Steve Huff On The Camera Review Game

[BTM_Pix]

This is an interesting video from the host of one of the more long running camera review websites.

I don't know whether he has recently found God or recently found himself off the favoured reviewers list but for whatever reason he has decided to spill some of the beans about his fourteen year history in the game.

I say some of the beans as, although he gives specific detail about one source of revenue (the affiliate deal with B&H), he leaves it up to the viewer to extrapolate an estimate of the overall total when including the other streams such as Amazon, advertising and sponsorship etc.

He also holds back much in terms of too many specifics amongst the war stories of complementary trips, free or heavily discounted gear, passive agressive editorial control and so on.

However, there is enough there to put the picture together about his own activities as well as more than enough hint of how his own discomfort with it have caused him to reign it in whereas a great number most definitely haven't.

Obviously, most of us will file this under "absolutely not shocked at all"

My own view of Steve Huff was that he seemed personable enough but that he seemingly never came across a product that he didn't like.

Which is an obvious red flag.

On the generous side, you could say that that was due to him being so enthusiastic about gear.

Or, on the less generous side, you could say that he lacked sufficient judgement to differentiate between good and great.

Or, most cynically, you could say he was just simply "at it" and every new wow equalled more affiliate clicks.

Clearly, the money that he has declared from B&H shows that he was obviously "at it" to a certain degree and I don't think anyone would do a public confessional video if they too didn't accept that they were "at it" either.

But the majority of his income was based around the website rather than YouTube so the degree to which he was nakedly "at it" compared to some of his latter day peers was likely a bit more of a side effect than the whole raison d'etre of the new wave of teleshopping hosts.

I was quite interested in footage he had in there of earlier promotional trips and how wide eyed giddy many of the invitees seemed to be. I bet the marketing arms of these companies absolutely wet themselves when they realised how easy and cheap it was to drive sales without so much as a half page ad buy in a magazine.

It seems if you didn't feel generous enough to give a free camera away to an attendee then just massaging their ego with the invite and a discount on retail was enough.

I hope that the what I would politely describe as "whining cunts" who trail our very own host of this ad-free and affiliate link free website around social media posting shitty replies to his posts watch this video.

They want everyone to be polite nice guys who keep their criticisms of manufacturers to themselves while they show them slow motion B roll and make them feel better about their purchases.

Well, here's one of your politest nice guys and guess what?

He was at it.

For years.

 

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

He pivoted to high end audio gear reviews - probably is more profitable (no problem for me with that) and less toxic than the camera game.

Looks like it is not unusual - in a small channel that I like (Andrew & Denae) Andrew decided to make a channel about the mountain bike restorations that he make (he, his wife and 2 children enjoy mountain biking, and to lessen the bike shop costs he built a personal bike shop at home), and in two videos he got almost 4x the subscribers that they got in many years reviewing cameras.

I too have the same impression that Steve never disliked a camera - pointed some faults at most - but he always declared that he only reviews cameras that interested him, hence there is a pre-filter.

[webrunner5]

Money is the ultimate drug. Addictive as hell. They all act like they are your best friend, but it is all about the money.

[BTM_Pix]

58 minutes ago, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

He pivoted to high end audio gear reviews

He does supernatural investigation videos too.

Maybe he got a tip off from the other side that the end was nigh for camera reviews.

38 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

Money is the ultimate drug. Addictive as hell.

Equally they might have told him to repent.

[PannySVHS]

I always loved Steve Huffs site. Don´t remember when I started reading it but maybe around 2011 or so. Read many of his old articles, getting me hooked to a GF1. Though this camera was already inferiour back then when I bought it I had so much fun using it and it is one of my favorite digital stills bodies of all time, despite its slippy, skinny grip.

Later around A7R2 times I started recognizing an odd pattern in writing and lost interest. Up until OMD EM5 days it was a great companion and every days first web read. After all he made me buy a Lumix GF1 not a Nikon D90. So that got me into mirrorless. Oh, alos got a Oly EPL1, EP2, which I bought for the 20mm 1.7 and the 45mm 1.8 coming along with them.

Watching this video gives me great pleasure. Hearing the guy in his warmhearted and gentle way. His turn towards audio will hopefully mean that he will leave his archive of vintage digital photocameras online for generations to come. Let me check his GF1 review again. 🙂 Oh crap, a warm- cold shiver running down my spine.

[kye]

6 hours ago, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

He pivoted to high end audio gear reviews

Everyone here should be very very happy that they're not into high-end audio instead of cameras.

I used to be, and high-end audio is broadly similar, except:

• a setup is 8 products, not two
• add a zero to the price
• you can't listen to it over the internet - imagine if you were listening to a radio show about cameras instead....

[webrunner5]

Yeah I was into to it also for 10 or more years.  High end audio is like owning a 40 foot power boat, endless money pit. And what is funny by the time you can afford to do it you are already losing your hearing. So a big waste of time and money.

[Yannick Willox]

Except that, in 2022, one can actually buy a truly highend system for exactly the same money (inflation included) you could buy an entry level system for 30 years ago.

In that regard, maybe Mr. Huff is perpetuating his own sin. Audiophile hifi is complete nonsense once you see what you actually have to buy.

At the very least video buyers don't use their cams immersed in a big pot of white paint, which is the visual equivalent of putting a 100.000 dollar "highend" audio system in an untreated living room. Way better to spend 75K on a good listening room, and then putting in a 10K system.

[kye]

14 hours ago, Yannick Willox said:

Except that, in 2022, one can actually buy a truly highend system for exactly the same money (inflation included) you could buy an entry level system for 30 years ago.

In that regard, maybe Mr. Huff is perpetuating his own sin. Audiophile hifi is complete nonsense once you see what you actually have to buy.

At the very least video buyers don't use their cams immersed in a big pot of white paint, which is the visual equivalent of putting a 100.000 dollar "highend" audio system in an untreated living room. Way better to spend 75K on a good listening room, and then putting in a 10K system.

If you're paying retail, $100K isn't a high end system...  it's a very nice turntable, without a preamp!

[MrSMW]

I quite like Mr Huff and his understated enthusiasm, especially for Leica and Sigma products…though I think he might have gone off Leica recently, or for a while.

Personally I don’t care what any of them get or receive from any brand.

Whether they are a brand ambassador, a paid shill, an unpaid shill, a genuine enthusiast or a complete fuckwit, I take it all with a pinch of salt and make my own mind up.

I think with Huff he can be a little bit ‘kid in the sweet shop’ at times over new kit, as so many can be, mainly only finding the new good stuff, but you need to live with something long term to get a more balanced picture.

[Andrew Reid]

I am demotivated.

In fact, I have come to believe it is the audience and consumers who are to blame for the current situation, as much as the shills.

Speaking not about you guys but more generally in terms of the interest in cameras, perhaps best epitomised by Philip Bloom's followers - A lot of people simply don't value the principals which drive a free and open internet. A lot don't even understand what they are.

As Steve said in his video, he started reviewing cameras as a hobby. When a hobby stops being fun there is no point to it, or it becomes a chore to keep up with paying the bills which is what EOSHD has currently become to me.

The reason the ad dollars and shills have won the entire internet is because followers let them.

[MrSMW]

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The reason the ad dollars and shills have won the entire internet is because followers let them.

I have 2 responses to that and they are:

A: If you can’t beat them, join them. (Generic ‘you’ and what the majority seem to do, ie, mostly sip from the same can of Kool Aid) or,

B: Rise above or even simply ignore the noise in the first place.

I’m more of a B personally in that I consume a fair amount of what's out there, leave my thumbs up if I lasted the distance, commented if I felt I had something worthy to add, but never criticize or thumbs down anything.

At least unless it was total balls and a line had to be drawn in the sand.

It’s never really bothered me what the other fella is doing. Unless he’s doing it to me personally and maliciously and in a very misguided manner as he/she has no idea the comeback they are heading for ☠️

Life’s both too short and full of far more interesting things IMO.

[Andrew Reid]

I can see what you mean but from my perspective it does indeed matter other the guy is doing, especially as they are fucking the life out of the internet as a viable business, as well as normalising bribery and reducing the viability of my business model at EOSHD, at the same time as taking 80% of my audience away.

The whole internet is only going to be fit for the dustbin and we won’t have any community left.

 

[webrunner5]

Yeah the whole world is on the way down not up. Scary shit to be honest.

[Andrew Reid]

Yeah into the consumerism swamp we go.

A big shame for our culture, or what's left of it.

[Andrew Reid]

Just bought a GFX 50R by the way 😆

[leslie]

2 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Just bought a GFX 50R by the way 😆

ok, so who's review did you watch ? 😉

[webrunner5]

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Just bought a GFX 50R by the way 😆

So did you sell your Hasselblad?

[MrSMW]

21 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I can see what you mean but from my perspective it does indeed matter other the guy is doing, especially as they are fucking the life out of the internet as a viable business, as well as normalising bribery and reducing the viability of my business model at EOSHD, at the same time as taking 80% of my audience away.

The whole internet is only going to be fit for the dustbin and we won’t have any community left.

 

Yes I can see how that would affect you so it always comes back to the same 3 choices:

1: Give up and don’t try and fight the tide.

2: If you can’t beat them, join them.

3: Remain a beacon of resistance.

I face similar choices in my business as I am well aware that newer, cheaper folk come along and approach the same venues & planners I am in with and say, “hey, I’m half the price of that guy and for every booking I get that you punt my way, I will give you 10%/x amount”.

Even with some of my more rock solid venues and planners, someone gets in at some point and I drop off their radar as the work dries up.

Ultimately no one gives a shit, except for ourselves.

It’s just business and it has always been a fact for thousands of years that you have to go after your slice of the pie, then defend that slice as hard as you are willing to, but the one thing you will never win against is the tide.

Maybe it’s not enough to occupy the moral high ground and keep your integrity but I think there is (an argument for doing so) and it then becomes a case of being niche and not mass market?

I dunno and am just musing really while I loll about on a Saturday afternoon in my deck chair…

[Yannick Willox]

I honestly dont know if it is so different from centuries ago. We remember maybe 5% of painters, or composers. Or that one blacksmith that made a fantastic blade.

The problem now is we see all of those wannabies and amateurs pretending to be something they aren’t - all on a big pile in just one place !

and they are getting paid for it…

That should not withhold us from maintaining some kind of standard.