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I suspect that a primary problem with fora is that over time they become too one-sided, narrow minded and restrictive. Reduser doesn’t tolerate criticism - it would be fabulous to engage in (and learn from) genuine debate about braw vs. redcode etc. But that can’t happen because anyone who extols the virtues of braw will undoubtably be met with hostility. Here, it possibly isn’t a great idea to discuss Bloom’s reviews - why not? They are often informative and entertaining. But… Fora tend to become echo chambers and new, different or dissenting voices leave (voluntarily or otherwise). I fear that the majority of users go to their forum of choice (photo, automobile, hifi, whisky etc.) simply to have their views (or buying choice) reinforced and validated. Lots of us remember interesting (?), useful (?) or controversial (?) contributions from those who are no longer here. We might not have agreed with or liked or even understood them (young Zach…) but they presenting a range of opinion to keep things lively. And why don’t the “experts” (eg JB and, yes, even PB) pop in from time to time to share and discuss ideas? This space manages to retain neutrality with respect to brands and I think that is possibly unique. But - and without being deliberately critical - it has also driven people away. Why? Personally I’d like to see Andrew promote a topic of the month - eg “does 8 or 10 bit really matter?” and let a thoughtful, knowledgable and informative debate develop. And develop without being lost in “what camera should I use/buy?” or similar posts. Or a discussion about audio options at relevant and appropriate prices and level or expertise. The forum then becomes a place of genuine learning and debate not simply an exchange of opinions. But perhaps I miss the point…

Correct. I remember having read somewhere that BM uses FPGA technology while the big names use ASIC which explains a lot about the different size and performance characteristics between these products. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/fpga-vs-asic/

I remember when voice dictation was going to free us all from having to manually press an array of buttons thousands of times to communicate anything, but then it just.. didn't. In theory, phones are perfectly suited to this, considering voice recognition is built-in and the keyboards are so bad, but it seems that people just go for shorter communication rather than switching modes. I guess with phones it is a bit strange to talk to one when you're out in public or in a shared space like the office / cafe / bathroom / etc. Maybe we need those throat-mounted microphones that black-ops soldiers have? I suspect concision is a real factor online, especially for complex topics like politics or film-making. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concision_(media_studies) Here on these forums we have a culture that is somewhat tolerant to dissenting opinions, but the burden of proof is definitely put on the person with the contrarian position, and requires either a large amount of typing or a very advanced understanding of the subject combined with extremely well developed written communication skills. I suspect in other platforms like Telegram / Discord / Facebook / etc even the people with both of these probably can't be bothered.

Had a Telegram channel for political commentary. I only used smartphone to type posts, many of them so long that exceeded Telegram character limit. After a while I realized if I write shorter comments and post them as caption of a photo, it will be reshared many times more! I knew pictures are more popular than text, but the thing that shocked me was that this happened in my channel, which was all about politics! Cause I assumed those few people in society, at least, who are interested in boring political discussions, are disciplined enough to not show general facebook user behavior. But I was wrong.

Just to get back on topic... The trend isn't limited to photo, video or filmmaking forums, it's all forums... A friend recently reminisced how he used to talk to fans of his favourite band online all the time and do meet-ups. The band's unofficial forum was a hub for this, but now it doesn't even exist. It is just people on a Facebook group now, posting pics and pressing like. This is due to smartphones and the fact they lack a proper keyboard for longer form content and interactions. Plus a few social media apps have replaced .com websites. Hope to see a reversal of it as this is not using the internet to its true potential. People should put the phone down and get back online via a laptop or desktop machine instead!

The power efficiency of one chip can be very different from the efficiency of another due to node size and to what degree it's processing is hardware accelerated. Maybe Sony uses a relatively large (= cheaper) node size or the chip has less optimized hardware for the processing it needs to do. There might also be more sample variation with Sony as the cooling efficiency can depend a lot on how well various parts are thermally connected during assembly. There is always some margin of error on soldering points, application of paste and lubricants during assembly and if this margin is larger than what the designers assumed you get clear sample variation.

Except what can happen is that the people working in the realms that are drying up, will be forced into finding work elsewhere - and within that pool will undoubtably be people who are (i) totally qualified to work in these other realms - it's just that they chose to apply the same core skill sets in a different realm within the same industry (ii) people overly qualified to work in these other realms of the same industry who really need the $$. These people will very likely disrupt said realm, intensify the competition, drive fees downward, and eventually squeeze some people out of said realm. Point is, I can totally see cinematographers, tv/film producers, and most definitely preditors (producer/editors) who might've been working for decades in stable areas of the industry (even unionized gigs) - making a fairly quick/easy transition to the wedding world. So while I think you're probably right about that 10 year window - I think every realm needs to be prepared for turbulence - and not just from AI itself, from similarly skilled colleagues looking for work within the next 10 years.

I think the problem originates from photography (and video) being originally quite difficult to do technically so that when there is a really good photo or short movie, it was viewed with excitement, and people gathered around online to celebrate such things and try to learn the craft themselves. Online forums were quite active. Eventually the cameras got better, easier to use and cheaper, and so hundreds of millions of people bought them, and making a decent photograph was no longer unusual, not a luxury or a rarity. Thus it became progressively more difficult to make a living from it, or be noticed with your images (whether amateur or professional). Forum activity reflects this - if it is no longer possible to make a difference with photos or videos then fewer people will enjoy the pursuit, or chatting about it. Of course, it is still possible but there is such a quantity of it readily available for consumption that people no longer stop to watch this content. And they don't value it because they don't see it as special. Even if the photo is special, they are looking at it on a tiny screen the size of their hands at reading distance away, and that's really small. If you try to come back to it, chances are you will not find it again, as the feed has changed with new material. Rarely is the creator of the photograph mentioned online. What's the point then? I think rather than give information for free, a lot of people are giving workshops and may try to commercialize their knowledge. In the beginning of the internet, people were so excited about sharing and it was not about making money. Social media tends to show people what they've liked before, so then all the content gets likes and there is no space for criticism, or if you do, then your comment probably gets deleted, you might become unfriended, or get a fierce rebuttal to the criticism. No one bothers to read through the discourse. Forums are full of discussions where disagreements and agreements are on more equal footing, but in social media, it's all about likes, and agreeing with the opinion of the poster. The algorithms ensure that you basically only see things that are similar to what you have "liked" before. And if you do give a more neutral or negative comment, people get offended as you're clearly not subscribing to the same bubble that they are. There is no room for genuine discussion on social media. That people don't read any more is a serious problem. It means they aren't being informed, and they probably aren't thinking much, either. Finding facts in videos is very time-consuming and that medium is more suited for dissemination of stories, emotions, etc. and experiences whereas text and illustrations usually are better in disseminating facts. All these media have their place and should be supported. How this happens, I don't know. Personally I enjoy watching videos from time to time, movies, documentaries etc. but find that often it is faster to find the information I'm looking for outside of the video medium. I would be surprised if young people can get through life without reading.