Ted Forbes is an American photography Youtuber, who used to become famous talking about the art and the history of photography and amassed quite a following among enthusiasts and hobbyists. The art and craft were the main topic of his channel, but in recent years he adopted the same model as most photography Youtubers, that is doing gear reviews and joining press events by brands. In one of his latest videos he reviewed the latest Canon RF 50mm f/1.2 L lens. It's of course a great lens, and a plenty of lens for most people. Ted did not respond to a lot of comments under the video, but he did to this guy who listed a number of complaints about Canon. While Ted agreed, I countered.
It's disappointing that Ted seems to buy into the stupid Canon narrative by Sony fans or people who switched to Sony from Canon (and lie to themselves). Canon mirrorless cameras are absolutely fine just like Nikon, Sony and Panasonic are. All brands have huge varieties of models and offerings, you can't go wrong these days. The worst part for me is that people waste a lot of money for switching brands, because a certain brand is proclaimed 'hip' or 'the best' by influencers. That's where I expected better from Ted, a guy who can talk so elegantly about the former greats of photography, a guy who can describe the art and philosophy so well. That very same guy is now not a Canon fan, because it supposedly doesn't have as good of an Eye AF as Sony? Come on. That's a feature photographers lived without very well for 100 years, and you can still get by without it today with a little practice. The gear fetish on Youtube is exhausting, and I realized I really should not click on so many videos that get recommended to me by Youtube.
Ted Forbes is just like Northrup, he just pretends to be so intellectual and upper class. In his core he is the same.
ReplyDeleteIt's just getting out of hand now, they're all turning into bullshitters. Don't pay attention to it or many of the recommended ones either, unfortunately the algorithm can't distinguish between clickbait garbage from one hit wonders riding on the next hate train. What's worse is that beginners see this kind of rubbish and think this is what photography is, people pratting about on YouTube complaining about gear. Good on you for commenting by the way!
ReplyDeleteI know Forbes personally and while a keen enthusiast, he is not a professional photographer nor an art curator or scholar of any kind. There is nothing wrong with that and I think anyone with deep experience in either of these areas picks that up right away. He is a good beginner instructor and a good youtuber. Not to detract from his publishing accomplishments and knowledge gained along the way, but as with all youtube expertise, take it with a grain of salt. I enjoy so many different photography channels, take what is helpful to me, and enjoy the free content.
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