Davide DB

Indeed.
Gerald likes to complain in that video about all the unfair consequences for speaking his mind, yet when it comes to people like me speaking my mind about cameras, he and fellow influencer marketing colleagues like Chris Nichols just aren't at all interested (even in the case of the EOS R5), and this demonstrates that they don't respect real journalism, and don't value it enough to draw attention to it.
This is because such marketeers are not the same as us - they're not filmmakers, nor are they journalists, nor are they end-users paying their own money and finding stuff out - it's quite simple - they are marketing and sales people in a fancy studio, who like to stick together with other marketing and sales people.
They respect each other in terms of other marketing and sales colleagues and PR departments, rather than actual journalists, shooters or those outside the PR industry circle like artists and real filmmakers.
They are opportunists.
Undone and his marketeer chums like Chris, enjoy being in their little circle jerk with the camera company PR people and events. That's where they want to stay.
It goes to show that the hypocrisy levels are off the chart - Gerald doesn't like free speech, and doesn't tolerate it at all when a filmmaker speaks their mind about them. And the moment a camera company has uninvited them, for whatever reason logical or not, all the toys come out the pram which shows how much this attention circle jerk means to them.
Unchartered levels of window licking achieved!!

Yeah, I really think of it in terms of the priority.  
Cinema cameras are divas - the things in front of the camera are changed to suit the camera.  You need lighting to suit native ISO, you have to wait for the camera to be ready, you have to start/stop if there's an issue with focus etc, they need external stabilisation.
Hybrid / mirrorless / video cameras aren't divas - they adapt to the things in front of the camera.  They are designed to operate at non-native ISOs and often have dual-native ISOs, they turn on quickly, they try to keep up with the scene with AF and AE etc, and they often have stabilisation built-in to reduce need for external rigging or tripods etc.
Obviously this isn't a perfect description, but in general terms I feel like these are the "stereotypes" of each genre perhaps.  Over the last 10 years both camps have started integrating the features and benefits of the other camp, with cinema cameras getting better ISO performance and now AF and IBIS, and video cameras basically getting a nicer image.
If you shoot in relatively controlled environments I think it's easy to think that everything is mixed up now, but I shoot my friends and family during travel in available light with no direction and no retakes.  Often I will see a moment about to occur and I have 2s to start recording and by the 4s mark the moment is over.  I miss lots of these because the camera is in my hand by my waist and I can't get it turned on and in focus in 2s.  Lots of my clips have the first 5 frames of the clip being the nice moment and then the smiles fade as people turn away etc.  
My situation is obviously extreme, and I'm 100% aware of this and that almost no-one is operating like this, however it throws the situation into very clear focus for me, because:
1) my iPhone can operate under these situations just fine and can turn on and do AF and AE before I've composed the frame properly, and apart from delays in getting the camera app started from the Lock Screen, it's basically faster than I am
2) my GX85 is almost as fast as my iPhone, being easier to turn on, but AF and AE are a tiny bit slower
3) BMPCC / BMMCC.....  good freaking luck with that!!  By the time you turn them on (and the monitor of the BMMCC), get the ND adjusted, get focus, start rolling, then frame, the moment is all but a memory.  and these don't have a 60s turn on time!  
Yes, I could walk around with the camera turned on, but I remember the day my wife and I went to Pompeii - we walked around looking at this and that for 3 hours, had lunch, then went for another few hours again.  Carrying a cinema camera around with batteries large enough to last that long simply wouldn't have worked.  I carried the GH5, F0.95 prime, and Rode Videomic Pro in one hand that day, and my arm was sore for a couple of days afterwards.
From this perspective, a C70 might be a camera I could work with, but a Komodo would simply not be anywhere near flexible enough for me.  Thus, I am very aware of the differences in general approach, and thus thus, these "I just bought a RED!!!!" and then "Why I'm selling my RED" aren't surprising at all 🙂 

Just saw the Gerald piece. Some good points. About his rant to Lumix, his 1st point is very strong (being put out just for use STRANGE in a title) but the 2nd one...not invinting he because it was not a camera for him could be or not a bad point.

They could honestly thought that is like (in a exaggeration) invite a smartphone shooter to a Arri Alexa launch. The S9 is for smaller creators / travel camera, not long run videos. But...they invited some people that are even farther from this crowd like Hugh Browstone and he made very good points about the use cases for the camera. For me was an error, intentional or not.

The Lumix message for the camera was all over the place, their marketing team is probably on drugs (even using stock photos - don't go to Shutterstock when high 🙂). First the rumors sites (that, of course, are feeded by internal "leaks" - irony alert) cemented the idea that it was a X100VI competitor, and is VERY far from that. It is a ZV-E10 / ZV-E1 competitor that is much better for stills than both - which, for me, is a interesting proposition. But their screwed it up all over the place.

And grab a buckle of popcorn and read the comment section of the Gerald post. 🙂 There are a lot of people much more pissed than Panasonic there. 

Camerasize.com now has the S9, just so you know. I only saw that just now. Here, we have a proper comparison to a camera and lens I own:

I don't know if this is one of those events that Gerald was talking about in the video. Events where he had been invited and had not produced any videos.
Josh has always been nice to me because of his wacky, arty projects, and I still don't have a clear opinion about what Gerald said.
However, when I hear these moral sermons and see this video from five years ago now again, I ask myself some questions.
If I had been there and had a million dollars worth of equipment at my disposal for 4 days (watch to believe at minute 2'29") could I really have spoken badly of Sony?
I mean, I'm not a sellout but I'm not a rude one either. Mom taught me well about education.
 
 

And I can't believe that with my GH5 I can't do what the gopros have been doing for years which is to download the videos in lightweight format to my phone immediately to get a preview.
This would be a very useful thing on a boat with the housing still wet since I can turn on the wifi from the underwater housing.

And I can't believe that with my GH5 I can't do what the gopros have been doing for years which is to download the videos in lightweight format to my phone immediately to get a preview.
This would be a very useful thing on a boat with the housing still wet since I can turn on the wifi from the underwater housing.

And I can't believe that with my GH5 I can't do what the gopros have been doing for years which is to download the videos in lightweight format to my phone immediately to get a preview.
This would be a very useful thing on a boat with the housing still wet since I can turn on the wifi from the underwater housing.

Nope, I think that it is not the intended use - probably is another reviewer who don't read the manual.

If the user wants to post the image / video ASAP, it should put the app on the mode that it automatically downloads from the camera every still /video that was taken. It is not a novelty, my X-S20 have this option, and I think that other manufacturers have this option in their apps to.

Panasonic just thought a bit more about the process - hence a optimized use of 5ghz wifi (the download times looks faster than usual) and the new 50mbps codec for a fast transfer to the phone.

You leave the phone on your pocket, take you shots, and when you finish the pcitures / video are already on you phone (on almost completed), you upload it to social media in the app, applying (or not) some of the luts with an optimized editor. I'm not this kind of user, but looks like a much better workflow than usual.

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. 

My two cents:

Sitll not saw the Gerald's video, but it not surprised me. The writing was on the wall that he was kinda pivoting - much less gear reviews, trying to make a talk show vibe, and making a series going to Youtuber's studios and talking about their locations and processes. Looks like he wants to be kind of the Rick Beato of video recording (in fact, he even gone to Rick's studio 🙂)

All this state of Youtube reviewers was clear for everyone that have a little bit of intelligence (looks like a minority, unfortunately). The signs were mounting each year. 

First, now all the reviews are "with a pre-production unit", hence "you can't go in deeper detail, but we will review it when a full production unit is available". In 70% of the cases, the full prouction unit test never appears, and the deeper test never occurs. In fact, a lot of reviewers never test the camera again after huge firmware updates - baffles my that camera companies did not see that as a problem, since most of the reviews stayed shown forever with problems that were solved after the release...

The secons sign that I noted was in the X-S20 launch (a camera that I own and like, that it is not anti-Fuji fanboy here) - some of the most noted Fuji reviewers had not received loan units, and a LOT of smaller channels that I've never heard before received it. When a Fuji channel it 170k subscribers do not got an unit, but a channel with 1k got it (yes, this was the case), you know that something is strange.

Same feeling was with the S9 - was the 1st camera that EVERY channel that I follow was invited, with no exceptions, even some very small ones that I like that were NEVER invited for anything. And for these (as I suspect also in the X-S20) the desire to stay on the loop probably makes them to do not be much critical. And I kinda understand - people trying to make a living on Youtube (not a much good choice nowadays) got a chance and wants to grab it.

This is the state now, and everyone is entitled to an opinon. Could be much worse - a lot of big Youtubers raves about that piece of scam that is Luminar, for instance.

great questions!
let me ask you this hypothetical, if you got an email that said "we'd like to fly you out to Japan all expenses paid and let you play with a new unreleased camera with a bunch of your friends for a week" would you accept? i even told LUMIX i am not in the niche like i used to be when i did Kinotika and Indy Mogul and they still wanted me there!
 
As for making money off views, I actually made a video that got more views than most the other people who were at the S5 II release last year. I made $100. I didn't make the video to even make money. I made it for fun. Because I thought it was an interesting story to tell about Panasonic finally adding phase detect to their cameras. 

I went to Japan and have the loaner S9 from Panasonic. I told them I am not in the camera review space like I used to be, and they still were kind enough to invite me. I plan on making a few videos with it, but haven't posted anything since the embargo because I am so unsure what to say. It seems everyone has already made a "First Look" video and many others have tried to apologize for accepting the free trip and camera. I don't feel bad for accepting the trip as I'm sure anyone else here would do also. I think all the conversation around this is generally healthy for our industry and why I personally took a step back from it all over the last two years after quitting Indy Mogul. 
 
Feel free to ask me anything you want. I promise to be honest. 

Just watched the Gerald piece.
Brands have been pursuing the same format for launches on social media for many years, but maybe they have now jumped the shark. It's becoming easier and easier to see who is in the preferred circle of manufacturer mouthpieces and who isn't, and therefore what's not objective and what is just a sales pitch and straight forward shilling.
It has undermined the internet and social media so much, that it's starting to become a turn off for even the most unassuming consumers and customers.
We on this forum of course spotted it coming a mile ago, and I think we know how to not get sucked into the hype and just focus on the objective info that comes out of these videos.... although to be honest, usually most of that fits on the back of an envelope even after a 20 minute viewing session.
I've been to a few launches myself and it does absolutely on a personal level make it very uncomfortable and embarrassing to come back home afterwards and then be truly critical to an audience of thousands, it feels like kicking a lot of nice camera company people in the teeth. You will lose that access as a journalist (as I have). You might even be bullied into a non-disparagement agreement as was the case with me and a certain Mr Jannard at RED or made persona-non-grata without future access to pre-release hardware as was the case with Sony and now also Panasonic as well.
The question for me with Gerald is whether he is truly concerned about any of this, or whether he is being hypocritical. I am assuming the latter given the very close relationship he has maintained with nearly all the major PR agencies and camera manufacturers in our industry for years without ever raising these kinds of conflict of interest and objectivity issues until many years later, i.e. now, and even then, purely because he's butt hurt about not being invited on a fancy trip to Tokyo.
On the other hand, props to Gerald for being one of the few Canadian YouTubers who aren't born salesmen / Camera store duo *cough cough*.
It makes perfect sense for the camera manufacturers of course to nurture the next generation of salesman by bringing them to the fore on YouTube, rather than nurturing filmmakers, real reviewers and journalists who can say troublesome things like me.
Some of the key moments for me...
"Why now, why Lumix launch"... I think it's because he wasn't invited. Otherwise, he would have done a video like this about 8 years ago after a Sony launch or a Canon launch. Because the same thing has been going on since about 2012 and the ramp up in YouTube & social media hype of consumer brands.
"I'm just sitting at home reading the reviews"... This is him painting himself as a casual observer, and therefore an objective one.
"Didn't get invited to the S5 II launch in Japan, didn't get invited to S9 launch, because I was critical of GH6"... Exactly, but had he been invited to those - would he still be putting his superman cape on and making a video like this? Nope.
Because in the end he has always been 100% happy to benefit from early access and press trips when it suited him, the sanctimonious bastard.
Sorry... not very polite of me, but then I aint Canadian.

You’d have to question the business wisdom of such a trip that took out at least 7-8 days out of working time when you factor in prep, travel and jet lag recovery.
Yes the travel, accommodation and likely some sort of PD was involved but without an actual fee, how is the loss of earnings for those days covered ?
Even if you factored in the “long term” loan of the camera being so long term that they allow you to sell it then a $1000 spread over 7 days isn’t much of a day rate.
I don’t think the argument of exposure and views compensating holds up either.
The gold rush era of making YouTube camera videos and becoming relatively rich is in the rear view mirror now.
Thats why so many of them are pivoting to other areas.
The days of these get rich quick Beverley Shillbillies will hopefully be a thing of the past pretty soon.

What I understand now is that working with these YouTubers is extremely hard and I feel sorry for marketing people of camera brands who have to work with them.

It's all branding and marketing, including this video from Gerald. I'm surprised so many people buy into it. Look, the dude humble bragged about how he takes these trips and then just hangs out instead of filming anything, but he gets most passionate when he starts talking about how he wasn't invited on the last Japan trip for the Lumix S5II and now this trip, with Lumix directly telling him that they just didn't think he'd like the camera. Most of the rest of his video was just acknowledging what we've all been saying for years and what Gerald himself has benefited/profited from, he just thinks it's an ethical problem because he's no longer on the list of people Lumix wants to play nice with.
 
There's absolutely truth in what he is saying, but let's be clear: if Gerald cared about ethical camera reviews he'd still be getting cameras from a local camera shop to test instead of having relationships with these companies. If he'd still kept doing that he'd never had been able to make a living doing YouTube though. Did he really ever think these companies viewed him as anything other than a mark they could exploit to market their products to people or was he just happy to be part of the game until other companies not named Sony decided to allocate their marketing resources to other reviewers?
 
Today it's easy to put Panasonic on blast. He sees the writing on the wall. He really has nothing to lose, his channel has predominantly been Sony focused for the last several years anyway and, honestly, it wouldn't shock me if this marks a change in his channel in general as the YouTube camera reviewer bubble seems to have burst or bottomed out for a lot of people. Views are down even on his Sony videos.
 
If nothing else he has seemingly successfully branded himself as the lone moral voice in the camera/gear space, as far as YouTube is concerned.
 

Put 30 experienced artists in a room with 1 newly graduated art critic, it will be the art critic who will be considered the expert. I wonder how Gerald Undone figures in with that? I cannot help but hear a bit of hypocrisy in what he says. 

With regard to the objectivity and competence of these “reviewers”, I thought we’d put that to bed on here a few years ago.


Never forget the absolute pile on suffered by @Andrew Reid for raising the blatant shenanigans that Canon were up to and the lengths that we both had to go to in proving it definitively.
Did any of these clowns apologise ?
No, they just made follow up videos about it to generate more clicks !
Oh but jokes about kittens right ?

You're right. He always tries to be "the guy" for camera reviews, the one who's going to tell how things really are and "should you get it". I'd probably agree that many of his conclusions are valid, but it cannot be understated he NEVER actually shares ANY footage as a creator. It's almost like he can talk forever about a language, but never really speaks it. As a language teacher myself, I know there are many teachers who are guilty of this (if that makes sense).

I have been steadily unsubscribing from so many YouTube channels in recent months because I have become tired with all the BS.
New camera reviews (which tend to be previews) that are based on an all expenses paid trip, have seen the biggest cull.
Sorry, but I just do not believe for one second that you cannot be anything but biased if you know you are unlikely to be invited on another if you don’t say only, or at least mostly, positive things.
Zero issue with folks chasing free trips, sponsorship or making a living however you wish, but I don’t have to support it and I don’t by clicking the unsubscribe button.
If I’m going to delve into reviews, it’s going to be from folks who bought the thing with their own hard earned and happens months after the launch and after extensive real world testing, ie, almost certainly working pros rather than content creators who by the very nature of their chosen path, need to flit from bush to bush like butterflies.
This does not mean I cannot be interested in the launch of a new product or have hopes and desires for Future Product X, but simply a case of not being sucked into the hype.

This was a confusing watch, honestly. He started out by saying viewers put too much value in the trips, yet he is clearly irked that he has been snubbed by Panasonic and not brought on them. 99% of his viewers will never be flown to an exotic location, put up in a nice hotel, and otherwise have the red carpet rolled out for them. That he tries to act like they aren't a big deal (despite his clearly being irked at being left out) shows how much of a disconnect there is between people like him and the rest of us. 
I don't doubt that he's being honest about Lumix BUT I've pointed out in the past on here how biased Gerald's titles are when it's a Sony camera versus when it's other brands. Examples:
 
As a consumer I don't like it, but if I'm looking at it as the marketing person for these other camera brands and I saw how much of a shill he has become for Sony (and he can argue all he wants that he's the most critical of Sony out of every other company he reviews, it isn't true) I'd probably not bend over backwards for him either. 
His broader message about being disposable to these companies I agree with, but he played the game, helped create the beast, and still, to an extent, continues to be a part of the problem. 

This was a good release (and WAY less expensive than flying YouTubers from all over the world to Kyoto).
 

They seem to bet a lot on this app.
The Japanese are at least 15 years behind on the subject and Panasonic has given birth to the worst apps in the history of computing.
There is a special circle of hell for Panasonic developers.
Every time I open the app for the GH5, a programmer, somewhere in the world, dies.
 

Something tells me that this wasn't a camera made for a grip. Panasonic screwed up the marketing and release of this camera. From the lrumors.com "leaks" to not being clear when to release product shots, the communication is all over the place. My guess is that this camera will be available very soon; otherwise, there wouldn't have been so much info. We'll see later today what this thing is all about.