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This is hilarious. Some Moral High Ground Fable was Woven by some guy named Gerald, whose sulking cause he didn't get invited to a launch party, and people have started bashing the whole world. This is ludicrous. If he doesn't get invited to the Academy Awards next year, he'll probably have an absolute meltdown.

Good summary and thanks for re-evaluating. People who are able to fact-check or re-evaluate their position, by keeping an open mind and updating their previous conclusions, are in my most respected category. My impressions of the 5D with ML setup is that it stands in the current market like many other cameras: as having significant weak points but also significant strengths. Rather than being an all-rounder like many other offerings, I feel it has a very strong image if that's the kind of look you're going for, but also strong negatives, like people have mentioned. This is in contrast to most other cameras from that time that have aged significantly and are mostly negatives compared with the current crop. This setup is definitely not for everyone, but neither is any other camera and it's up to each of us to match the strengths and weaknesses of each product against our own individual highest and lowest priorities.

None of the youtube personalities made me buy anything. I assume!:) Their thumbnails are hard on my eyes and the violet led tristesse of a youtube studio is hard on my soul. I don't watch them anymore at all. I bought most of my stuff based on footage and comments and of course this forum! Still a bad choice to watch or read anything to find an exuse to buy stuff you don't NEED.:) Gerald has developed his successful formula and he has a great voice. I assume he could comment on anything like cars, computers. A good part of his income is generated from purchases. His reviews are balanced and he supports people in making an informed purchase and to keep them up to date with the pro(sumer) tech. He is not a filmmaker nor is he a nerd of filmmaking. His target audience seems to be mostly youtubers, tech fans, event filmers. Gerald enables them to buy the item of their choice, not to hinder them to buy anything. I would watch his reviews if I was to buy a new camera and to choose between a Z9, an upcoming S1HII or a S9II with hotshoe, mechanical shutter and EVF:)

All good, though I personally would love to see some 5D3 prowess and some Komodo in the wild:) Now, how we gonna start it anyway?:)

He makes an interesting point on watching review as a form of validation. I have to admit I'm guilty of this, but not necessarily for "validation". My squirrel gear head is constantly looking for new stuff and now, in order to stop the beast inside of me, I watch reviews of old stuff that I've already purchased. Basically, they all say the same thing- "what a great product" and "you shouldn't look any further!" So, I guess ultra positive review serve a purpose after all.

I may have spoken too soon. I went back to play around with the image and it turns out that the noise is easily dealt with in MLV App. I think the 5Diii creates a more characterful and interesting image than the C70 (and maybe even the Scarlet-X). Even if the image was exactly the same, it's smaller than a cinema camera, comfortable in the hand, weather-sealed, shoots full frame 14bit raw video, won't overheat, won't attract as much attention, and can be easily replaced at a low cost if necessary. What other camera has those characteristics? The only thing it doesn't do is shoot 4K with full real-time preview. So maybe it still represents a pretty unique value proposition 12 years on!

Yeah I love this. Nailed it

Curtis posted this and I think it's a much more measured view on what is at play when it comes to the current YouTube landscape and reviews. He spent the last 10 weeks making videos on only things he paid for himself and this is his thoughts on it. It was done based on his own thoughts and curiosity, not out of bitterness because he wasn't invited on a trip. As far as YouTubers go I feel Curtis is one of the more transparent ones and is overall very thoughtful.

Yes, the ‘as seen on X’ situation. As seen on TV As seen on the cover of As seen hanging out with All these things add a degree of legitimacy and status. I photographed Rockstar X’s wedding etc… For many starting out in this industry, it often starts with what I call ‘badge collecting’ as in if you have even a single image featured on an influencer account, you can add their badge to your own account as in, ‘as seen on’. I have done it myself previously with mixed results… I was one of only two (UK) official brand ambassadors for NZ’s top wedding album company and used that ‘status’ in my marketing material. Did it actually give me some status though? I think so… Did it help boost my profile and turnover? I think so… Did it also attract competitor trolls who used it against me behind the scenes in various underhand ways? I know so because I went after them like an attack dog. It was my one and only attempt at sticking my head above the parapet and from that experience, it simply confirmed that I do not want to be a badge collector, a brand ambassador or any kind of self-professed ‘leader in my field’. I’d rather be the tortoise than the hare.

I don't know about the Komodo-X, so maybe some of these considerations are different, but the sorts of things I was thinking about were: Long startup times Poor non-native ISO performance Lower resolution outputs crop into the sensor, so if you want to shoot in anything less than 871K then all of a sudden your whole lens collection has shifted FOVs, and your 6K RAW files are ridiculous if you're shooting for socials which are 1080p max and people are watching on their phones Higher frame rates are only available in lower resolutions, so a FPS change is now a lens change, which is a DOF change, and might be an exposure change, which combined with poor-non-native ISO performance is a lighting change...... These probably aren't a big deal for anyone who already use cinema cameras, but lots of these folks saving up for years to finally buy a RED came from the high-end cameras of the time like GH5, C70, 1DXii, etc, which are completely different beasts to use. So it's really a cinema-camera vs video-camera type of thing, and lots of people aren't shooting in controlled situations either so the struggle is real.

We've been told Sony eye AF is way ahead of Nikon and others. Someone at DPR had a issue with Z8 eye AF. Another guy tried to test it in the similar scenario that guy encountered the problem. Confirmed the issue, then compared that with a Canon and a Sony camera in exactly same situation. Sony and Nikon performance in low light was close to each other but acted differently, Canon was better than both, and never focused on wrong eye or eyelashes. Would this convince me to switch to Canon? No. But I want to know what my next camera CAN'T do. Maybe I decide to wait a bit longer to upgrade.

Yeah, I suspect that a lot of people get a rude shock when their fantasy doesn't mean reality. And the release of the Komodo & Raven, plus the general march of time (which has made older RED DSMC1 bodies very affordable), has pushed a lot of REDs into the reach of almost "affordability" for many indie enthusiasts / semi pros / aspiring pros. We'll perhaps see the same happen with ARRI as, especially if an ARRI Mini can drop under US$10K in the next couple of years (which maaaybe it might, especially if the recession drags itself out for that entire length of time). What is your current "fun camera"? In some hypothetical world where you lost everything, but insurance pays you out, so you can start out again from scratch rebuying whatever, then what "fun camera" would you get?

Exactly! I was overseas for a month working on a feature film and I barely got a second to myself to enjoy the trip itself. It was very much a trip for work.

Another aspect of "authenticating & marketing yourself" is if you're a "brand ambassador" who gets flown by them internationally for launches, then you're now a lot more legit in the eyes of clients / directors / agencies / producers, and you've upped your hireability a lot. I'd say that's a massively more valuable outcome for many of these smaller youtube channels, who are getting very little if any money from YouTube subs / views.

Many of the YouTubers that are doing these reviews do a sponsor readout as part of it. Adsense might not be making a lot of money, but I'm guessing that Squarespace or NordVPN or similar pay alright. Maybe you didn't do sponsor readouts, but a lot of those people do. So the equation for them would become "How many videos will I get out of this free trip where I can do a sponsor read vs how many would I make at home with sponsor reads in the same time?" and not "How many pennies will YouTube share with me from AdSense?" I have terrible news for you. The Komodo-X, at least, is just as easy to use as many of my other cameras, right down to having mediocre autofocus/face tracking (I'd say a little below Fuji level, definitely not Canon/Nikon). I never used the OG Komodo, but enough is similar that I'd assume it's about the same, generally. (That's not to say you should get one - just that usability is really pretty alright)

I don’t think the ad revenue argument stands up to any scrutiny to be honest. Have a look at the views for all of the S9 videos. YouTube pays what these days, $2-3K per million views? Ad revenue is decided on a lot of different factors, none of which YouTube really shares with us (or at least not me.) I'll randomly earn $20 dollars in revenue one month for a 10 year old video that got a dozen views. Meanwhile a video that gets a couple thousand views will make half that. Ad revenue isn't bringing in the money that it used to, but it DOES still generate passive income. It may only be a couple thousand dollars a month, but for many folks that might be enough to pay for their mortgage or rent.

What boggles my mind is how on earth a couple of minutes a day with a camera for a couple days on a trip is going to give enough insight into how well the camera works under normal circumstances? It sounds like a bunch of smoke and mirrors that the camera manufacturers and the YouTube personalities engage in to give the hopped up consumer. Obviously, it works. Do they get loaner cameras too to help with the reviews? Do the marketing folks "coach" you at these retreats by repeating catch phrases or some other subliminal techniques to push the "reviewer" towards a positive review? Or do they bank on the innate notion that it is harder to be critical when someone has been so nice. It reminds me of the South Park episode when some Asian country was trying to take over South Park by telling them how much bigger American penises are compared to Asian ones.

Hopefully we remained as true as can be here. We tried to share our honest thoughts. Neither one of us would buy this camera with our own money at the moment either. It's too expensive for a fun camera for us. But for some people it may be worth it

Of course! I'm stoked this conversation is happening. We need to all be aware of how it all works and the creators should always be upfront and honest about their involvement with whatever company they are talking about. Which is why I have been patient on making my personal video and we just posted a podcast sharing our thoughts. I don't think YouTubers should race to get a video out and not be thoughtful about their content. A first look video is fine and I certainly played that game for years, but now I feel finding an interesting angle or an interesting idea about a camera or piece of tech is way more creative and ultimately more authentic. But if a creator can truly be honest about the trips, free loaner gear etc... and is still able to be objective somehow... is that good? Is there a way you can watch a video about a camera that was given to someone as a loaner and take away any value at all? If not, then some creators should consider taking one for the team and denying the free trips and free loaners. A hard ask when the day to day life of a YouTuber is extremely grinding, late nights, ups and downs financially, and then a company says "hey you wanna go on a trip with all your friends for free?"

For sure! But don’t you think people will be skeptical of the positive reviews? So many popular YT personalities give mostly positive reviews for every camera they’re given by a manufacturer. Free camera, free trips, people are going to be skeptical

In short? A no-brainer.

Blackmagic Design is still today what RED was not completely able to deliver at least to the wildest expectations, the true indie cinema camera is theirs. RED is nowadays mainstream and a guess, since Nikon has bought the brand. Better than any unknown hands, IMO Jim and Jarred honoured their commitment with this industry. Made a maninstream camera company anyway. And the purchase by Nikon only proves it. Hope Blackmagic will stand at our side though. Reason why I usually tend to buy any great sale signed by them. On the due course, again as of now when I write these lines. I even believe every indie should have no reason to not have one if not a few of their unique offer. Who else? No one else. - EAG :- )

Man - I recently watched my BMMCC footage I shot with the 14mm handheld and it was too shaky so well done on hand-holding a 25mm lens! The images certainly grade like refined butter.... just incredible compared to any h26x footage.

Actually, @mercer has recently become acquainted with a camcorder that has rather captured his attention....