[ChristianRock]

You mean we won't be lectured in how focus breathing is the most important thing in a lens anymore? Awww.....

[ThorSanchez]

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.

I'm sure that's true in some cases. But there are many, many subjects where it's vastly easier to learn from YouTube. Try changing out some bit of my 2014 Audi with a printed book. Good luck finding a printed manual, I'm not even sure the dealer has that. Absolutely no way my local library has one. Amazon doesn't appear to have one. But in two minutes I can be watching a detailed, step-by-step how-to video of exactly what I want to do.

[btnapa]

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

You are right. Your points are all on point! This shows that the review business is a business after all. You have to think like a businessman first and an artist second. If you do it the other way around, you run into what he ran into. Lack of support from Ricoh/Pentax makes matters worst too. Correct me if I am wrong, has Ricoh/Pentax helped any of these reviewers? I am curious. I come across occasional reviews of Pentax gear by various photographers. Mostly positive and glowing as they should be. I wish Pentax would put some muscle behind some of these reviewer. The traditional marketing via magazines and such is almost dead. Thanks to the pandemic, trade shows may be dead too. Ricoh must have a marketing budget. Why not dedicate a portion of it to these review channels. It may be the best bang-for-the-buck for getting the word out.

[sundown]

I played the video and stopped it.

Initially, a year or so ago, he said this channel was an experiment aiming to improve his social and presentation skills, etc. etc. Now he is quitting cause he is not earning money through the channel?......

[StiffLegged]

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.

I’d be glad to give examples of YouTube channels on photography which are well worth watching, but you probably won’t like them.... however, there are diamonds among the stones, you just have to look carefully.

[Serkevan]

Ricoh must have a marketing budget.

Yes, it's about 60 bucks per month and pays for a once-a-month update to some social media accounts
Jokes aside, I would like to see them advertising more but I guess their ROI predictions showed it to not really be worth it in the current climate...

[Rondec]

Yes, it's about 60 bucks per month and pays for a once-a-month update to some social media accounts
Jokes aside, I would like to see them advertising more but I guess their ROI predictions showed it to not really be worth it in the current climate...

They do some targeted advertising, but honestly, you need new releases to want to advertise and those have been limited over the last year or two.

[btnapa]

Initially, a year or so ago, he said this channel was an experiment aiming to improve his social and presentation skills, etc. etc. Now he is quitting cause he is not earning money through the channel?......

That is true. I guess after a year or so he realized that improving his skills and paying bills are two different things. I like the guy. As quirky as he is, he brings a fresh style and pretty good content to the table. Sad to see him go. I wish him luck breaking into a market with lots of good reviewers already.

[pres589]

I think the second video of his I watched was a match-up between the D-FA 150-450 and some Sony G-series lens, like a 100-400, and while he's showing comparison images that makes the Sony look like a purple fringe generator while also lacking comparable contrast, he was complaining about the Pentax suffering from focus breathing. "As you can see the Pentax is just not good" and the images aren't saying that to me at all. I felt like he wasn't great at explaining how the lens "wasn't good", he focused on the wrong things, and he came to conclusions that the actual images didn't align with.

He should just chalk this up to experience and try something else. And forget about trying to make money off of whatever he's doing with YouTube. Use it as practice to get a paying gig in photography or video work, etc. I don't feel like the Pentax community lost anything with this channel stopping new Pentax reviews; if anything, I think we're much better off. I don't think I could do a great job making lens review videos but I also know enough to not try and hold myself out as having that ability. There are a couple off YouTube channels that do make decent videos on this sort of thing but they're vastly outnumbered in my estimation.

[Rondec]

It is really hard to become a YouTube star. You have to bring something special to the table -- better analysis, funny jokes, or banter with a friend that feels enjoyable. Or maybe just having super attractive people around you who don't wear many clothes.

I'm afraid that changing to Nikon isn't going to really change his outlook...

[Larrymc]

It is really hard to become a YouTube star. You have to bring something special to the table -- better analysis, funny jokes, or banter with a friend that feels enjoyable. Or maybe just having super attractive people around you who don't wear many clothes.

I'm afraid that changing to Nikon isn't going to really change his outlook...

Well actually, I think he is changing back to Nikon. If I recall, I saw some his Nikon reviews a few years back.

[Jonathan Mac]

"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

I read your summary thinking I've never seen or heard of this guy, then watched about three seconds and remembered I saw one of his videos a few weeks ago. It was terrible and as others have commented, he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about, so it doesn't seem like any kind of loss to the Pentax community. He can review CaNikOny gear, 'cos no-one does that...

[Cerebum]

I won't miss him. He really wasn't very good

[FotoPete]

Ah shucks, I hope he keeps at it, even if it means to expand the photo gear he covers. His videos have noticeably improved from his earlier work and his style may not be to everyone liking but there are few other opportunities to see the kind of pentax gear in action and also in comparison to gear from the other brands. Other web coverage on Pentax is few and far in between and usually lighter or more general in content.

Also, Pentax has been absent floor space in our major camera retailer for a few years now, a pentaxian needs the gear fix!

[surfar]

a pentaxian needs the gear fix!

Fix these ones!

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