I am depressed by the lack of articles on this blog.

[Michal Gajdoš]

Hi Eoshd forum community and Mr. Reid

I remember days when there were new articles at least two times a week. What happened ? I miss those days. Mr. Reid please continue, I am confident  there are many who are eagerly waiting for anything you publish. Don't get demotivated by trolls and jerks, they just need to do something with their free time and jealousy. Don't leave us hanging. Thanks

[Oliver Daniel]

44 minutes ago, Michal Gajdoš said:

Hi Eoshd forum community and Mr. Reid

I remember days when there were new articles at least two times a week. What happened ? I miss those days. Mr. Reid please continue, I am confident  there are many who are eagerly waiting for anything you publish. Don't get demotivated by trolls and jerks, they just need to do something with their free time and jealousy. Don't leave us hanging. Thanks

I wouldn't get depressed over a blog. 

You're right in saying that this year, the articles on EOSHD seem to be a lot less - and most being just a news opinion on Canon or whatever. But there might be a good reason for this - Andrew will probably be busy with other more enjoyable or necessary endeavours. 

I remember the days when Philip Blooms blog was the one to go to for the latest and greatest opinion. But his blog took a big nose dive in content because he prioritised his own filmmaking, and constantly uses Facebook and Instagram instead. 

[SR]

3 hours ago, Michal Gajdoš said:

Hi Eoshd forum community and Mr. Reid

I remember days when there were new articles at least two times a week. What happened ? I miss those days. Mr. Reid please continue, I am confident  there are many who are eagerly waiting for anything you publish. Don't get demotivated by trolls and jerks, they just need to do something with their free time and jealousy. Don't leave us hanging. Thanks

There's only so much one can be critical of Canon, really. It's like screaming at a wall. Also, back in the nebulous days of DSLR filmmaking, it was exciting to see higher video quality from small packages like GH2 and later Magic Lantern Canon. I guess we sort of have gotten used to it. Nowadays, even if Canon doesn't deliver, Panasonic, Sony, Blackmagic, and even Samsung have already jumped in to fill that void. It's come far from the GH2 days.

I only hope the Samsung hack receives similar coverage from bloggers. It could be a big push to have that sort of coverage and enthusiasm that EOSHD did for the early HDSLR cameras.

[Andrew Reid]

6 hours ago, Michal Gajdoš said:

Hi Eoshd forum community and Mr. Reid

I remember days when there were new articles at least two times a week. What happened ? I miss those days. Mr. Reid please continue, I am confident  there are many who are eagerly waiting for anything you publish. Don't get demotivated by trolls and jerks, they just need to do something with their free time and jealousy. Don't leave us hanging. Thanks

Hey Michal. I am glad someone has noticed this.

I have all the rumors sites in my news feed and I visit some of the other blogs, the truth is these are majorly demotivating for me.

It seems the general direction of the internet is going away from long form reviews and articles, into quickly thrown up deals and clickbate, along 2-3 minute quickly knocked up youtube video which are nice to have on in the background as you have a cup of tea in the morning, but contain very little actual useful information. If all the attention is going into the wrong content, so what motivation do I have to carry on with EOSHD?

There's still some great stuff out there but it's few and far between, and getting worse.

So I actually share your depression with the state of affairs.

EOSHD articles I used to do are almost unviable today... the formula is broken... the amount of effort required versus the lack of reward in putting so much information out there for free.

5 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

I wouldn't get depressed over a blog. 

Geez. Thanks for the support... not.

Quote

I remember the days when Philip Blooms blog was the one to go to for the latest and greatest opinion. But his blog took a big nose dive in content because he prioritised his own filmmaking, and constantly uses Facebook and Instagram instead. 

Facebook and Instagram content is where it's at, sadly.

A finger swipe, 2 seconds, next.

In the end the audience will regret allowing the internet to dissolve into a trivial social network where appearances are valued above substance.

[Curtis Ross]

7 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Hey Michal. I am glad someone has noticed this.

I have all the rumors sites in my news feed and I visit some of the other blogs, the truth is these are majorly demotivating for me.

It seems the general direction of the internet is going away from long form reviews and articles, into quickly thrown up deals and clickbate, along with the odd glossy youtube video which are nice to have on in the background as you have a cup of tea in the morning, but contain very little actual useful information.

The truth is that the EOSHD articles I used to do are almost unviable today, because of the amount of effort required versus the lack of reward in putting so much information out there for free.

Geez. Thanks for the support... not.

Facebook and Instagram content is where it's at, sadly.

A finger swipe, 2 seconds, next.

In the end the audience will regret allowing the internet to dissolve into a trivial social network where appearances are valued above substance.

Agree with everything. This has effected a number of business types unfortunately...

[Andrew Reid]

A massive part of the internet has gone mobile, which means people's usage and interaction with the medium has changed.

I used to really look forward to spending hours researching a camera, reading an enormous Philip Bloom review with a coffee handy, or watching a nice long informative Camera Store TV review, truth is... how many people are now doing this on a phone, in the 30 or so seconds it takes to distract themselves on a commute to work?

We glance and shim and swipe like hell through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

It's really sad and pathetic actually.

The internet should be much more than that.

I want to find my passion again for the gear, but that too is a little dimmed right now. i enjoy reading a review from someone who's pumped up about a camera or lens, like Steve Huff always is, but more often than not I'm feeling increasingly cynical about this, that somehow it's futile because no matter what is around today, there's always something better right around the corner, eventually it becomes exhausting and really dulls your excitement for new releases. Plus all this gear is costing me an arm and a leg!

[wolf33d]

I have EosHD in my bookmarks under "photo news" along with a few other blog/sites. 

Everyday I open this folder so I open EOSHD, but I quickly learned to quit it immediately because I always see the same article at the top. Or I just click on forum to check the latest threads. I miss this time where indeed we could have 2 articles a week minimum. 

There is tons of content to be published, many are waiting your reviews and so on. But I agree if you get 0 back it might be a non sense for you. 
 

[Davey]

9 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

A massive part of the internet has gone mobile, which means people's usage and interaction with the medium has changed.

I used to really look forward to spending hours researching a camera, reading an enormous Philip Bloom review with a coffee handy, or watching a nice long informative Camera Store TV review, truth is... how many people are now doing this on a phone, in the 30 or so seconds it takes to distract themselves on a commute to work?

We glance and shim and swipe like hell through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

It's really sad and pathetic actually.

The internet should be much more than that.

I want to find my passion again for the gear, but that too is a little dimmed right now. i enjoy reading a review from someone who's pumped up about a camera or lens, like Steve Huff always is, but more often than not I'm feeling increasingly cynical about this, that somehow it's futile because no matter what is around today, there's always something better right around the corner, eventually it becomes exhausting and really dulls your excitement for new releases. Plus all this gear is costing me an arm and a leg!

There seems to be a wealth of disingenuity amongst the YouTube review community these days. If somebody dares to knock a product they know that there will be an army of fanboys coming for them with pitchforks and dislikes. Popularity is becoming more important than honesty because (nearly) everybody is after subscribers and revenue from product links. The tidal wave of Sony cameras and lenses this last couple of years has seen dozens of people all saying the same thing in the time it takes to do an unboxing. Three months down the line, somebody will do a thorough review and testing but receive a fraction of the attention because Sony have moved on to another product and so have the viewers. 

In other words, the least effort put in gets the most reward in terms of attention and money.

People like Philip Bloom can take their time - sometimes many months when it comes to a review - because they do not need those 50,000 views in two days. Some of his work displayed on YouTube is top quality, but gets little attention compared to the revenue junkies. He won't care, of course, because he can make more as a professional film maker per year than a thousand scruffy oiks in their bedrooms could in a lifetime.

 

[Oliver Daniel]

46 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

 

Geez. Thanks for the support... not.

Facebook and Instagram content is where it's at, sadly.

A finger swipe, 2 seconds, next.

In the end the audience will regret allowing the internet to dissolve into a trivial social network where appearances are valued above substance.

Didn't mean that to be unsupportive or negative towards you. 

You're right though - if the blog writing and gear purchasing isn't paying dividends for business or pleasure, that's when it's time for a change. 

By my own personal experience, this year I've had to spend A LOT of time completely re-doing my entire operation. Before, the time wasn't worth the money so I've had to reinvent to make circumstances more positive and fulfilling. 

A great avenue for you could be to focus on your shooters guides, custom LUTs, 4K stock, anamorphic overlays, grain overlays... Bit like a shop for editors and colourists. Sell packages by camera model and brand, plus some neutrals. You have a lot of cameras, like to grade and travel a lot, so could make sense. Just an idea. 

Another idea is to setup an Instagram account and take photos of yourself putting lenses down your pants with a cheeseburger in your mouth and topless models slapping their ass. You will be a guaranteed Insta celebrity!! 

[Andrew Reid]

13 minutes ago, Davey said:

There seems to be a wealth of disingenuity amongst the YouTube review community these days. If somebody dares to knock a product they know that there will be an army of fanboys coming for them with pitchforks and dislikes. Popularity is becoming more important than honesty because (nearly) everybody is after subscribers and revenue from product links. The tidal wave of Sony cameras and lenses this last couple of years has seen dozens of people all saying the same thing in the time it takes to do an unboxing. Three months down the line, somebody will do a thorough review and testing but receive a fraction of the attention because Sony have moved on to another product and so have the viewers. 

In other words, the least effort put in gets the most reward in terms of attention and money.

People like Philip Bloom can take their time - sometimes many months when it comes to a review - because they do not need those 50,000 views in two days. Some of his work displayed on YouTube is top quality, but gets little attention compared to the revenue junkies. He won't care, of course, because he can make more as a professional film maker per year than a thousand scruffy oiks in their bedrooms could in a lifetime.

I actually think YouTube is the future of television, so I do have great respect for those in the YouTube review community doing a good job.

The disingenuous ones hyping products and doing sponsored content I have no time for, unfortunately it seems a lot of people do though!

It will all be unboxing videos and nothing else unless people start using more discretion and maybe the system could help them out as well by putting the quality stuff on a pedestal so it is right there to watch and you don't have to seek it out and troll through the shit to get to it.

16 minutes ago, Oliver Daniel said:

Didn't mean that to be unsupportive or negative towards you.

Sadly I think "not worth caring about a blog" is an attitude which has got us here in the first place, having a complete lack of good content online.

If people did use more discretion in what they watched and where they got their information from, they would encourage the creation of more entertaining content, better quality and better researched information.

It's because joe public just clicks on the first video he sees after typing "GH4" into YouTube or Facebook, that any old shit has been allowed to float to the top of the pile.

Same is happening in filmmaking too, it used to be that the cream rose to the top. Not so sure now. Have you seen what's at the top?!

[ND64]

its not Internet anymore, its Celebritynet. %90 of the content in social media is made by %1 of the users. its tough to keep dedicating your time, money, and energy, and yet stay ignored. the "latest post" of many blogs I used to follow are dated 2014 or 2013! many of them are gone, without saying Bye to their readers (which sometimes make me thinking "maybe he is killed in a car accident and no relative inherited his passwords". lol). but EOSHD is different, or can be. its a brand right now, and Andrew is well known in video community.   

[eleison]

56 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

I want to find my passion again for the gear, but that too is a little dimmed right now. i enjoy reading a review from someone who's pumped up about a camera or lens, like Steve Huff always is, but more often than not I'm feeling increasingly cynical about this, that somehow it's futile because no matter what is around today, there's always something better right around the corner, eventually it becomes exhausting and really dulls your excitement for new releases. Plus all this gear is costing me an arm and a leg!

 

Time to monetize..  If Tony northup can make a decent living on his youtube channel, blog, etc. reviewing cameras;  I'm sure Eoshd can be a money maker.  By the way, Tony just got a new car.  It's a Tesla (darn, wish I could afford one hahahah).  There are many other people on the internet making money reviewing products and making a good living while still being unbiased.

Being one of the best sites regarding video making equipment for the "little guy", I'm surprise there's no ads on eoshd.  There's no "donate here"  if you like us button; no, "this video is brought to you by square space", etc..  I'm sure this site has influenced a lot of major manufacturers.  Millions of dollars of research fund probably were directed to this area or that area because of this blog. Oh well, if this site goes away like the Dodo, I don't think there's another site so dedicated to the "little guy".  It will be sad and people will have to waddle through the endless disjointed reviews of separate smaller reviewers.

There will always be something new and exciting around the corner.  That's how things are.  Look at Motortrend.  They review cars and there's always something better and more exciting the next model year even if at the end of the day, they are just reviewing cars.  Look at Game Informer magazine.. They review games.. some thing.  Always  something new and exciting... even if all they do is review games.

Seriously, try monetizing this site.  This site should be a awesome moneymaker.  If and when this site gets monetize, I hope it stays unbiased.  If not, it will lose credibility and really die.. 

 

[Andrew Reid]

Buy my books if you'd like to help

Money isn't the problem though.

As Eric said above, this isn't the internet any more. It's celebritynet.

You just watch from now, things are going to go dark. Meaningful and independent long-form content is going to be an endangered species.

If you want proof, then see what happened to DigitalRev TV's audience when they put the camera guy with no presenting talent (or even English talent) in front of the camera on their YouTube channel, with Kai seemingly moving to the UK and not appearing as much.

Lok's a nice guy but sorry, this video was pure dogshit.

So what happened to the audience?

They stayed. Didn't go anywhere. Millions of views continue to roll in.

The quality of online content is truly a race to the bottom in 2016... zero benefit from quality. It's celebritynet now.

I don't think ads are the answer to helping my motivation to write more blog posts either... if anything that is a full time job in itself, I am sure Tony Northup has employees working behind the scenes on that kind of thing.

As soon as EOSHD becomes "work" I am stopping it.

[Michal Gajdoš]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

Facebook and Instagram content is where it's at, sadly.

A finger swipe, 2 seconds, next.

Yes sadly it is, nevertheless it is the reason why (at least me personally, but I believe many others) come here and been going here for past years. Moreover that was what separated this blog from many others. that and the consequent growth with the forum and eoshd guides.

To say that Eoshd has no place is shortsighted, the community and you as the author have significant voice in the industry where , at least panasonic and sony have been listening. However it is true that it might be harder to monetize and exploit it, but then again if previously mentioned Mr. Northrup can do it so can Eoshd. Maybe rich adds for a growth of a certain manly part could do the job :D . Or sing dire straits "money for nothing and chicks for free" ?

You must know by the traffic how many readers each article attracts. I personally would be happy for comments on the published videos you create, just something, hell even a movie review. exciting times.

53 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

The disingenuous ones hyping products and doing sponsored content I have no time for, unfortunately it seems a lot of people do though!

No please no. We never came here for that, not bunch of gorillas that need to have manuals read. Some people do enjoy those reviews but once they learn a bit more they realize they dont need anymore sponsored reviews, lets educate them into something bigger something more, just like apple educates their customers. 

54 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

It's because joe public just clicks on the first video he sees after typing "GH4" into YouTube or Facebook, that any old shit has been allowed to float to the top of the pile.

True for the joe public, not for us. I always came here first (then vimeo intense search) to see relevant footage, and even these days one struggle to find actual good footage of cameras now older than my first smartphone. I remember having chills down my spine watching the A7s vs 5d mark iii wishing for the sony to be better. 

In the end , IT IS STILL quality over quantity. Maybe we should begin thinking of paying in some way for the quality. Much of what i said might be subjective just from my point of view but i am confident i am not alone.

Wish you good luck. 

[Mattias Burling]

I can imagine how you feel.

A big reason I dont put the same effort into review videos these days is also the toxic atmosphere that now have reached the video gear sites. It used to be a thing among smartphone and computer geeks.

I remember Griffin on Indy Mogul saying "a great thing about filmmakers is that they don't bash each others camera choices, like other tech crowds".

Well, that time has certainly passed. If a reviewer critique or praise a camera there are 500 people there calling him/her an asshole (speaking of Huffs SL review).

There is not one single filmmaker commenting on NFS. There are just trolls.

My little theory based on prior experiences with smartphone forums and computer forums is this,

The DSLR boom created a fad. All of a sudden every man and woman was a still or video shooter. The industry exploded and so did the community.

Like all fads it ended.

Most people went on to the next like cooking, cross fit, micro brewery or what ever. The true talent are out there shooting and couldn't give to shits and a popsicle about minor updates in cameras.

Left in the community are mostly the assburgers. You know, the peepers who only really cared about having "the best" camera so they could roam the internet and go on about it.

You all know the kind.

For me EOSHD was a sanctuary where those types often got their ass handed to them. Here most users are hybrids. We enjoy shooting, creating, art but also gear without being blinded by numbers. They also kept away because Andrew is a gear junky like most of us but also an artist who understand that higher number on a spec doesn't mean "better". He is one of only a handfull reviewers I know that don't get side tracked by the specs.

The unfortunate part is that I've always been aware that when eoshd grows, the assburgers come lurking. So I've always known its a story with an end.

I just hope it doesn't happen to soon.

(BTW I'm in a bit of a creative hole when it comes to video. I'm just not feeling it right now. My tip to still keeping the creative flow is stills. Shooting stills is pretty much the same thing but with less stress IMO.)

 

[Andrew Reid]

58 minutes ago, Michal Gajdoš said:

To say that Eoshd has no place is shortsighted, the community and you as the author have significant voice in the industry where , at least panasonic and sony have been listening. However it is true that it might be harder to monetize and exploit it, but then again if previously mentioned Mr. Northrup can do it so can Eoshd. Maybe rich adds for a growth of a certain manly part could do the job :D . Or sing dire straits "money for nothing and chicks for free" ?

Nice sentiment but I am little bit confused why you think the problem revolves around money and monetizing the blog.

The reason I haven't been writing as many blog posts recently is because I'm demotivated to do so. Slapping some ads up won't change that.

The whole internet culture needs to change.

Due to the sheer amount of content out there, slung out in a rush, completely taking away any motivation for me to add to the pile, for people to ignore the long-form content in favour of all the small bitesized chunks of shit.

I haven't stopped blogging due to a lack of advertising revenue!!

Never sought it in the first place.

I am glad the forum is growing. In many ways, it's a good stand-in for the blog whilst I take a break.

Got the first GX85 article coming soon BTW

33 minutes ago, Mattias Burling said:

(BTW I'm in a bit of a creative hole when it comes to video. I'm just not feeling it right now. My tip to still keeping the creative flow is stills. Shooting stills is pretty much the same thing but with less stress IMO.)

Yes I know that feeling.

I believe that guys like me and Mattias are more of the cinematographer mould than the writer-director. Our strength is our feel for mood and our eye for the aesthetics of atmosphere, so when you're more of a cinematographer than an all-out filmmaker you're in need of good content to shoot, an interesting mood to create. Sometimes you might not have that content. Also I take a lot of inspiration from shooting the world immediately around me, which is why I live in an exciting capital city, however it's not inspirational to shoot the same location again and again over 5 years, especially not when that city (Berlin) has chosen to change into an ugly homogeneous gentrified hipster hell hole since when I moved here 5 years ago, and the light has been appalling due to climate change for the past 3, rarely any interesting light, weather or sunny afternoons for huge chunks of the year.

What I need to get interested in cameras and blogging again is to take my ass out of Germany and go somewhere more interesting and more inspiring, perhaps back to Asia where I did my best work with the GH2 all those years ago.

Sadly the blogging I want to do isn't as easy as just filming cats for YouTube and raving about image quality... if it was, I'd have an article ready by the end of every single day. It doesn't interest me.

When I'm not feeling it as an artist, there's no point me blogging, it would just be shit!

Call it cinematographer's block?!

[Michal Gajdoš]

2 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

ice sentiment but I am little bit confused why you think the problem revolves around money and monetizing the blog.

I don't, I only imagined that one needs to do something for a living and since we can only guess how much time it consumes I figured you might got busy with other stuff. 

4 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Got the first GX85 article coming soon BT

Great ! Looking forward to it.

6 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

The reason I haven't been writing as many blog posts recently is because I'm demotivated to do so

That is bad. What got me motivated last time was when I saw sony fs 700R (with 4k enabled) for 2500 euros (excluding the external recorder for raw) on ebay. that is crazy. 

[Andrew Reid]

Yes the bargain super specced equipment can be a motivation, but without anything decent to film, that soon fades.

Like I say, I need to get out of Berlin and start a new chapter... try to capture some magic somehow.

Until then, I'll continue to update the blog, there's no chance of me stopping because this stuff is my life-long passion.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate those who appreciate the blog and forum.

Let's hope that the ugly competition to EOSHD and boring corporate mentality of other blogs and 'managed communities', as well as the sheer lack of good content out there doesn't bury the whole endeavour along with my motivation with it.

Not a single day doesn't go by without emails in my inbox offering sponsored content and gear for review... it's soul destroying and debases the entire internet.

[sanveer]

Actually Andrew got busy trying to save the site from the sex toys and chinese viagra ADs. hehehe

I think another review is around the corner, and I suspect its the Panasonic GX85/ 80/ 7 Mark ii. 

Also, I realised after Andrew mentioned, that since most people in Film and Video think of things mostly from their perspective, other could chip in, and maybe (if it sounds good to other people too), EOSHD could become a Platform for Collaborating/ Crowd Sourcing.

The actors, director, cinematographer, sound guy etc could be in the same city, and the Writer, Musician etc could be in another city (or country or continent). It could be a interesting collaborative effort. 

What do you guys think?

[richg101]

Yo Andrew.  Don't be put off by the huge influx of unemployed people who've recently gone into blogging/vlogging in an attempt to make a commercial name for themselves.  The days of celebrities like Philip Bloom are gone - gear nerds literally looked upon him as a god 3 years ago.  Personally I'd like to see you in a permanent product development position at Sony, while still keeping this blog running with details like your beautifully carefully written and informative articles.  I've been hoping to see your response to the Leica SL - I'm amazed you weren;t sent one before the rest of the hopeless 'brand ambassadors' who would sell their mother if it gave them a little more online respect from gear heads.

 

Lots and lots of readers here can focus on things for longer than 5 seconds.  Even a few millenials might be able to keep reading to the end of the article.  Your depth is why eoshd is the best of the lot.  One problem is that since the A7S arriaved, we literally got everything we always wanted.  most of those who are willing to learn how to use a tool are no longer looking for anything else.  I think the acquisition of a a7s and a 1dc makes one less interested in looking for and reporting on better gear - the improvements are so small the other bloggers need to resort to click bait titles.

 

finally, I think a few adverts wouldn;t do much hard to the site.  rather than brands, maybe partner with a retailer?