Matt Granger is becoming irrelevant

Just like his American Youtube colleague Ken Wheeler got called out on his Nikon Z5 lies a short while ago, Matt Granger, a large Australian photography Youtuber, got called out by his own followers on his Nikon Z6 II and Z7 II nonsense in his recent video. There's a trend I observed a short while ago where large photography Youtubers go distinctly negative on Nikon, while less so with other brands. Regardless of what camera Nikon launches, they will focus on one supposed downside and proclaim Nikon as a failure. The reason for that, I presume, is that unlike Sony, Canon and Fuji, Nikon does not entertain and engage these pseudo-photographers despite their huge subscription numbers, but instead chooses to focus their marketing efforts mainly towards real working photographers and Nikon ambassadors like Joe McNally or Ricci Chera, serious websites like DP Review, as well as their commercial e-commerce partners like Adorama in the US and Calumet in Germany. Nikon also works with selected Youtubers, but those that have a good track record of being fair and balanced, such as Kai Wong in the UK and Stephan Wiesner in Germany. Some say Nikon is doing a bad marketing job, but I increasingly disagree, and I will explain further down below.

People are tired of clickbait

All of these above listed people got their hands on the new Z6/Z7 II cameras and delivered solid first impressions (click on the links to view them), because they were able to test the preproduction cameras due to their good relationship with Nikon, while big Youtubers, including Matt Granger, were not even contacted. Nikon is tired of being used by them for cheap clicks and views, so they refuse to work with them. At this point it's a vicious circle that will not break any time soon, but the good news for Nikon is that viewers of these large channels are increasingly outspoken and refuse to be influenced by fabricated negativity. 

A good example of that was provided by a Seattle based portrait photographer Arnab Sengupta, who wrote following in response to Matt's reaction video on the new Nikon Z6/Z7 II cameras:

I have utmost respect for Matt and have followed and learnt a great deal from this channel. However, this is starting to get extremely repetitive from him and a few other youtube channels. It seems Eye AF is the only thing that matters in a camera nowadays! And every discussion about a Nikon camera starts and ends with how much better Sony and Canon Eye AF is. Well, portraiture isn't the only form of photography for god's sake! The comparative tests of Eye AF between brands has always had the model jumping around and the tester seeing how fast a system is reacting. Sounds fair enough on paper, but which portrait shoot has the model jumping around like a monkey? In almost every practical scenario, the Nikon Eye AF is plenty good enough. 

I have been a portrait shooter for long enough (https://www.instagram.com/asgpics/) and never have had a model going crazy like in those videos! There is no discussion on the abilities of the camera as a landscape, astro, wildlife, timelapse, macro, street and other genres. It always is only about Eye AF! Have we forgotten that there are a host of other focusing modes in a camera and they need to be discussed as well? What about the color rendition, DR, file sizes, etc? Never have I ever seen Matt, Jared and Tony doing any cinematic slow-mo and yet there is complain about lack of 4K 120! Ask any indie filmmaker to choose between 4K 120 or 12 bit ProResRAW, and you will get the answer. 

Same happened with R5 and it's discussions around 8K over heating. While Tony uses the RP to shoot his videos in 1080p but he had to cry about R5 8K overheating! Jared has been shooting all his videos on Z6 ever since it launched and yet would keep on complaining about lack of dual card slots. 

All this has started to become non-sensical and almost comical now. These channels were pure photography channels and have done great service over the years teaching and helping countless photographers at all levels, but they are reduced to clickbaity titles and gear review channels unfortunately. Extremely disappointed. 

Yes, it is probably easy for someone to comment that I should simply stop following these channels if I have so much problem. True! But, I still have the notifications turned on for these with the hope that they will start making quality content again. From the days when these very pros would say "Gear doesn't matter" to now where it seems only the gear matters, we have come a long way. Just not the way, I would have personally liked. Will tug along for a while longer with hope though..

- Screen grab of Arnab's comment under Matt Granger's video

Unfortunately, Matt Granger, who was once a pioneer of photography Youtubers in the early 2010s and was known as "That Nikon Guy" completely chose to go the Tony Northrup route, and is now resorting to negative clickbait and using Nikon the other way around, while not providing any real value to his viewers. It seems that he does not care about his former reputation as a trustworthy camera and lens reviewer and will do anything to milk the Youtube algorithm for cheap views, just like his contemporaries Tony Northrup, Fro Knows Photo, Ken Wheeler and a few other smaller channels. This approach seems increasingly short sighted, because the world is changing and people are more and more vary and suspicious of influencers and the media in general. The biggest art in 2020 is to find out the truth among all the noise created by clickbait farms and self-proclaimed "internet celebrities" aka influencers, who have figured out how to feed the algorithm to inflate their numbers. This is true in every field, not just photography. That's why I believe the future is bright for Youtubers like Matt Irwin, who is a working photographer that shares his opinions and experiences in an authentic and sincere way, does not refer to negative clickbait, but instead focuses on the positive and optimistic side. While that approach might not entice Google's "algorithm gods" the same way as Tony Northrup's thumbnails that look like they were designed by a 3 year old, his channel continues to grow organically from the ground up, and that's in my opinion a successful long term strategy, because these people will stay subscribed, watch regularly and refer their friends to subscribe, because it's a channel that offers some real value, entertainment and food for thought.

You don't need clickbait to succeed

Let me illustrate this premise by comparing the aforementioned Matts from Australia and their different approaches. The first screen grab below illustrates what kind of damage clickbait does long term. These are some of Matt Granger's recent videos that actually talk about photography and don't refer to click bait, and lo and behold, barely anybody watches them! Matt has 670,000 subscribers as of right now, and only around 5000 people on average actually watch these videos related to actual photography - that is merely 0.75%, which is less than 1%. This is what happens when you grow your subscribers with garbage. You get a lot of subscribers who watch one or two videos and are never to be seen again, so all these numbers are pretty hollow, while in reality, nobody's interested in your real opinions, as you lost all your credibility.

Now let's compare his countryman Matt Irwin, who only has 13,400 Subscribers as of today (link to his channel). These are his recent views of selected videos where he only talks about photography, not gear. Those videos get 2400 views on average, that is nearly 18% of his subscribers! That's 24 times more than in Granger's case, and he's basically not very far from matching Granger's average of 5000 views per these videos, despite currently having 50 times less subscribers.

In conclusion

As of today, Matt Granger is still the most successful Australian photography Youtuber, but he is becoming increasingly irrelevant. His monthly video views (which are still above 1 million as per Social Blade), are mainly coming from his old videos published 6-7 years ago. The views of his latest videos pale in comparison, unless he does a "Nikon is doomed" type of video. Once these old videos become outdated and irrelevant, his channel will begin to spiral downwards just like it happened to his colleague Toby from PhotoRec TV already this year. Channels like Matt Irwin on the other hand have a bright future, because they are going back to how Youtube once was some 10 years ago: Down to earth, authentic and with substance. And with organic growth and a high % of loyal viewers, bigger numbers will come naturally, it's just a matter of time.

I would not be surprised if by 2030 there will be a different Matt on top of Australia's photography Youtube channels.