-photographer who has gone to extraordinary lengths to push his Canon obsession at the expense of any other brand. Most notably Nikon and Olympus although Fuji, Kodak, Sony/Konica-Minolta and Pentax have also been on the receiving end.

Peter Phan has several aliases and has lied extensively in order to push people onto the Canon jugganaut.

Some of the above are complete new identities, requiring the setting up of new email accounts with his ISP. He has created bogus backgrounds, histories and experiences for each of these identities. It is hard to believe that anyone could be so brand-obsessed as to go to this much trouble.

It is also hard to believe that anyone could trust any advice from such a person when they have so completely set out to deceive.

It is typical for Peter to diss Nikon. Usually without basis in fact or experience. He is a severe measurebater and will dismiss any new non-Canon camera or equipment by a selective measure of features, even if a camera isn't released yet. When the question is asked, he will compare only those features where Canon has superiority. He often makes mistakes during these comparisons, invariably in Canon's favour. He recommends Canon over any other brand even if he has never touched any of the cameras he is commenting on. In addition to Canon he regularly disses the Olympus E-1 series, the Fuji S2/S3 and the Kodak 14n and SLRn. Curiously after dissing the 14n/SLRn for so long he is now saying how wonderful it is that Kodak have released the SLRc and is far more willing to overlook any shortcomings simply because it uses the Canon mount.

He will say whatever it takes to promote the Canon product over others, even if it means constantly 'changing his mind' about what is important. For example, when the D100 offered a cable release and the 10D offered a wireless remote he regularly said how he preferred a wireless to an old-fashioned cable release. But now that the D70 offers a wireless remote, he says that he prefers the traditional cable release type. Another example is his regular dissing of the D70 because it has a 4-shot RAW buffer (17 shot JPEG buffer). He usually says any decent photographer always shoots RAW, and so the 17 shot (10D killer) JPEG buffer is worthless. But here, he admits that he "shoots a lot of JPEGs". Which is it Peter? You can't have it both ways.

He often quotes prices for equipment where the Canon version is cheaper, in order to prove better value-for-money. He never mentions items where the Nikon version is cheaper (just as common).

He often selectively quotes financial and sales figures as a basis for what brand of camera a person should buy.

He often posts pictures of Canon cameras at sporting events and then uses them to (inaccurately) claim than Canon outnumbers Nikon in the professional photography market.

The first known time he created a 2nd simultaneous dpreview ID was in July 2003 when Old Dog (later changed to T3) joined Peter Phan. Old Dog and T3 spent several weeks backing each other up. This continued until Peter Phan was banned in September 2003. A brief re-appearance as "Peter Phan ." only lasted a couple of days before being banned as well.

ID	*Joined*	*Banned*
*Peter Phan*	September 13, 2001	September 29, 2003
*Peter Phan .*	October 8, 2003	October 11, 2003
T3#1	July 1, 2003	CURRENT
T3#2	September 30, 2003	November 5, 2003
*James McPeak*	October 16, 2003	April 25, 2005

The timetable clearly shows that after being banned as Peter Phan he created T3#2 the next day. A second Peter Phan was created 8 days later. After that was also banned, James McPeak was concocted 5 days after that. James was finally banned as well, in April of 2005. If you look back to the oldest page of the T3#1 account you can see that it started as Old Dog. If you look at T3#2, you'll see it started as T3, then changed to Patrick Gordon, and finally Advisor.

Claims to be an old school expert and have owned a Nikon FE2 camera, but here in Yr 2000 he admits to having only 2-5 years experience.

Often 'agrees with himself' by using multiple IDs in the same thread. Take a look at this thread where T3#1 and James McPeak take turns at patting each other on the back. I guess two people arguing is better that one! There are several examples of this behavior.

Now THIS is funny: In this post he critisises another poster who 'agreed with himself' by using another ID. In exactly the same way that Peter, T3 and James do on a regular basis. The absolute height of hypocracy!

After being banned the first time (as Peter Phan), he changed the screen name of his original "T3" ID to "Patrick Gordon" and then "Adviser" to make him appear to be several different people. A look at the profile reveals the truth.

By far the biggest deception was the 'birth' of the James McPeak alias. Fabricating a complete background as a current Nikon user trying to decide if he should switch to Canon. Of course he does so, and then uses his fake 'switching' experience to convince others to do the same. Here hey claims to have "three years" experience using a Nikon N65. Unfortunately his lies about owning an N65 are revealed by the release date of this camera, which means he could have owned it for -at most- 18 months. It's a bit hard to use a camera 18 months before it is released......!

With all the lies that have been told, how could you believe anything such a person says?

Because I detest people being deceived by someone so biased and obsessed that they are willing to mislead consumers with fictitious stories and experiences from an overactive imagination, and then pass them off as fact. I hate to think how many people have been taken in by this obsessed conman and what financial losses have resulted.

Following an excellent response, more evidence has been added to the 'proof' page including some identical quotes from each identity. This should leave you in no doubt.

No doubt there are (or will be) more fake identities from Peter. If you suspect there is another one, send me an email with your evidence.

Welcome! Your lie telling days at DPReview.com and Photo.net are now revealed for all to see. You have no-one to blame but yourself. If you cancel your fake IDs and stop lying to people on the forums, then I will take down this site. Maybe your pharmacy sells some Canon patches that you may be able to use to help you break the habit?

I'm sure Peter Phan has nothing to do with Canon, it's just an obsession. I'm sure Canon is a reputable company and has nothing to do with anything written by Peter Phan.