My analysis of Nikon's October 2019 launches

After merely announcing the development of the D6 flagship DSLR and a 120-300mm f/2.8 F-mount lens a month ago, Nikon had finally released multiple products on October 10th just in time for the holiday season. I find the timing as well as the way they did it and what they said very interesting, so here's some of my opinions on each product and at the end I will summarize what it all means in the grand scheme of things.

Influencers are leaving Sony Alpha ambassador program

It's been a rough year for Sony Alpha in my opinion. A little over a year ago Sony silently removed Jason Lanier as one of their ambassadors after a model alleged improper behavior and sexual harassment. At that time (in May-June 2018) there were just rumors, but nobody knew for sure why he was ditched, and Lanier never addressed this issue when his followers asked him about it. He was one of Sony Alpha's most prolific ambassadors in the early days of the brand's foray into the full frame mirrorless market (2013-2017). The whole scandal blew up this summer when several women came out and shared their negative experiences with Lanier, and alleged several instances of abuse. As a consequence, Rotolight, Lanier second biggest sponsor after Sony, suspended cooperation with him as well.

Manny Ortiz, 'The biggest Sony shill on Youtube' decides to become 'honest'

"Hi, My name is Manny Ortiz, and I am the biggest Sony shill on Youtube" is the beginning of the latest video by photography Youtuber and now former Sony Ambassador Manny Ortiz. In a very frank video he explains why he's leaft the Sony Ambassador program, that uses popular photography Youtubers and other influencers to market their cameras and/or try to taint the reputation of other brands. Sony was pioneer in this regard. When they launched their A7 and A7R series of full frame mirrorless cameras in October 2013, they went aggressively into the (at that time) very nascent community of online influencers. In 2013 Youtube was far from being as big as it is today. The biggest channel on the platform at that time had something over 10 million subscribers. In 2019 there are over 400 channels with over 10 million subscribers. Instagram had 150 million active monthly users in 2013. In 2018 they surpassed a billion. The times have changed a lot, also in the photography gear influencer community.

If you are into photography, don't watch popular Youtubers

This will be hopefully my final post about photography channels on Youtube, and my issues with them, because I'm frankly tired of this topic, but I still feel compelled to get my message out one more time in a comprehensive way. I was one of the first blogs that made comprehensive lists of photography Youtubers (2016, 2017, 2018). Initially I had a plan to make a 2019 list, but then I decided not to do it, because I stopped watching them. It's just became so bad in only a few years that I completely changed my mind when it comes to this topic.

iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max display surface area comparison

I'm really tempted to get either the new iPhone X🅂 or the iPhone X🅂 Max, the only "issue" I have right now is deciding on the preferred screen size. I currently own and use an iPhone 8 Plus, and I had the 6s and 6 Plus before, effectively using the same display surface area for over 3 years. I'm kind of used to this size now, but I am also starting to feel that I would like to try something new, so the iPhone Xs it is... but which one? I'm still not a fan of the notch, but I guess I can get used to it. The notch however is that part that takes away a sizable screen real estate area from these phones. I've read on many forums that the 5.8 inch iPhone X wasn't really bigger than the iPhone 8 Plus. I wanted to be sure on that, so I started think how could I measure the display surface area only (in square inches or square centimeters), and after checking some forums, I finally figured it out!

The downfall of Jason Lanier: Removed as Sony Artisan of Imagery

I wrote this post in May 2018, when it was noticed by some people in the photography Youtube community that Jason Lanier was silently removed as Sony Artisan of Imagery. It was an interesting topic, as it's a very rare thing to happen. Lanier has never addressed this issue, and people were guessing what happened. There were some rumors already at that time that it had something to do with allegations from his models, but it were just rumors. One year later this topic became interesting again. The reason was that several women who used to work with him came out publicly alleging misconduct, some even mentioned sexual assault. This is the reason why I have decided to expand my original post to update on what is happening right now. There's a lot to digest here, so if you just want to know why Jason was dropped as Sony Artisan of Imagery, scroll down to the very end. This post is being updated regularly with new information. Please note that I am merely reporting on what each party says: Lanier made a long video where he alleged several things about his former models, and the models made videos a few days later where they responded and alleged several things about Jason Lanier. Both parties claim that they have initiated a legal process against the other side, but we do not have much details about that. Meanwhile both sides have decided to discuss this publicly, hence my blog and several other Youtube channels, photography forums and websites have been sharing their views. My goal is to not share my opinion on who is guilty of what, I just want to report on what all sides said, I'm merely an aggregator here.

ORIGINAL POST (MAY 29, 2018)
Jason Lanier is a photography gear Youtuber, who built up his career with the help of Sony and their Alpha series of mirrorless cameras. At the same time he greatly helped building up Sony's name in the online hobbyist photography community, and probably helped to sell an enormous amounts of their overly expensive Sony Alpha cameras. His clickbait style videos coupled with his arrogant persona often went viral on YouTube and gave Sony immense exposure. Lanier and his antics against Canon and Nikon DSLRs became a known name in the photography gear review community, and was a few years ago one of the top channels. This all changed in 2018.

Tony Northrup and the problematic Sony A7 III "review"

A reader forwarded me the link to Tony & Chelsea Northrup’s Youtube video titled Sony A7 III review!. It’s a 7:44 minutes long video, that talks about the newly launched full frame mirrorless camera by Sony. It struck me more as an advertisement than a review, so I decided to write this post. Most camera gear manufacturers are working with photographers and photography gear influencers. The first are actual professional photographers that are often seen in promotional videos by various brands, while the latter are photography enthusiasts with large social media following (Tony Northrup, Jared Polin etc), or websites dedicated to photography (DP Review). While traditional brands like Nikon, Canon and Fuji usually focus on photographers (so called brand ambassadors), Sony usually (in addition to that) creates carefully staged launch events for the top social media influencers and gear reviewers and pays all their expenses in exchange for exposure.

Why you shouldn't trust "photography" channels like Tony Northrup

Today I watched Tony's Northrup's What's in my camera bag? video where he showed which gear he took on his recent trip to Morocco. These kind of videos are fairly common and popular recently, so I could've chosen some other channel as well, but since he's one of the top photography influencers on Youtube in 2018, an area I am personally interested in, I decided to choose him to share some of my opinions about these kind of videos, and the state of photography influencers in general, as well as the problems I have with it.

First let us watch the video.

The problem with Sony mirrorless cameras

A while ago I was almost buying a Sony mirrorless camera. The geek that I am, I was totally excited over the at that time new Sony A7Rii, a 42 megapixel full frame mirrorless camera, that offers features like internal 4k video, in-body AF, and 399 on-sensor Phase Detection points, but also comes with a staggering price tag 3200 USD (in Taiwan at that time 99,500 NTD, a tiny bit less). This was way above what I wanted to spend for a camera, and it did not even include a lens, but I was excited and would not let go of the idea. The hype online was huge, from international Youtube channels to Taiwanese tech reviews, this was the camera of the year for many people, who were at the same time proclaiming the death of DSLRs, as well as Nikon and Canon. If the A7Rii cost half of the price, I would probably buy it without putting much thought into it, but since Sony wanted me to pay over 100,000 NTD for a camera with lens, I just couldn't help but make a careful analysis on whether this substantial investment really makes sense for me. Here I want to share some of my reasoning, that made me decide against Sony mirrorless, and why I went back to a solid good old DSLR.

iPad Pro prices in Taiwan and a dilemma

So I'm planning to buy a new iPad, but I'm not sure whether I should choose the iPad Pro 12.9" or 9.7", or perhaps just get the iPad Air 2, the price for the 64GB version is really attractive right now. However as a tech geek, I'm just magically drawn to the iPad Pro because of all the advanced features, and the very capable processor. But all that comes at a price at around 1000 USD, and that's definitely not cheap for a tablet, and makes me question whether I really need to pay that much for additional storage. Because right now I would probably choose the iPad Pro 9.7" with 256 GB, but before I press that preorder button, I want to analyse and see whether I'm really sure that this is the right way to go for me. Perhaps the analysis would be of use to you, too.