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According to Brandon Talbot, Nikon is working on fixing H.265 and adding RED Log3G10 as an option for it besides N-LOG. That will make the camera tremendously more useful for the majority of normal users who don't always want to shoot R3D NE.

"Max Yuryev left the chat room"

Mosts artists create and never share their work with people outside of their immediate friends and family. Others create and share it on the micro level, simply wishing to share it but not make a big thing of it (example: folks that play at the local bar but have no interest in recording and releasing music.) I think as a whole we are far too judgmental about art and the things people create. It's okay to be critical, but at the end of the day, we should encourage people who create anything at all, especially as AI creeps into the picture. People don't just use AI for the convenience, but because of their own insecurities. I know too many local businesses who have started using AI because of the belief that it looks better than what they were creating themselves. I'm certainly guilty of thinking to myself, when looking at something a local business owner clearly made themselves, "that's awful." What I wouldn't do though to go back to seeing that stuff over the soulless, gross AI slop that they are all switching to. At least it had personality and you knew someone put their time and effort into creating it, even if it wasn't great.

some people can't understand why some oil painters have no interest in selling their paintings ,the satisfaction is in the pleasure of creating the painting ,and even sometimes it may be better than the last one.

Luckily photography/videography are my hobby so my decisions don't need to make any sense... so I just bought a new-in-box Nikon ZR & a 40mm f/2, both for 30% off. Same store had a Megadap ETZ21 Pro for half price. So far having a blast with the camera.. I like the form factor a lot and the screen is just exciting, both the IBIS & AF are easily better than my Fujifilm X-H2s. The H.265 is definitely subpar, but it's still ok for social media use because once it's 1080p on a phone, anything will look good. You should buy things the way they are now, but I sure am hoping they'll bring a firmware update to bring the H.265 to the same level as in the Z6III.

Well I came, I saw. I chickened out. Bought a secondhand ZFc with a kit lens. Effectively, I confidently walked in to get the 64 Strat in classic white with triple single coil pickups and a whammy bar…and walked out with a banjo. Went from getting a forever camera to getting a foralittlewhile camera. I had an FM2 when I was a kid and this drew me in as did the £450 price. The Z8 will have to wait but…

Here's an anecdote regarding our level: A-Cam was an Alexa Mini on a documentary shoot. The cinematographer didn't really get enough variety for the storytelling the director wanted. We tried to make it work in the edit booth. Couldn't do it. Late in the edit/production when the budget had been burned, the two of us went back into the field to get necessary pick-ups. Those pick ups ended up covering close to 1/3rd of the film. All the footage was cut together, color graded, and released on one of the major American TV networks. Every shot looks cohesive. That pickup stuff was done with my used, ebay purchased, 9 year old GH5. And there ain't no way anyone watching that film could readily tell the difference between the two. That said, anybody got one of those Alexa-Minis laying around they want to give me? I'll trade you my GH5.

Luc Forsyth likes it, or what he saw at NAB anyway. This is a setup they had with a broadcast servo-zoom lens on it. His comments (link with timestamp) He's worked on the survival show Alone for a few seasons and they use dozens of GoPros, but the footage always looks like it came from a GoPro This new model with a proper lens attached looked like footage from a real camera The broadcast zoom setup (with a phone as a monitor) handled like a proper camera He doesn't use AF when rigging cameras to vehicles etc most of the time so the lack of AF doesn't bother him in that context

Everything is art, that's why you can stick a urinal in a gallery and suddenly it's art. With YouTube what matters to me is the intent of the artist - are they doing it to shill a few cameras and get cozy with marketing, or are they doing it to further their aspirations in filmmaking and trying to build a community of other artists around it? Shilling a few cameras and getting cozy with Jack from PR is an art. But it's on the same level as cinematography is it?

I think you hit the nail on the head there. Gerald is a rigger, and a studio guy. He stuck to what he knew. Nothing wrong with that of course. It's interesting how vague he was in the goodbye video about what he's going to pivot to - something product based, but stuff that gives him joy, not very specific is it? Just shows how important enthusiasm and obsession are in this industry. If you lose interest, you're finished!

This is interesting to see whether internal H.265 will be better than shooting R3D NE and converting it to H.265 RED Log3G10 with 500Mbps bitrate in Resolve. R3D NE bitrates are not that bad, but not having the possibility to save trimmed R3D NE files as R3D NE is THE problem. Shame on Nikon and RED if they don’t fix this. With NRaw it works, so it is up to RED SDK to support R3D NE trim.

His choice... It's always a choice. Needless to say there's only so long you can go on liking cameras but never shooting anything with them. And the social media skit can make one thin skinned and insecure - people look up to you like a God, which is ridiculous, or tear you down - not much in-between. So while part of me understands The Gerald Dilemma, the main part of me thinks, well, he chose to milk it for all it was worth didn't he? And it was a very privileged position that many would kill to be in, he could have used it as a springboard into an artistic career, but there wasn't an artist inside, nothing on the springy board. The problem is the system. YouTube / Alphabet is a billion dollar industry based off the hard work of content creators, who get a very small share of the overall pie and Google's Ad Business the lion's share. The internet has pivoted from a place where the artist owned the platform themselves (own website, own server) thus able to keep the benefits of 100% of their labour, to big tech owning the platforms and us becoming mere commodities as consumers/creators in a hive mind, whereas before we were founders, builders and owners as well as artists. The shift is noticeable in the language too. In 2012 we were all saying 'filmmakers' or 'musicians', but now everybody is lumped in together as a 'content creator', which got shortened even further to simply 'creator'. It's really dystopian shit. This is at the heart of what created The Gerald Dilemma - being a little pawn in a PR machine and ad industry rather than an individual. Being on a treadmill of content creation for the benefit mainly of big tech platforms. I don't see how anyone can take any personal satisfaction from it other than the money.

Content is art. Not all art is equal, but it's still art. It's like arguing that the people who write instruction manuals or textbooks aren't writers. They are, but that doesn't mean they're Stephen King.

I'm pretty sure that the Mavo Mark II LF is using IMX410. It's a great sensor which is why it's been used in so many cameras since it was introduced in 2018. But that's also exactly the problem. It's in a lot of cameras already. Sell it at $1,500 and it's interesting as a budget play. Sell it at $3,000 and you're going up against the EOS R5, Nikon Z8, Red Komodo, Nikon ZR, Panasonic S1 II, and EOS R6 Mark III. IMO, every one of those sensors that's at least equal to the IMX410. They also support 10-bit internal recording that doesn't look like ProRes 4444 (I think that's the only 12-bit format available on Kinefinity right now). Of course, it's also up against the much cheaper Z Cam E2-F6 and E2-F6 Mark II which also use IMX410. The form factor is enticing, but a ZR is even smaller and also has a big flippy 4" screen. And internal raw. And really good autofocus. And costs around $1,000 less. Just like with some of the other cameras that have been announced recently, the question to ask not just "What makes me buy this over the other cameras on the market?" - but it's also "What makes me buy this over a camera I already have?"

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20260414-01 In Portuguese. In conclusion, now in English: The big leap in Resolve 21 is this: it is no longer just an editor and colour-grading system for video. It now also includes a new Photo page, designed for still photography, with album management, node-based grading, crop and reframe at original resolution, tethered capture with Sony and Canon cameras, support for LUTs and Resolve FX, and collaboration through Blackmagic Cloud. On the AI side, the package has become much more aggressive. It now includes IntelliSearch to find people, objects, and even words spoken in dialogue, a voice generator from text, CineFocus to recreate depth of field, Face Age Transformer, Face Reshaper, skin-imperfection removal, automatic slate reading with AI Slate ID, UltraSharpen, and Motion Deblur. In the Cut and Edit pages, the most visible additions are improvements to keyframes and curves, the ability to adjust Fusion effects directly inside those editors, native support for HTML and Lottie graphics, improvements to Text+ and MultiText, and more practical smart bins for filtering footage in the Media Pool. In colour, VFX, and audio, Resolve 21 adds MultiMaster Trim Manager to generate HDR and SDR versions from the same timeline, Magic Mask render in place, list and layer views in the node editor, and group versions for grades. Fusion gains the Krokodove library, improvements to the macro editor, and an updated USD toolset. Fairlight adds track folders, 6-band clip EQ, EQ and Level Matcher, and Chain FX. For creators and modern workflows, there are ready-made square and vertical resolutions for social media, direct upload to YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, and X, support for IntelliScript with Final Draft, import of ATEM Mini ISO projects, and major reinforcement of immersive workflows, including VR180 and VR360, Panomap, ILPD retargeting, MainConcept H.265/MV-HEVC, and foveated rendering for Apple Immersive. In short, Resolve 21 seems to be three things at once: more useful AI, tighter integration between areas that used to be separate, and a much broader opening toward photography, creators, and immersive content. Blackmagic itself presents this version as a major update, with the new Photo page, dozens of new features, and many usability improvements. This is no small improvement. And who said they were focused only on the SMPTE crowd?! ; ) LOL Amazing upgrade, kudos to them! : -)

I heard this recently and think it's pretty interesting. I'm not sure if it's the best definition I've read, but it's more practical than other ones, so is useful from that perspective. “He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” - Saint Francis of Assisi I'm 100% for not gatekeeping. Even from a practical perspective, saying someone/something is or isn't 'art' doesn't mean anything, and people who like to be critical are really just telling us about themselves, not the thing they're talking about.

Kinda interested on this GoMFT - I still like to take stills and video in concerts, and security is an increasing pain in the ass each show. But for me an active mount would be much better - just to power the OIS in the lens that have it, and maybe just a CDAF autofocus. (other option are these new phones with external lens like the Vivo and Oppo ones)

Not yet, but it won’t be long… I’ve seen the documentary Terminator and seen where this shit is heading… They will soon be demanding your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle. He, She, They and AI.

That might be something positive that AI can do for creative people. Get it acting like a promotional agent to get your work in front of people. That aspect gives most artists the ick but AI doesn’t give a shit about anyone thinking it is a soulless wanker.

Can understand it. Most artists I know want to share their work though and get huge satisfaction from it being seen. It's just that the self-promotional side, the marketing side, couldn't be further from the mindset of the most purist creative types. That's the bit I struggle with as well. Social media has become a cynical and dull chore, and the amount of work it takes to win the race for attention these days is just mind-boggling. Artists just want to create, they can't be arsed with all that shit.

I don't know Gerald outside of what he presented to us, which is to say that I don't know him much at all because we all present what we want people to see online. But with Gerald and other content creators, the algorithms and audience steers you towards what it wants from you. Gerald might naturally just have been someone interested in clinical tests of cameras and not had an interest in being more creative, but I always wondered if part of the reason he (and others in his position) never explored more artistic expression in his videos was the fear that it would be torn to shreds. Sitting in the middle of four walls with a tripod, camera and teleprompter is safe. Creating something MORE and sharing it with folks makes you vulnerable, especially if you've already established yourself in a niche. "The nerdy long form camera review guy that you all put so much faith into fell on his face when trying to actually create something!" Just putting yourself out there at all you open yourself up to so much unkindness, let alone when you actually share something that is deeply personal and vulnerable. As I've gotten older, and experienced how shitty people can make you feel for just engaging in your passion, I've become more empathetic and understanding. I think it's important that while being critical we still remember these folks are human.

Agreed, I can't believe no one is talking about the only(?) camera to have native autofocus with manual/PL lenses. I guess we're too busy talking about YouTubers here these days. To me, the Vega H2 checks every feature box, so I'm excited to see if the image is usable. Too bad Blackmagic can't make a Pyxis 12k with that form factor, that would really be and endgame camera. The main issue with Bosma is that I won't consider any cameras that don't shoot log formats that are supported by Resolve's color management, which I somewhat doubt will happen. I'm not interested in GoPro, but the other standout of NAB is the RodeLink II, which checks every lav box for me. If they come out with an plug on XLR transmitter with simultaneous record/transmit and phantom power, it'll be the last audio recorder I ever buy.

I’m surprised no one reputable in the YouTube space has really talked about this outside of News Shooter. When you look at what Bosma is offering with the Vega H2, especially the specs and features, it’s pretty significant. It even has an OLPF. What’s interesting is that even though it’s clearly designed for solo shooters, it feels like it’s being overlooked in favor of something like the Vista, which to me is a pretty uninteresting camera. It doesn’t even have autofocus. To me, the Vista falls short mainly because it’s missing key features like autofocus and doesn’t feel as dialed in for real world flexible, solo workflows. The Vega H2, on the other hand, comes across more like a complete, modern system that actually supports real production needs. Seriously, go to News Shooter’s site and read the specs. It’s a highly production ready camera. Anyway to me, the GoPro Mission ILS and the Bosma Vega H2 are the real standouts at NAB.

I’m waiting for retired Gerald’s review before commenting.

A close relative illustrates user manuals for a high end audio equipment company. Not my cup of tea but it certainly qualifies as art.

That's bc the man is not an artist nor a journo. He's just some dude who speaks English (this is relevant) and got really passionate about cameras during The Great MILC Video Expansion of 2014-2024. Since this is a hobby for him and not a job, the passion just ran out.

Viltrox has a L mount version on show at NAB

It's always strange how these folks always end up hating the box they put themselves into when they never had to put themselves in that box to begin with. The only thing stopping people like Gerald from CREATING fulfilling art is themselves. Having been a viewer of his since the start, he DID start out being passionate about cameras. But his transition from a guy who clearly loved cameras into a soulless content creator who acted as a promotional arm of the camera manufacturers wasn't something that happened overnight, nor was it something that his viewers didn't voice in the comments. It was a choice that he made, and inevitably it was going to end like this. There are so many people who started out around the same time who didn't put themselves into that box. Whether it was young Simon Cade/DSLRGuide or the Film Riot guys, just the first two to come to mind from the OLD days who are still around, they all started out with a similar trajectory but used their YouTube channels as a launch pad into creating art that they wanted. That isn't to say you can't criticize what they ARE creating today, but they are out there creating and, from the looks of things, enjoying it. Their work with cameras didn't just stay within the four walls of an apartment or house, but out in the real world, where they could express and create. I genuinely hope that Gerald finds something that he is passionate about and creates stuff that makes him feel good. Everyone deserves to be happy and fulfilled by what they are doing.

I vacillate between being a cynic and a nihilist, so where on the spectrum would "F these kinds of dudes in this BS society" fall?

I half expected him to retire into YouTube Apple product reviews, as that would bring in much more dollars than pixel peeping Sonys.

After reading the newsshooter article, I think the Vega h2 is a really cool camera with lots of neat features, but I'm definitely skeptical about the sensor and color and stuff.

Sure, I'll give you a deep dive. I'll also vent a little. You might imagine there would be some worry matching footage, but for this project, surprisingly not really much of a big deal. We had worked with the Alexa footage for months, so I didn't fret at all that a GH5 would do the pick ups. Why? None of the Alexa footage was shot with a deep consideration for the lighting. It was all very workman-like. And the "eye" of the shooter was decent, but average. That's really the biggest thing. Anyway, the cinematographer and director decided to bring a rigged out Alexa to a run-and-gun-available-light shoot. The dudes are older gents and they just felt like "the best" camera was the logical tool to use. Not true, honestly, but you couldn't convince the cinematographer of that notion. Which is kind of a legacy mentality with older guys, but that's what happened. There was a political element here too. It's a decent budgeted doc so the "shot on ARRI" rhetoric was desired. Okay, so the main reason re-shoots were required: there weren't a lot of compelling shots that could juice the narrative. The footage was decent to look at, but not dynamic. The cinematographer really couldn't get around easy with this big 'ol rig and sticks. Interesting things would happen situationally with the characters, but he would unfortunately deliver a single shot when dozens were needed for a good edit. He'd just end up being burned out physically as the day went along and couldn't move into interesting places for useful footage. Ultimately, a big powerful camera was being underutilized because of "reasons". An Alexa camera delivers nice footage, of course, but when you're pointing it into blown out skies and shooting mid-day with it on the regular, it's not like it'll give you miraculous results. Here's the other rub that had me slapping my forehead, the cinematographer and the director really like the crushed blacks sort of color grade. And they didn't mind the whites being blown, so... That's a style that was typical a few decades ago, right? Well, you're taking a 14 stop Alexa, throwing away a ton of information, and delivering 9 stops for the final project? That's certainly a look. And Michael Mann loves it as well. But then, why the hell spend the $$ on an Alexa in the first place? Now, in this story you're getting a bunch of bias from a guy that spent my entire career as a one-man-band. If my background was from the more collaborative perspective of traditional filmmaking, I suppose a lot of this wouldn't even stick in my craw. Don't discount my naivete'. As for lenses, the cinematographer was using a very clinical variable. Ziess cinema Zoom 28 - 80 mm. And he liked f5.6. Great lens, but neutral character to it with how it was used, so when we went out for more footage I slapped my Olympus 12-40 on my GH5, packed a few ND's, and went with that. At the end of the day, it turned into an effective modest film. Could have been better, wasn't a disaster. imo, it was too verbose and that ends up being a slog, but all that talky stuff appeals to people that vibe on the themes of the film. And while the film doesn't stretch to get beyond that sort of thing, the director is happy with it, so all's well that ends well.

What to think about it? It's a lot of beauty shots of a boxy camera with a lot of buttons, and apparently has some menus - from a company who made a Micro 4/3 cinema camera that I thought nobody bought, but judging by B&H having a used one for sale, I was wrong at least once. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1733741-REG/bosma_dc0201_g1_pro_camera.html But $3,500 for a Micro 4/3 camera with poor dynamic range from a mostly-unknown manufacturer was always going to be a hard sell - especially with the Komodo now costing $500 less brand new. This new camera is up against some really tough competition from other vendors, both new and used. It will need to have features a lot better than the others or have "good enough" features and compete a lot harder on price than the G1 did.

Your other option is wait and see if Viltrox make their Nexus focus in a Nikon version or if Tilta do one.That would give auto focus to your manual lenses ,so far the focus speeds on the Sony version look pretty decent.The AF-S 85mm f1.8 has a good reputation and I have got some decent footage out of the Cheap Samyang 85mm T1.5 the manual Nikkor 105mm f2.5 is easy to find.

It's an interesting update for sure. While I find the upgrading process to be too much of a PITA to upgrade unless there's a killer feature in the next version I really want to use, there are a few things in there that are interesting from an AI perspective. The first is the AI Face tools, with AI Face Reshaper & AI Face Age Transformer. This is interesting because it shows their ability to track and understand faces is vastly improved from the previous generation of Face Refinement tool, which was obviously designed to have very soft masks because their tracking wasn't that great. I did an excellent course in Beauty Retouching which used Resolve and basically you apply different treatments to each area of the face as each has a different tone/colour/texture and you had to mask each one manually yourself. The ultimate would be for the AI face tools to detect the face and output a mask for each area of the face, automating the masking/tracking. The second is the Adjust Focus with AI CineFocus, which simulates a shallower DOF, and is a combination of a blur plugin with their depth map plugin. When the depth map plugin came out I tried it on some deep DOF shots to see how it did, and the results were worse than the iPhone 'cinematic mode' with the edges being a very obvious blurry transition, and you couldn't apply anything more than a barely perceptible blur before the edges ruined the shot. The fact this is now an integrated plugin means it's gotten better to the point they're willing to put it forward for this application. It's probably still a long way from blurring the background but keeping each hair on the subject in-focus, but it shows increased confidence. I know they are also doing tonnes of little things in the background too. I went through a phase of posting to the BM forums and suggesting features as I came upon things that annoyed me, and to my amusement I had professional colourists (including from Company3) reply and say they've been suggesting the same improvements to BM for year after year, and I notice that a number of these have gotten fixed in the last few versions. Still, there are gaps in the things I'd really like. One is the stabilisation, which can't handle any kind of shot that isn't perfectly rectilinear, and has no support for removing rolling shutter etc. This is possible, and I went down a deep dive at one point some years ago looking for a solution and there was a product that did it flawlessly, but the product was in the thousands-of-dollars price range so wasn't worth it for me. The stabilisation also lacks the ability to stabilise the tilt/pan/roll/zoom in different amounts. If I shoot with the BMMCC and an OIS lens for example, the lens stabilises the tilt/pan quite well but has zero roll stabilisation. I'd like to stabilise the roll almost to 100% to keep it almost perfectly fixed, while also stabilising the tilt/pan maybe 40% just to smooth off the rough edges. This isn't possible, except if I build something in Fusion, which apart from forcing me to learn Fusion, also requires I go into the Fusion window to track the shots as well, I can't build a custom OFX and then apply it in the Edit or Colour page. I don't know why BM didn't just make the stabilisation occur in a node, that way you could just apply it several times however you wanted, but it's a 'special' thing that happens once in the image pipeline, and once only. My biggest wish for Resolve 22 is lens emulation. Like the Face and CineFocus tools, the lens emulation ingredients are all there if you combine them yourself manually, but integrating them into one plugin would be pretty sweet!

I think laying off 23% of it’s workforce has had a lot to do with the share price rising. Those finance vampires love people losing their jobs.

For anyone that is interested anyway… The new Sigma AF cine lens pairing of 18-45mm T2 and the longer 28-105mm T3. These could be and are indeed of great interest to a run & gun hybrid shooter like me. The wider lens is internal zoom but the longer lens is not but having said that, it doesn’t extend much at all. Moderately chonky but nothing too outrageous. Probably going to replace 4 primes with this duo in 2027 for my pair of S1RII’s. Too much expense for me this year as I’m running a much tighter ship in ‘26 with my only purchases being a new drone (the old one flies too wonky after various err, ‘incidents’) and new wireless audio gear after a few issues with RODE WG2. But anyway, these new Sigmas look the business and I’d like to see some real world AF as the principal example they gave in their promo video is of a woman slowly wobbling towards the camera…on a tripod…in a studio…and that is not ‘real world’! Anyone else interested?

Z6 III vs ZR, you said? Both are full frame, both use the Z mount, both have subject detection AF for 9 subject types, and both offer internal RAW up to 6K/60p. The Z6 III has a 24.5MP full-frame sensor, and the ZR also uses a 24.5MP full-frame partially stacked sensor with EXPEED 7. From there, though, the split becomes pretty obvious. The ZR is the one Nikon has shaped as a compact cinema camera. It gives you internal R3D NE, RED colour science, Log3G10 / REDWideGamutRGB, 32-bit float audio through the internal mic and 3.5mm jack, plus a 4.0-inch screen designed more for actual filming without leaning as heavily on external accessories. Nikon is very clearly positioning it as a compact cinema body. The Z6 III, on the other hand, is much more complete as a stills camera. It has a 5.76M-dot EVF, burst shooting up to 120fps, Pre-Release Capture, mechanical and electronic shutter options, and up to 8 stops of stabilisation with Focus Point VR. It is simply the more all-round camera of the two. Physically, the ZR is noticeably smaller and lighter at around 134 x 80.5 x 49mm and 540g body only, or 630g with battery and card, whereas the Z6 III is larger and heavier at roughly 138.5 x 101.5 x 74mm and 670g body only, or 760g with battery and card. The viewing setup also says a lot about the intent behind each one. The Z6 III has an electronic viewfinder and a 3.2-inch vari-angle screen. The ZR goes the other way with a 4.0-inch rear monitor and is not really being sold as an EVF-centered body at all, but as a video monitoring-first tool. Audio is another area where the ZR is in a different class, because the 32-bit float recording is a major selling point and still quite unusual in this form factor. The Z6 III has serious enough audio for video work, but that is not one of its defining features. Even the card slots tell the story. The Z6 III uses CFexpress/XQD plus SD UHS-II, while the ZR uses CFexpress/XQD plus microSD. That alone already says a lot about the difference in philosophy between a photographic hybrid and a compact cinema camera. The Z6 III is still the more rounded hybrid camera, while the ZR looks much more like a compact cinema body built primarily around video use. On paper they overlap in some important ways, because both sit in the same broad full-frame Z-mount ecosystem and both are clearly meant to appeal to shooters who care about strong video features, but the intent feels different. The Z6 III is the camera I’d look at first if the job includes serious stills as well as video, because it gives you the EVF, the more conventional hybrid ergonomics, the stronger photographic identity and a much more all-purpose way of working. The ZR, by contrast, seems aimed at the person who is leaning far more into filmmaking and wants a smaller cinema-oriented body, RED-style workflow influence, more specialised video tools and a more stripped-back approach that is less about being a do-everything camera and more about being a focused moving-image tool. That is really the core of it. The Z6 III is the safer all-rounder. The ZR is the more interesting specialist. So if somebody mainly shoots photo and video in equal measure, I’d say Z6 III. If they are really after a compact cinema camera in Nikon form, then the ZR is the one that makes more sense.

Hello, I hope everyone is well! Even though I’m not really active on camera forums anymore, I frequently read the EOSHD blog and every now and then the forum, so I saw the thread and thought I would respond. Because it wasn’t ”poof gone”, it was announced on the channel over a year ago and mentioned in the last three videos. Before going into why, super flattered that this thread exist. I mean that. So here are some thoughts on the matter and why I took it down. Hobby vs Work YouTube was never my job, just a hobby. So was video making and photography, in the beginning. When starting the channel I was working as a producer after a couple of years as a radio/TV reporter. So I started the channel to keep my practical skills fresh. And to keep up with the development, which was huge at the time. The DSLR revolution, Blackmagic, cheaper editors etc. Fast forward a couple of years and I started making more videos at work again. At the same time I pretty much lost all interest in doing it as a hobby. And actually canceled the channel. Winston Churchill was definitely right in saying that work and hobbies should not be too similar. But what I had discovered was a passion for still photography, which I had pretty much no experience with. So I started making videos again. That’s why my videos became very repetitive and short. I didn’t care about that part, I just wanted to display my stills work and get feedback, talk to the community, experiment with cameras and develop. After a few years I became a good enough photographer that my new employer noticed and just like that I was shooting stills professionally all the time. And I still do (I work in marketing and PR). It’s a huge bonus in my field and if you are good at it you will never be out of work. So photography also became less and less of a hobby. Instead I found other hobbies. They where things that for example got me out into nature, so photography tagged a long a while, as a secondary activity. But eventually it faded. It was also nice to do things and not share it with people. I know I probably could have a very successful channel by making videos about my current hobbies, and even make some money. But I never really wanted a channel for the sake of a channel. And always had a full time job. The fact is that at no point would I had been able to live of my channel, not even at the peak. Even with sponsors it was never more that a regular salary (in my field and country). But as long as it was a hobby and I was glad to do it, it was a welcome addition to finance camera gear. Time At the same time as my channel started to feel less fun and other hobbies started taking my time, I started a family. So.. you get the idea: full time job + family + 2-3 hobbies = no YouTube. Upkeep So why take it down, why not leave it for the community? I did.. at first. Like some of you pointed out, the YouTube crowd in the photography/video space is generally nice and positive. That is my experience as well. Early on I learned that a good way of keeping the trolls away was to be present. Respond and engage. Trolls are usually idiots or cowards, so they don’t like getting push back. But once I stopped making videos, views and comments obviously went down. But the trolls started coming back. Not so much after me, and I don’t care about that. But agains the community. The people commenting started being nasty towards each other. I felt a responsibility to moderate, which was annoying. That’s when the thought about simply removing it started to grow. It wasn’t an impuls. It was an internal debate that went on for months. And the issue grew much much larger than a couple of trolls. I started thinking about five years ahead, 10 years, 30 years.. This post is already way too long so I won’t go into all of it. But I think you get the idea when I say: Privacy or when the content no longer reflects the creator. Digital minimalism, control over one’s narrative, inactive or outdated content. Risk of misuse of content due to me not checking the terms updates. Closure. So there is a looong ramble :) To keep in spirit of the forum I can charge my current gear for pro work :) For the longest time I used the EOS-R for 75% of all my work and the R5 (rental) for the rest. It wasn’t mine but my employer told me to buy whatever I wanted. Paired it with a 28, 35 and 70-200. 70/30 stills/video. The R5 is peak camera imo. Today is a little different. I started working for a new company about a year ago and again was told to buy what I needed. I would have bought the R5 without hesitation if it wasn’t for the Sigma 35-150/2-2.8.. I just had to have it. So I ordered the Nikon Z6iii. It’s not as good overall as the R5 for me and what I like in a tool camera. But it’s 90% there. And coupled with that lens it’s becomes on par. //MB