Ken Wheeler called out on his Nikon Z5 nonsense by his own followers

Ken Wheeler a.k.a The Angry Photographer got called out by his own followers on the nonsense he spewed about the new Nikon Z5 camera. The vast consent among photography enthusiasts is that the Nikon Z5 and its bigger brother the Nikon Z6 are excellent cameras which you can get for a very good price. Both cameras have some downsides, but that is to be expected for full frame cameras under 2000 USD and under 1500 USD. Paired with the Z glass which is widely regarded as superb by those who shoot with it, these are some amazing tools for hobbyists and pros. So what did he say in his video? Basically the complete opposite of what I mentioned, and sprinkled a few lies in between to trash Nikon and the new Z5 even more. Here's the main part of what he says to spare you watching this garbage.

Youtuber JCristina doesn't understand the concept of OVF and EVF

JCristina (aka Joseph Cristina) is a small and not very known Youtuber that I stumbled upon recently. I watched one of his latest videos talking about the upcoming rumored Nikon Z5. I had to chuckle when I saw how he explained the OVF and EVF. At 5:32 he says: 

Remember, the EVF is our augmented reality. In the past we had our OVF, when you look through the camera you see out of the lens and what you see is not what you get, right? You had to actually set things before you got them right after the fact when you looked at the back, when you chimped at the back of the camera, right? Now the EVF is your augmented reality, virtual reality, however you set the camera up, when you look through the EVF, that's exactly what you gonna get when you pull the trigger. [...] What you see is what you get.

Here is the video that he made:

Is Tony Northrup the Trump of photography Youtubers?

This is the question that popped into my head when I saw the thumbnail for his latest video titled "The Nikon Z50 is a HUGE Mistake". One thing that reminded me of Trump was his use of "HUGE" (capitalized), another thing was the fact that he's using a title which he knows will stir controversy among the photography community. And of course my title and artwork are a commentary on this very same clickbait that has become so rampant among online reviewers (and falls well within fair use).

The nonsense photography Youtubers feed you

Chelsea Northrup about the Sony A7R iV a few days ago:

"As someone that enjoys shooting landscapes I'm excited about the pixel shift. You take this 60 mpxl sensor you can take 16 pictures using pixel shift and end up with 240 mpxls! And you might be saying: Why do I need that? Well if you want to make a huge beautiful print, now they're gonna be incredibly sharp. I am excited about this feature just for the printing capabilities alone. Our first impression: It's the best high resolution camera ever made! No other camera can match the image quality, the focusing or the native lens selection. Sony has underpriced the camera at 3500 USD making it very difficult for Canon and Nikon to compete. This bitch is a show stopper. I'm excited to get this camera."

Chelsea Northurp about high megapixels 6 months ago:

"Today we're pleading please end the megapixel war!"

Fro Knows Photo disgusting video thumbnail

Screen grab from Fro Knows Photo 1st April video.

I think the bar for photography Youtubers is set so low these days that nothing shocks me anymore. The above thumbnail was used by Youtuber Fro Knows Photo for his 1st April "funny" video. Well, it turned out that the video wasn't funny at all, nor is the thumbnail with the caption "Nikon PE-N15" (an alternative way of writing "Nikon penis") under the MB-D18 multi battery power pack meant for the D850 camera. Even worse: He's trying to make it look like he's holding one in his hands and pretending to be shocked. Now imagine this: His channel has nearly 1 million subscribers! Yet another proof that garbage usually floats on the water, and you have to dive deeper to find a pearl. One million is almost as many as Tony Northrup's channel, who has recently published a controversial video on Steve McCurry, then deleted thousands of critical comments. That is far worse than tasteless thumbnails, however both are proof that it's better to stay away from popular photography Youtube channels. Check out my recent post where I listed several reasons why.

Community's reaction to Tony Northrup's attack on Steve McCurry

In my previous post titled "Is a Youtuber defaming Steve McCurry and his Afghan Girl photo?" I have written about a shocking video that was made by Tony Northrup about Steve McCurry and his famous "Afghan Girl" photo, implying that McCurry victimized the then 12-years old Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula when he took that iconic photo of her in 1984. The original video was removed by Tony shortly after a big uproar in the online photography community which spotted a lot of factual errors, and perhaps a public comment by McCurry himself that he was "working with his lawyer" on this.

Today Tony re-published the original video, as well as published a new video, where he is trying to explain himself and clarify things. Watch it first, and then read on.

The downfall of The Angry Photographer: Lost all credibility

Back in 2015 I used to find Ken Wheeler (aka The Angry Photographer aka Theoria Apophasis), a Kentucky based commentary Youtuber, quite entertaining. In addition to that, I found he offered some value when it comes to old Nikkor lens recommendations. I started to watch him when planned to purchase my first Nikon DSLR, and was looking for my first lenses, and his videos were recommended by Youtube. I'm sure I wasn't alone in this. He used to be the guy who "went against the mainstream", and recommended old cheap used AI/AI-s and D-Series lenses by Nikon, instead of the expensive new modern lenses. He was controversial from the start, and often obnoxious in his videos, but that was fine. I didn't mind it at that time, it was kind of a quirky infotainment, which often delivered a nice chuckle and some grain of truth. As months passed by he started to put his face more in front of the camera (his first videos were anonymous), and his channel grew steadily in subscribers and video views. He started to get more and more haters and critics, but at the same time also more and more fans, because he was not only reviewing lenses anymore, he was also sharing various opinions on the camera industry in general, opinions on other Youtubers, and even on magnetism. In 2015-2016 his channel was still relatively small compared to others, and Ken, as eccentric as he was, still seemed somewhat genuine. In that period he started to like Fuji X cameras as well, and established himself as a Fuji & Nikon centric Youtuber. Some of his reviews from that time were widely well regarded, like his Nikon D500 and Fuji X-T2 review. These were thorough and informative, and offered a lot of value to his viewers.

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.