Andrew Reid

The more I think about all this the angrier I get at the current staff there. Nearly all scurrying off the deck of the ship like DPReview is nothing but fit for the bin. If they had stuck with the site for longer than a few months it could encourage the sale to a new owner. Instead they jumped like rats off the deck and have nearly all got new jobs already. Meanwhile we're left with an empty shell of a website pending deletion. It is an absolute disgrace and a total disregard of the global camera community.

That was quick!

https://petapixel.com/2023/03/21/chris-niccolls-and-jordan-drake-join-petapixel-to-lead-its-youtube-channel/ Why can't they be more honest and upfront. DPReview TV is not closing then is it? It's getting a new logo. If I were them I would have gone indie. I don't know why they feel they have to be freelancers for a .com blog Let's face it, YouTube is bigger than Petapixel isn't it?

Perhaps! Chris and Jordan seemed very keen, almost begging for more subscribers so maybe the pressure was on to monetise the channel. On the other hand DPReview's main website has a small head count, all the gear comes on loan for free from the camera industry and they run sponsored content as well as advertising. So if it is a money pit it is a very small one especially from the perspective of a company like Amazon. It was obviously valuable enough to be bought by a company the size of Amazon and it's a key strategic part of the camera industry so the likes of Canon will be keen to make sure it stays around. In my opinion they are fishing for sympathy and a buyer. It won't be closing, just changing.

Amazon might not be to blame. Why would Amazon block the sale of the asset or content carrying over to a new domain? After all it feeds Amazon.com with thousands upon thousands of sales leads and affiliate links from Google and social media. They will want that to stick around and will probably help with the sale. It won't impact them in the slightest. Found it interesting they chose not to mention Barney Britton in their big thank you section of the video, he is after all pretty much their boss. Chris and Jordan will simply carry on - I don't know if they are employed as freelancers or not, probably are. The main losers in this are not any of the DPR staff actually, it's the users.

Indeed. No real explanation, it's all very fishy. Watch them bounce back in a week miraculously the site is saved and is going to continue under the ownership of Smugmug as Canon's in-house magazine!

They won't close. It's a big asset and will have a lot of buyers. Current staff might go over to the new non-Amazon site or they will leave and do something else, which for me would be a good thing as they're not really up to the job. DPR has a ton of camera info that would be very sad to lose from the internet, the database of specs, and historic reviews are part of the camera world's culture and it would be vandalism of the highest order if some idiot decided to delete it all rather than keep it online. It costs almost nothing to keep a website online and I am surprised Amazon is making such deep cuts at all, as DPReview is hardly likely to be a huge loss making part of the company. What are the REAL reasons the site is closing? It surely can't be due to money. Perhaps a big fall out at the top between the DPReview management and Amazon? If Amazon really are looking to save a few thousand dollars running DPReview which drives a ton of traffic to Amazon for camera purchases, then how bad must it be at Amazon?! They were hiring like crazy during covid, big profit boom, then suddenly they can't afford to run a camera blog? Even I can afford to run a fucking camera blog. I smell something fishy. Either the news is fake and they already have a buyer lined up. Chris and Jordan seemed really chirpy in their jokey closing video. Or they are all hired already by a new site and will simply rebrand the existing one. There is simply no way they will delete it. The SEO and Google links alone are worth redirecting to a new site domain. Why bin it? They're not telling the truth.

What about the Sony a1? It is definitely not behind mirrorless tech wise. Stacked sensor, 50MP, 8K, 10bit 422, and 4K/120p. It blows the R5C away. The AF is far better too.

Interesting, so they fixed this in version 4 - maybe!

The 5D III doesn't pixel bin in Magic Lantern 3.5K RAW It is a S35 crop of the sensor (1:1 readout) with no binning or line-skipping. And yes, it's bloody amazing.

Prefer the X-H2 as the X-H2S is quite a bit more and the 4K/120p comes with a heavy crop. Also AF seems better on the X-H2, although I believe the latest firmware update improved matters on the X-H2S.

New blahg post. https://www.eoshd.com/news/whats-best-out-of-the-new-releases-comparing-the-canon-eos-r7-r10-fuji-x-h2-panasonic-s5-ii/

Speaking of protests there are massive strikes in the UK and hundreds of thousands of people on the streets. Very little coverage of these people parading through the streets of London demanding better pay. Yet during Brexit, Nigel Farage could turn up with 12 people and a dog, and be all over the BBC News. "Man of the people" that he is. The BBC has a problem. It's main role is to report factually, objectively yet clearly some facts are too political and too inconvenient to air. If the BBC came out and objectively labelled Boris Johnson a compulsive liar, it would be a statement of fact. Yet they won't as it will obviously be seen as a political opinion. Regardless of whether certain people are proven liars and lawbreakers, facts seem to cease to be impartial when they're about the personal.

Does GPT4 still think I sold a faulty 1D C to Dan Chung and murdered seven of Philip Bloom's beloved kittens? In fact try it for yourself - ask "what controversies has the filmmaker Andrew Reid of EOSHD been involved in"? It's hilarious what it comes out with. Just one of many many reasons never to trust AI.

Only getting rid of one. I have 3 of them. S5 II incoming as well. Will be interesting to see how the AF is with MC-21 EF adapter

The S1H if it were just a bit bigger than the S5 II, and with lovely huge top LCD info panel intact, would be quite lovely. I'd rather it wouldn't drain the battery when it's switched off too. S5 II is on my list. It seems Panasonic now have the basis for a perfect camera. S1 II should be a blast. The only thing I don't like about the S5 II is the small EVF and slightly uninspired Sony-style ergonomics. Imagine a Leica version of that, would be fantastic.

I think Canon have been forced to up their game on the standard models due to the Sony A7 III and A7 IV which has been eating their dinner. EOS R7 is a kind of 7D, a rare APS-C camera that comes along every so often and does everything quite well. I still think the Fuji X-H2 is outright better in terms of spec but it was unthinkable a few years ago to have oversampled 7K -> 4K 10bit C-LOG 3 on a £1350 Canon body. They have finally caught up with the 2014 Samsung NX1! (Just joking)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/eoshd Take a look especially if you're in the UK!

Noticed when I had the EOS R3 before sending it back, the stabilisation didn't work properly with manual focus lenses. It does let you dial in the focal length into the menus but the performance just wasn't there, lots of micro jitters. I see it is the same with the R7? Cripple hammer strikes again! I wonder if they are using gyros in the lens rather than in the camera body? RF lenses and some EF lenses seem to be fine. Anyway, I am still thinking of giving one a go as it is quite cheap for what it does and all the results I've seen from it so far seem to suggest the colour mojo is there. Also there is now a C-mount adapter for EOS R mount which I am keen to try on this as it does approx. 2.8x S16 crop in 4K/60p crop mode. Shall I pick one up, or stay clear?

This first shot is spectacular. Bet it looks even better in full res with the fine noise texture. @QuickHitRecord mentioned a Sony A350 above. This was my first ever non-Canon DSLR back in 2008. I now have two. My advice to everyone is go and seek one out before they're gone forever. It has one of the final Sony CCD sensors ever made, and is pretty high res for the era - about 14 megapixel Image quality is just flat out gorgeous AND it has live view AND phase-detect AF in live view 🙂 It is better than the Leica M8, has even more mojo. And it is $90!

There is just... something about it... https://www.eoshd.com/news/a-look-at-the-pentax-k-1-why-im-not-over-dslrs-for-photography/

The idea of editorial independence was enshrined in the BBC’s founding Royal Charter in 1927, which stated the corporation should be “independent in all matters of internal control.” This was a way of ensuring the BBC’s coverage was not subject to political interference or pressure from any external sources such as the government. Now the editorial independence of the BBC is at best completely neutered by the Conservative Party. Many talented journalists have left. In many respects the best news organisation in the world has taken to sourcing stories purely from Twitter and social media. https://www.eoshd.com/news/controversy-at-the-bbc-and-impartialitys-true-meaning/

The dark mystery of folder 999_FUJI https://www.eoshd.com/news/why-does-fujifilm-cripple-my-memory-card-in-other-cameras/

When our music turns rubbish and our language ugly we know there's trouble ahead. Filmmakers and photographers seem to be on the way out, to be replaced by something altogether more homogenous - the "content creator" or simply "creator". Why specialise when you can just "create stuff"? New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/creator-replaces-filmmaker-meet-thy-creator

It's learning...