Robert Collins

I agree 100% that it is getting harder and harder to make a living in this industry. What makes it even harder and what hasn't yet been mentioned is that the price of everything is also going up, so not only do you have more and more clients who want things for free or lower cost, your own cost of living is increasing exponentially. 
I still will never forget a really badly exposed cell phone mirror photo of Kim Kardashian got over 100M views and true masterpieces from some of the top photographers in the world would be lucky to get 1,000 views. These days true talent and art are not appreciated at all, what matters to the current generation is who is in the picture or video and what they are doing, not the level of skill or years of knowledge needed to create it.
I personally have been affected by the current trends as well, I had to give up some of my service offerings because the level of effort vs what the clients were willing to pay meant I would be making less than minimum wage after expenses and my time were accounted for. Residential Real Estate Photography/Video, Weddings, and a few others I have dropped completely unless something really high end comes my way.
I will say though that for the niche I specialize in (events, promo videos/photography, etc.) social media has also opened new doors for me. I do freelance photography/video work for some of the big ad agencies in my area and even at that level their clients are obsessed with social media. They literally host events with social media in mind, and where I come in is they hire me to film them. I filmed more private VIP social media inspired events this year than ever before and to these clients money is no obstacle as long as it produces something that will generate useable social media content.
More big names than ever before are trying to reach new clients on social media and they hire people like me to create their content. They also scour social media to see what their competition is doing and send me their work and ask if I can create something like that for them; it is so odd using 8K capable cameras and thousands of dollars worth of gear to create 30-60s worth of content that will be viewed at 480P in the worst aspect ratio and orientation possible that its almost laughable.
I literally had to rethink the way that I shoot and completely focus on anything that will grab the audience's attention for 2 seconds vs trying to be artistic or create content that truly took planning and was challenging to create because that's what my clients want because that's what their audience wants.
Anyone who hasn't seen the movie Idiocracy should check it out, it feels like that future is already here in many ways.

Some worrying thoughts are occupying my mind at the moment so it might do me some good to let them out for a run... Here goes.
In the 1990s I grew up with the early internet, it wasn't very media rich due to the bandwidth constraints and it only worked well on a big screen with a keyboard at a desk, so it suited web pages and forums. Written stuff, basically. Come the y2k and we began to see the early social media sites like Myspace and then Facebook but you still had to use these at a desk. Which lends itself to being able to type long sentences and create art.
Come smartphones, they couldn't offer the full world wide web experience, on a pokey slow browser, but this changed with apps. So fast forward a bit to the 2010s... There has been a proliferation of apps into our lives, but it wasn't really until Youtube and Facebook Groups got some serious traction that things started to change. I used to be pretty confident in the EOSHD blogging days that if I sat down to write a review, or opinion, or do some proper journalism or get a scoop and break the camera news first it would get some attention and traction, now I am not so sure it will as it is a separate indie .com website outside of social media, and this is very bad news for the internet because we cannot let Meta and Google and a handful of other corporations OWN the entire web.
So to the making a living bit...
For creatives like photographers and filmmakers the internet was a real blessing, it allows you to setup stall with a website and get your work out there. You get noticed and then you get hired, that's how it used to work. There has to be a strong demand from industry for those positions as well, no matter how good you are it doesn't matter if the cinema industry is in a downward spiral.
Cinema and photography have to compete with other forms of content too.
Again it comes back to smartphones. Neither cinema and photography are well suited to a small screen and even smaller attention spans, they are supposed to be viewed on a large canvas and in a socially interactive way like in a gallery or theatre. Now with stuff like streaming, this works fine when everyone has a subscription to one or two of the same platforms like Netflix and are stuck at home with nothing better to do like during covid, but after a while there is a total oversupply of stuff to watch, and a total ADHD mess of an audience who is getting constantly distracted by social media content in direct competition to the long form stuff.
So we have a meltdown at the moment in the filmmaking industry, and even in the commercial videography industry where it is now so easy to shoot something, companies may as well hire an intern to do it or have some staff do it themselves, because the bar is set by social media and that as I said works best with very short authentic bursts of home made content, where production quality or even the camera doesn't really matter.
With photography, if you're an artist trying to compete for attention with all of that stuff you are going to be in trouble if you don't do double-duties as a social media influencer, which of course means making YOURSELF the story and front and centre. Not a lot of artists are all that comfortable with that. I'm not. So the business model now is that your content has to be free, and you merchandise it or earn from advertising and sponsorship due to your social media reach as an artist. And I REALLY hate that because it cheapens what it means to be a photographer or filmmaker.
At the end of the day, the photos and films should be what matter and they should be paid for.
PS
Have you noticed by the way - that the AI bubble has completely lost people's interest, the content is all so un-compelling? Why do you think this is... It's because there is so much of it... And it is disassociated with the artist's own hand... And that is exactly what all this tech has done to use filmmakers and photographers... The accessibility of tech means that there's now too much content, and not enough demand for the next piece.
A big economic correction is on the way.

I doubt Sony is put out much by these numbers. Sony has never been that much of a 'camera' or 'lens' manufacturer - the 'camera business' is just a show case for their sensors. And in the sensor business they totally dominate (do Canon even use their own sensors anymore?)
Of course Sony's really big market is smartphone image sensors. There was a time that a smartphone had one image sensor - my latest phone (Xiaomi) has '5' (all Sony) and including a 1 inch sensor.
So I would reckon Sony are pretty ok with Canon dominating what is essentially a declining niche mirrorless camera market, Sony have essentially capture the fastest 'growth' area of the photo industry...

I doubt Sony is put out much by these numbers. Sony has never been that much of a 'camera' or 'lens' manufacturer - the 'camera business' is just a show case for their sensors. And in the sensor business they totally dominate (do Canon even use their own sensors anymore?)
Of course Sony's really big market is smartphone image sensors. There was a time that a smartphone had one image sensor - my latest phone (Xiaomi) has '5' (all Sony) and including a 1 inch sensor.
So I would reckon Sony are pretty ok with Canon dominating what is essentially a declining niche mirrorless camera market, Sony have essentially capture the fastest 'growth' area of the photo industry...

Synth reviewers on YouTube are plagued by copyright strikes when they demonstrate filter sweeps as someone has managed to convince the YouTube content review clowns that they own the copyright to the sound of a filter sweep.
If I could convince YouTube that I own the copyright to the phrases "Hey, whats up, its your boy..", "with that being said", "lets get into it" and "I have been sent this for free but..." then I'd be rolling in it.

This seems to be shaping up to a dream drone - basically the best of the P4 pro combined with the best of a Mavic

I have a mate who has been doubly unlucky with drones. 
1. First he had a Phantom which true to their name occasionally had batteries whose capacity would suddenly go from 40% to 10% in a few seconds. Tried to get it back over water but it sunk 20m from dry land.
2. The second time is immortalized in this video, The chances of 2 drones colliding in 3D space seem pretty slim to me but it happened in Myanmar. What happened next can only be described as 'lucky'.
  

I have a mate who has been doubly unlucky with drones. 
1. First he had a Phantom which true to their name occasionally had batteries whose capacity would suddenly go from 40% to 10% in a few seconds. Tried to get it back over water but it sunk 20m from dry land.
2. The second time is immortalized in this video, The chances of 2 drones colliding in 3D space seem pretty slim to me but it happened in Myanmar. What happened next can only be described as 'lucky'.
  

DJI is still pushing the boundaries but is beginning to take the piss with its pricing. How come its 'upgraded' smart controller has gone from US$650 to US$1100?
But my biggest beef (and quite frankly it isnt just DJI) is the 'this drone has a bunch of fantastic features but you will have to wait for a firmware update in January for them to work.'
It really is a huge 'pass' to claim a product does this or that when some future update arrives. And to be honest it makes a total mockery of all the youtube reviews if instead of reviewing a product they are actually reviewing  what DJI envisions the product will become at some future date.
'These problems will be sorted out in a future firmware update' should read 'this product was not ready for release'....

DJI is still pushing the boundaries but is beginning to take the piss with its pricing. How come its 'upgraded' smart controller has gone from US$650 to US$1100?
But my biggest beef (and quite frankly it isnt just DJI) is the 'this drone has a bunch of fantastic features but you will have to wait for a firmware update in January for them to work.'
It really is a huge 'pass' to claim a product does this or that when some future update arrives. And to be honest it makes a total mockery of all the youtube reviews if instead of reviewing a product they are actually reviewing  what DJI envisions the product will become at some future date.
'These problems will be sorted out in a future firmware update' should read 'this product was not ready for release'....

DJI is still pushing the boundaries but is beginning to take the piss with its pricing. How come its 'upgraded' smart controller has gone from US$650 to US$1100?
But my biggest beef (and quite frankly it isnt just DJI) is the 'this drone has a bunch of fantastic features but you will have to wait for a firmware update in January for them to work.'
It really is a huge 'pass' to claim a product does this or that when some future update arrives. And to be honest it makes a total mockery of all the youtube reviews if instead of reviewing a product they are actually reviewing  what DJI envisions the product will become at some future date.
'These problems will be sorted out in a future firmware update' should read 'this product was not ready for release'....

Yep, it's not EOSHD that's the problem it's me! I need to get my enthusiasm back. It's been a tough time.
Thanks for the comments guys, it is helping me figure things out a lot.

Let's see. I bought both the Gnarbox 1 and Gnarbox 2 and they are both gathering dust at the back of some cupboard (they werent cheap either.)
The specs on this kit look great but then that happens with Indiegogo projects.
Currently my 'backup' is a 2018 Ipad pro combined with a caldigit hub (and Crucial x8 portable SSD.) I am getting speeds of about 200MB/s for whatever I am doing which is good enough for me....
Obviously the ipad pro is an expensive addition but I use for a bunch of other stuff.

EOSHD doesn't need ad revenue to exist.
It has revenue from the paid content to exist.
Which is how it has existed now for 11 years.
No adverts or sponsors.
Fuck me, it's like arguing with someone with water for brains.
I wonder what have you been looking at the whole time? Just your own comments and opinions in the threads and nothing else?
I'm not a charity, just trying to put quality stuff out there.
If the audience - that's you - is ok with the absolute cancer of the rest of the internet with slow loading pages that invade your privacy and give 90% of your screen space to advertisers, then not much incentive for me to try and be better is there?
So as long as stupid people like you exist, the most popular product will always be a barrel scraping advertising platform like a rumours site.
And your point about "opinions" not needing revenue is presumably a reference to social media where there are plenty of free platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit where you can offer your worthless comments, free of charge to anyone unfortunate enough to waste time reading them.
The difference is at the EOSHD forum, I am the one paying the hosting fees and funding the creation of the content.
Whist you're basically a parasite with nothing useful to add.

I miss Ashton Kucher

In Britain, in 'normal conversation' it is possible to make jokes about pretty much anything especially if that conversation is with someone you know well. Just yesterday a mate of mine asked me if I thought what my kid was doing on a swing was dangerous and I replied...
'Dont worry, I have a spare!!' (Get it?)
However, it appears that 'humor rules' change completely when you move from 'normal conversation' to the internet. 'This is my french friend but he is not all bad!' is a joke in 'normal conversation' but a 'xenophobic attack' on the internet.
As I see it there are 2 reasons for this. One is fairly obvious. If you are having a normal conversation with someone you tend to 'assume the best' (on the basis that if you assumed he was an axxhole in the beginning, you wouldnt be having a conversation). But when you are communicating on the internet you are largely talking to strangers who are very quick to jump to any old conclusion.
But, more importantly, on the internet (particularly twitter) people are 'fighting' to draw attention to themselves and to be a relevant part of the on-going conversation. Being rude, obnoxious and even deliberately confrontational is an 'internet tactic' in many respects.
Life was far simpler in the past. When you were offended, you wrote a letter to the BBC (and presumably the BBC took your letter, scrumpled it up and threw it in the bin.)
 

In Britain, in 'normal conversation' it is possible to make jokes about pretty much anything especially if that conversation is with someone you know well. Just yesterday a mate of mine asked me if I thought what my kid was doing on a swing was dangerous and I replied...
'Dont worry, I have a spare!!' (Get it?)
However, it appears that 'humor rules' change completely when you move from 'normal conversation' to the internet. 'This is my french friend but he is not all bad!' is a joke in 'normal conversation' but a 'xenophobic attack' on the internet.
As I see it there are 2 reasons for this. One is fairly obvious. If you are having a normal conversation with someone you tend to 'assume the best' (on the basis that if you assumed he was an axxhole in the beginning, you wouldnt be having a conversation). But when you are communicating on the internet you are largely talking to strangers who are very quick to jump to any old conclusion.
But, more importantly, on the internet (particularly twitter) people are 'fighting' to draw attention to themselves and to be a relevant part of the on-going conversation. Being rude, obnoxious and even deliberately confrontational is an 'internet tactic' in many respects.
Life was far simpler in the past. When you were offended, you wrote a letter to the BBC (and presumably the BBC took your letter, scrumpled it up and threw it in the bin.)
 

Andrew you seem to have an incredibly romantic view of British royalty 'I once met Princess Diana as a schoolboy. I remember it vividly. Waving flags, bright colours.' That's ok I guess (I used to hang out with Di's brother, Charles, at school and he seemed a decent sort of guy.)
But I do think the whole royalty thing has been massively devalued (not that it really should have been valued in the first place) by the whole millionaire royals complaining to millionaire presenters about being traumatized by their 'excessive privileges'. When you get involved with the royal family (or like Diana choose to get involved with the royal family) you are in fact taking on 'a deal with devil' with ultimate riches and the consequences that come with them...

Here comes the king:

Not at all. The lack of mechanical shutter makes it almost unusable as a photo camera unless you just shoot landscapes. The silent shutter (ie non-mechanical) on the A7r4 is just a gimmick (because of the rolling shutter) - I have used it once (and regretted it). Of course the stacked sensor on A91/A9ii/A1 are a different story.

I had the edelkrone sliderone V1 (and headone V1). Typical Edelkrone build (and high price) but I didnt particularly like it. (Actually the first one I bought juddered but Edlekrone quickly replaced it.) It basically only works through the app and it was near impossible to set it to very long duration slides for timelapses.
A couple of months ago I bought the ifootage nano. It really is so much more intuitive and easy to use - you dont really need to use the app for standard slides - it considerably cheaper too. I wish I had had a chance to use it more but am Covid constrained. Gerald Undone has done a good youtube review of it.

I had the edelkrone sliderone V1 (and headone V1). Typical Edelkrone build (and high price) but I didnt particularly like it. (Actually the first one I bought juddered but Edlekrone quickly replaced it.) It basically only works through the app and it was near impossible to set it to very long duration slides for timelapses.
A couple of months ago I bought the ifootage nano. It really is so much more intuitive and easy to use - you dont really need to use the app for standard slides - it considerably cheaper too. I wish I had had a chance to use it more but am Covid constrained. Gerald Undone has done a good youtube review of it.

Let me ask you a question? 2 years from now will GME stock be above US$250 or below US$250 a share. I think we can both agree it will be below US$250 a share. 
So if you currently hold GME stock valued at US$250 a share you have already been 'pumped and dumped'

Yes, the dark side of the Biden administration right there.
They need more principals.
More like Bernie Sanders, who to be honest cuts an isolated figure in the top echelons of the party.
I think the whole thing now probably needs a independent public enquiry.
It is more likely however to just get a Netflix!

Let me ask you a question? 2 years from now will GME stock be above US$250 or below US$250 a share. I think we can both agree it will be below US$250 a share. 
So if you currently hold GME stock valued at US$250 a share you have already been 'pumped and dumped'