[surfar]

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[BigMackCam]

"Failed" rather than "jumped", it would seem. Or, to put it another way, this is The Camerville's "End of an Era Error"

For those who'd rather not watch the entire 6:20 video:

• He hasn't monetised his channel properly and is now in debt (and seems genuinely worried about it)
• Amazon is cutting commission rates on affiliate sales from 8% to 3% making his situation worse
• He can't get access to K-mount glass he hasn't yet reviewed
• "Pentax" (by which he means Ricoh) doesn't assist him in any way
• He's winding down on Pentax reviews (although still has a few more to do)
• Going forward, if he continues he'll be reviewing Nikon, Canon and Sony gear, as that's what he has access to

You're welcome

@surfar - you must be gutted that he won't be concentrating on FujiFilm?

EDIT: Looking through the comments, I see someone actually suggested he do FujiFilm instead, and he replied that he's "tempted". You might be in luck after all

[biz-engineer]

He gives some very interesting hints about what a YouTube channel is about... (advertising). Interestingly , there aren't that many Youtube channels reviewing Phase One, or Alpa, and when they do, they do it with a certain dislike (read disdain) from the point of view of the average consumer. The smaller the camera systems, the more fuzz is done about is. It's comparable to how much review is done on Youtube for Caterpillar excavators compared to the Lego versions of it YouTube is the new TV of 1980 - 2020 where you had no choice but have your favorite movie series interrupted every 40 minutes, then every 30 minutes , then every 15 minutes , for a paid Advertisement. YouTube becomes the same as TV: a few years ago you could watch a Youtube Vid without Ads, and now you get Youtube Vids interrupted by a half dozen Ads trying to sell you something, in addition to the Ads you get dynamically refreshed in web pages. Internet Advertising is a massive market, Google generated more than 9 Billion revenue in 2019 and this is increasing. All these online businesses wants is: 1) your attention 2) your interests (via cookies etc, what sites you visit, what videos you watch and what is your IP number). Reviews are essentially attention catchers, the content part of the videos seldom goes beyond teaser. Time to go offline.

[BigMackCam]

YouTube is the new TV of 1980 - 2020 where you had no choice but have your favorite movie series interrupted every 40 minutes, then every 30 minutes , then every 15 minutes , for a paid Advertisement. YouTube becomes the same as TV: a few years ago you could watch a Youtube Vid without Ads, and now you get Youtube Vids interrupted by a half dozen Ads trying to sell you something, in addition to the Ads you get dynamically refreshed in web pages. Internet Advertising is a massive market, Google generated more than 9 Billion revenue in 2019 and this is increasing. All these online businesses wants is: 1) your attention 2) your interests (via cookies etc, what sites you visit, what videos you watch and what is your IP number). Reviews are essentially attention catchers, the content part of the videos seldom goes beyond teaser. Time to go offline.

YouTube is as valuable as ever, IMHO, but it requires the viewer to be discerning and selective in what they watch, to establish and/or question the motives of every video, and to validate information gleaned before acting on it - just as they should for other web sources, TV, radio or printed media...

[surfar]

@surfar - you must be gutted that he won't be concentrating on FujiFilm?

EDIT: Looking through the comments, I see someone actually suggested he do FujiFilm instead, and he replied that he's "tempted". You might be in luck after all

He was poor enough with Pentax, his attempt with the XT30 was abysmal.

Hes saying hes going to do CaNikOny,well good luck with that.They are putting the majority of effort into M/L which isnt an area he seems particularly cluey about.

[Paul the Sunman]

He's over-the-top in a YouTube sorta way, but I for one am sorry to see him go.

[BigMackCam]

He's over-the-top in a YouTube sorta way, but I for one am sorry to see him go.

I'm not a fan of his content, largely due to his presenting style and questionable testing methodology. He seems like a nice enough guy, though, and I wish him better success going forward. It seems like he's learned some useful (if painful) lessons from his YouTube experiences thus far, so hopefully he'll put those to good use...

[biz-engineer]

YouTube is as valuable as ever, IMHO, but it requires the viewer to be discerning and selective in what they watch, to establish and/or question the motives of every video

Usually , I get from youtube some introduction to a subject, but then if I want more solid and more in depth information I'd rather use books and even books from the good old paper book library at some local universities.

[BigMackCam]

Usually , I get from youtube some introduction to a subject, but then if I want more solid and more in depth information I'd rather use books and even books from the good old paper book library at some local universities.

Same here... YouTube's good for overviews and shorter subjects or bite-size information without much depth. Plus, with the right presenter, it can be entertaining, though I'm not so keen on opinion pieces. Still, I prefer a good book for detailed information and learning, and tend to absorb information better when I read it...

[Serkevan]

Video reviews basically never cut it for me: I can read faster than the information flows from the speaker, not to mention that a text is easy to scan and skim for what you want, particularly if you want to focus on the figures/images - can't do that with a video. I watch video content for the hosts' personalities... Li isn't particularly my cup of coffee as he's a bit too over the top. Still, he's not too bad and I have watched some of his videos (+ subbed) to support his channel because, well, Pentax reviews.

[zapp]

His business model failed, either due to lack of interest or due to lack of information/quality. The niche is wide open again, but I suppose no one will fill it - at least not with a business approach.
Most of us get information 1st hand and life happily ever after.

[BigMackCam]

His business model failed, either due to lack of interest or due to lack of information/quality. The niche is wide open again, but I suppose no one will fill it - at least not with a business approach.
Most of us get information 1st hand and life happily ever after.

He more-or-less explains and/or refers in the video all the reasons why his business model failed - a combination of no sponsorship, not getting viewers to "like" his videos and/or subscribe and donate to his channel, plus essentially a smaller potential audience due to his chosen brand, and fewer new releases of lenses and cameras to review (and we can conclude that small audience and fewer product videos equals low advertising revenue).

I'm no YouTube professional, but if you're going to make a business out of it, you need a very good strategy and business plan at the outset. It's not about presenting videos on what you enjoy and what interests you (even if that's how it starts off), but rather producing content to attract views, likes and subscribers and develop revenue streams from donations, affiliate commissions and advertising, using every possible tool and channel to maximise each of those...

[Serkevan]

A friend of mine is closing in to a million subscribers (videogame-related content); he has mentioned that he basically cannot play the games he likes that aren't massively popular, as they take a massive amount of effort* for 10% of the views, likes and - most importantly - revenue. He still does it to prevent burning out, but big youtubers are slaves to the grind trends.

*His videos include the run-of-the-mill commented gameplay, but also guides/tutorials and more "for entertainment" videos which require a lot of working hours in editing, then a long time for the software to be locked up processing etc. You don't want to spend 10-15 hours editing a video that you know will have 50 thousand views when you could spend 3 hours with random gameplay moments that will get you close to a million views.

[SSGGeezer]

The big thing is views from what I have seen, even AvE makes fun of the Youtube auto-censors when he curses his camera for not focusing on a close up. He normally says "Focus you $##$" then when it focuses laughingly says, "Demonetized! And he has between half a million to 3 million views on most of his videos. (his last one had 90K in less than 8 hours.)
Has Cameraville ever had over 100K views? That used to be where You tube supported the creator's money making , especially since they demonetized a lot of videos over the last year. (More for them!)

The End of Pentax Reviews | A new format coming soon - YouTube

Sometimes looking for information on a camera or lens I unfortunately was confronted with his "reviews". It is of course my own fault for not reading the header of the links. The first time you let it play a bit and within about thirty seconds you turn it off. It is a bit of a ADHD version of a review and, but again it is my fault, I cannot take it seriously. And sometimes it slips in when clicking a link, s... there he is again. And within a second or two life returns to normal. In the short whiles I watched him he convinced me that he does not actually know what he is talking about. And it is all due to his ADHD presentation style. And he behaves in a popular way by blaming others, instead of admitting he would better be doing something else. I agree with biz-engineer. Time to go offline.