Passionate and friendly photographer Matt Irwin from Australia.
If you're a Nikon shooter like me, you probably noticed the quite pronounced anti-Nikon bias on Youtube by some large photography channels (for example this one). Especially in the past 2 years when Nikon entered the full frame mirrorless market with their Z6 and Z7 cameras, the negativity has increased significantly. At the same time I have also noticed that there was an increase of quality photography Youtube channels that love to shoot with Nikon, and talk about their Nikon experience. For most of them photography takes the center stage, and a lot of them are working pros. Some others are doing both, talking about photography as well as Nikon gear, offering useful tips, tricks and tutorials. And most of all, they all seem like very nice people. There is no click-bait or drama on their channel, most of it is really good value content. Please check them out, and follow them, if you like them. If you find any new similar channel, do let me know in the comments, and I might add it in the future.
If you're a Nikon shooter like me, you probably noticed the quite pronounced anti-Nikon bias on Youtube by some large photography channels (for example this one). Especially in the past 2 years when Nikon entered the full frame mirrorless market with their Z6 and Z7 cameras, the negativity has increased significantly. At the same time I have also noticed that there was an increase of quality photography Youtube channels that love to shoot with Nikon, and talk about their Nikon experience. For most of them photography takes the center stage, and a lot of them are working pros. Some others are doing both, talking about photography as well as Nikon gear, offering useful tips, tricks and tutorials. And most of all, they all seem like very nice people. There is no click-bait or drama on their channel, most of it is really good value content. Please check them out, and follow them, if you like them. If you find any new similar channel, do let me know in the comments, and I might add it in the future.
This list is in no particular order. Just because some have more subscribers than others, it does not mean they are necessarily better (plus these numbers keep changing all the time). Do check even those with very low subscriber numbers, as some of them really produce great value content.
1. TOP 20 NIKON CENTRIC YOUTUBERS
Country: Australia
Matt Irwin is a Melbourne based professional photographer of over 30 years with his own studio in the city. He sells books, prints, calendars, and greeting cards and shoots various assignments for various organizations. His channel offers a lot of good value information on Nikon gear, printing, and photography and videography.
Country: United States
Steve Perry is an award winning landscape and wildlife photographer. On his Youtube channel he mainly shares tutorials and tips on how to use Nikon cameras for wildlife and action, giving concrete tips on how to maximize your Nikon gear. He's the best source for focus and exposure tutorials.
Country: United Kingdom
Ricci Chera is a training specialist at the Nikon School in the United Kingdom. His Youtube channel does indepth reviews on Nikon gear, especially the latest Nikon Z mirrorless cameras and lenses. Since he is working for Nikon, he is getting early access to gear unlike most other channels on this list. His reviews are very detailed and unbiased.
Country: United Kingdom
Nigel Danson is an independent landscape photographer who sells books, prints and calendars, offers workshops and does in-depth landscape photography videos on his Youtube channel. He loves his Nikon gear, especially the Z7, but his focus is photography itself. He occasionally does some gear reviews, mainly Nikon cameras or lenses.
Country: Denmark
Morten Hilmer is a renowned and award winning Danish nature and wildlife photographer, who goes on long term expeditions to places like Ellesmere and Svalbard to take photos of rare or endangered animals. He was mainly a D5 shooter before he switched to the Z6 which you can see in most of his videos, which are very cinematic and well narrated.
Country: United States (Boston)
Will Hall is an American professional wedding photographer from Boston, and running Perla Images with his wife Sara. In his black and white videos he talks about photography and various opinions. It's mainly a talk channel. His favorite camera is the Z6, which he discusses many times, and even offers tips and tutorials how to utilize it to the maximum.
Country: United States (Seattle)
Isiah (Ike) Haynes is a professional wedding photographer from the Pacific Northwest. With his wife Latasha he is shooting weddings, seniors and portraits. In his Youtube channels he is often shooting models and showcasing the strengths of his beloved Nikon Z6 camera. He's also offering useful tips on lighting, post-processing and other similar topics.
Country: United States (Oregon)
Hudson Henry is a professional photographer from Oregon, who is doing workshops, teaching and working with numerous brands offering to photograph products in very remote and extreme areas. His Youtube video is full of teachings from how to use your camera, tripod and fluid heads tips and tricks, as well as tons of information on his favorite camera, the Nikon Z7.
Country: Scotland
Kim Grant is a Scottish photographer that does workshops, tourist campaigns and works with several brands, including Nikon who listed her as a "Z creator". Her Youtube focus are videos of landscapes, where she showcases the beauties of her home country Scotland. Her favorite camera is the Z6, but she also uses a D7100.
Country: United Kingdom (Isle of Man)
James Brew is a British photographer based on the beautiful Isle of Man. His passion is landscape photography. He is selling beautiful prints of various landscapes and nightscapes, and his Youtube documents his work process. He used to shoot with a D850, but currently his main camera is the Z7.
Country: United Kingdom (London)
Grays of Westminster is a Nikon exclusive reseller based in London who since 2020 does regular Youtube videos. The host Becky Danese is doing various Nikon camera reviews and live streams on various topics, ranging from particular Nikon cameras to lenses and other topics. It's a 100% Nikon centric channel.
Country: United States
Jon from Hooked on Photography is a hobby photographer from the United States. In his Youtube channel he does detailed gear reviews, and while he tries out various brands and cameras, he prefers the Nikon Z system the most.
Julian Baird is a landscape photographer from Devon in the United Kingdom. To no surprise, his channel is heavily focused on landscape photography with lots of tips and tutorials.
Phil Thach is a photographer from Chattanooga, Tennessee. He specializes in wildlife, nature, sports, and live music. In his Youtube channel he takes us wit him on various locations around his home town.
Country: United States (Colorado)
Run N Gun is a Colorado based photographer who does a lot tips and tricks, and specializes in neon light portraits. His main camera is the Nikon Z6.
Country: United States
Michael Dontigney is a wedding photographer from the United States. His Youtube channel covers various topics. It's not exclusively about photography, but there are several commentary videos on the latest Nikon and industry releases.
Country: Denmark
Federik Boving is a Danish Youtuber, who is an old lens enthusiast and shoots with a lot of different camera brands, among that with the old Nikon D700. There's a lot of content talking about older good value gear.
Straight Out Of Camera | 1.2k subs | Channel
Country: United States/Greece
This is a very analytic channel by a Greek immigrant to America, who is passionate about Nikon, lenses, image quality and spending time with his daughter. Very interesting channel with a lot of different topics, mainly commentary.
Country: Austria
Ralph Punkenhofer is an Austrian photographer, who does landscape, city and wildlife photography. On his German speaking channel he introduces us to some beautiful Austrian landscapes, and shares useful tips and tricks on how to maximize his Z6.
Country: Germany
Markus Fahs is a German photographer from Berlin. In his German speaking channel he introduces various techniques on how to use Nikon gear, as well as various tips and tricks. He also does reviews, and comments on industry news.
2. LARGE CHANNELS THAT GIVE NIKON A FAIR GO
The Camera Store TV | 336k subs |
Channel
DP Review | 270k subs |
Channel
Lok Cheung
| 167k subs |
Channel
Tony & Chelsea Northrup,
Jaren Polin,
Theoria Apophasis,
Matt Granger, Fstoppers, Ken Rockwell, Camera Conspiracies, Dave McKeegan and Peter Gregg. Most of these run negative campaigns about Nikon, they misrepresent the brand and the products and generally offer useless information and low quality content. Don't waste your time with them.
Kaiman Wong | 889k subs |
Channel
Country: United Kingdom/Hong Kong
Country: Canada
Country: Canada
Country: Hong Kong
3. CHANNELS TO BETTER AVOID AS A NIKON SHOOTER
Last updated: October 21, 2020
Keep up the good work! I'm glad someone out there is calling out all these lunatics for their crazy bias and insecurities. It seems these "gear based" Youtube channels are all dying and people want more artists with some positivity. I'll throw you a link from my blog when I have an appropriate topic. I always get people mad when I even hint at a bias or defend brands, since there are still a lot of fanboys and followers to these big "influencers". Now I won't have to anymore knowing you exists.
ReplyDeleteBut my story with Nikon is funny. I bought the Z6 out of curiosity for review about 1.5 years ago, I was like, there is just no way this camera is that bad. Within 2 days it became my all time favorite camera, having never owned a Nikon before. There is an unspoken quality to the Z6 / Z7 and the lenses.
Thanks! With every new Nikon launch I see the inherent bias by the English speaking photography community, be it on Youtube or blogs. It's pretty sad. They think they speak for the average user, but they don't. They constantly look at specs and switch gear like underwear, and they completely forget that even paying a 1000 USD for a camera is A LOT of money for most people around the world. Now look at the prices of all the recent cameras they salivate over (Canon R5, Sony A7s III). People who have over 4000 USD to get themselves such a photography kit in a recession are either real pros that need exactly that tool, or ultra rich. Either way, it's a very small segment of the overall market, but they talk like that's the main market. If you search for Nikon videos on Youtube, there are a lot of non-English channels reviewing the D3500 and D5600. Nikon is #2 in that low end market, and even though the market is shrinking, it's still very big, over 1 million units for Nikon. For me Nikon are first and foremost a value brand, where you get great image quality, ease of use, and ergonomics. The weather sealing and build quality are generally better than similar cameras of competition. So I don't care that they don't deliver the highest video specs in their Z cameras, most people who actually use these cameras rave about the usability, ergonomics and image quality. The Z lenses are outstanding and class leading in many focal lengths. That of course won't be talked about, because it doesn't generate clicks. It's seems to be more beneficial for them to complain about the missing flip-out screen, where again, they only speak for a small portion of video-first people.
DeleteWell, thanks for dropping buy and have a good one!
Love this list! Came here from Matt Irwin, who is also becoming one of my favorite channels. I'm also watching Morten Hilmer and Nigel Danson. Will check out the smaller channels as well.
ReplyDeleteYes, YouTube has come a long ways and some savvy ’Tubers’ know how to use its algorithm to generate a substantial income as a full time job. Sadly, they’ve lost their credibility in the process.
ReplyDeleteI just hope Youtube will do something about it, but I doubt. They love the numbers, as they can sell the ads. I hope viewers as such will become numb to it and not click anymore. If you check one of my previous posts, it seems Tony is already losing viewers in the past 2 years.
DeleteOh, another thing. YouTube can sometimes make the unsuspecting viewer think that all the world’s opinion is US centric. If you follow the other languages you’ll discover that there’s a whole other world out there.
ReplyDeleteExcellent take. Since I'm half German, I follow a lot of German speaking photography Youtube channels, and while the largest channels pale in comparison to the American ones in views and subscribers, the click bait approach is not really common. If it's done, it's still done tastefully. Tony Northrup does it full on infantile style with thumbnails that look like they were designed by a 9 year old, and titles that sound like they were written by a teenager.
DeleteThanks for compiling this list. I just recently started watching Matt Irwin, and I will check some of these other channels out.
ReplyDeleteNightscape Images - Richard Tatti. He's a Nikon shooter, mostly with the Z6 in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, just a couple hours drive north of Matt Irwin. Reviews gear occasionally, but most of his effort is in photographing the night sky and his work is exceptional.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I will check the channel out.
DeleteI don't even shoot Nikon and I love watching Steve Perry and Morton Hilmer, Matt Irwin makes everyone want to shoot Nikon and it is clear he still has enthusiasm for photography. I don't know what happened to Monochrome Memoirs but he was great also, real working photographer. Straight Out Of Camera is just the best for perspective on everything
ReplyDelete