Beginner Reviewing the reviewers: recommendations, rants, and a bit of fun.

Stuart_65

Stuart_65

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Partly in the interests of sharing info and getting a discussion going, but mainly just for fun, let's have your loved and loathed online reviewers, youtubers, etc.

Thumbs up:

Photography Life. Nasim Mansurov writes well and actually uses stuff before he reviews it, as do most of his guest writers. John Sherman in particular, who I know from a rock climbing background a couple of decades ago, is hilarious and particularly good for bursting the bubbles of received wisdom.

Northlight Images. For my metaphorical money the most useful resource out there for techniques, imaginative use of gear, business nous and getting away from the notion that only the latest thing will suffice.

Andy Mumford (youtube). I like what he does and he communicates reviews and techniques in an economical way so you don't get bored before the end of the video.

The Digital Picture. My one stop shop for Canon info.

Snapchick (youtube). Good clear delivery and I could watch her all day, ahem.

Honourable mentions generally for their informative, agreeable and noise-free delivery:

First Man Photography, Kentucky Man, Gordon Laing, Matt Day (youtube).

Chris on DPR is pretty good, the vids sometimes go on a bit but he makes it tolerable.

Thumbs down:

Ken Rockwell. Obviously. The first review site I was directed to when buying my D70s in 2006. Since then I've realised that no-one has the time to adequately review the amount of gear he does plus he only shoots jpegs and I don't. No criticism implied of anyone who does, but he doesn't speak to me. Actually he does, and he sounds like a pub bore repeating an identical story but changing the names occasionally. "The best camera in the world." Really?

The Northrups. Once said the Canon 5D3 was the best thing ever. Approximately 4 minutes later said it was only good enough for Facebook pics. Professional narcissistic youtubers. ZZZZZZZ... I had a BMW too Tony, and my wife is also gorgeous, though I will concede you are much more handsome than me plus you have hair, which is the real reason I've put you in the thumbs down section, if it makes you feel better.

Those two were low hanging fruit. The next ones might get some hackles up.

Thomas Heaton. I like his work, he knows his onions, but he takes forever to get to the point and I'm really not interested in his latest lifestyle decisions. A brilliant channel for his mates, which I believe is catered for by Facebook.

Kai. Really useful knowledge and ability concealed behind an ANNOYING AS HELL facade.

The chubby tattooed American dude with the Greek name which I can't be arsed to look up who sits at a Mac and never seems to do any photography. If you edited out all his self-consciously acid-tongued asides, there would likely be a lot of good info to be had. I can't be bothered sitting though the self conscious 'aren't I a badass' noise though.

There are a few others I've definitely forgotten but I'm interested in yours, especially as it's a Friday and we should be able to both pass useful recommendations as well as have a bit of a lively discussion.

Over to the table...
 
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Ken Rockwell, The Northrups and Kai I agree with you on totally, the rest I've never really bothered with so wouldn't like to judge.

I don't mind Thomas Heaton though, I agree about him taking a while to get to the point and I do find myself tapping the right arrow to skip forwards by 5 seconds frequently, his early videos were excellent, I do hope at one point he returns to wild camping and photography in the Lakes.
 
Don't write off Ken Rockwell's site because of his new gear reviews, it's got lots of useful info for researching older lenses and cameras if that's of interest - and there's good advice of the kind most camera lovers ignore for taking photos. Most people really don't need more than six mega pixels and could manage with jpegs only!

But like all the rest mentioned above, he's doing what he does to make money and his style works for him just as Angry Photographer's does for him. If you don't like them, ignore them and most of all don't take anyone else's opinion of these internet gods as gospel. Check them out for yourself and make your own mind up.

It's also rather telling that none of these names have become familiar to me because of their photographs. Strange that... ;)
 
The problem with anyone who is trying to make a living from something is that they need something from you. Whether it's views/clicks, workshop tickets, or squarespace purchases. Their content is designed to sell, either with very shiny production values hiding lacklustre content, a dog, lengthy ads for sq..., or sponsorship.

That means if you're looking to buy gear, finding a bad review is pretty rare unless everyone is giving it a bad review. If you're looking to be a better photographer, I've found that nearly all the videos talk about what they're taking a photo of rather than why. Simple instructions you can follow, repeat, and, as my sig states, instantly reach a level of acceptable mediocrity. One of those instructions is "get up really early" which also turns me right off.

On that note,

I like Jamie Windsor because he tackles the "why" question more than many others. Sponsorship can be skipped easily.
Nick Carver recently did an interview on the "F-Stop Collaborate & Listen" podcast talking about his career in photography, teaching, and YouTube which is well worth a listen. His channel is very relaxing and it makes me chuckle.
I also like James Popsys who does a lot of decor photography, but his comp and surreal work prior to YouTube was pretty good. He tries to make it more about the why and less about the what too. I also like his presentation style and humour. I feel entertained when he does a video.

Pretty much all my other YouTube subs are gear/equipment reviewers who are looking at old cameras and thus aren't trying to sell anything. Ones that make me smile though are grainydays, theoldcameraguy, Jonathan Notley & ShootFilmLikeABoss

With the exception of Matt Day & Northlight images, I'm not bothered for anything else in the OP. Although I do read Ken Rockwell's reviews of older lenses/cameras - but that's as part of a general read - as Dave mentions - of various review sites to get a balanced view.
 
I'm going to go against the grain here and say I really enjoy Kai's videos. He has a good sense of humour and I find his videos more interesting than other videos where they just read a list of specs.

The Northrups wind me up and I don't think I've ever watched more than five minutes of them. Same with the tattooed bloke that Stuart mentioned too.

Andy Mumford, Morten Hilmer, Simon Baxter and Jamie Windsor are all thouroughly recommended. Ben Horne and Craig Sheaks are good for LF film too, but Craig hasn't uploaded in a long time.

He doesn't do reviews so perhaps it's not really fitting for this threaed, but my favourite YouTube photographer is Sean Tucker. I enjoy the way he talks about the mental thought process of street photography, and how he's refreshingly honest about how photography makes him feel etc. I know, feelings are lame blah blah, but his videos have had a big impact on my outlook on photography and life in general.
 
Anyone else noticed the trend of photographers plugging camera accessories/software in return for cash via affliate links?

Last year, the Internet was awash with glowing coverage of Luminar 4... by reviewers who directly profited when users bought the product. In fact Skylum has paid out $7m in commission! https://skylum.com/affiliates

The latest is REVORING, a variable step ring adapter on Kickstarter which is currently being 'sold' by...

Kai W - www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJIrIyokjI
Gordon Laing - www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfmskxcADsY
Philip Bloom - www.youtube.com/watch?v=alWnyf1-w5o
Damien Demolder - www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGZXSi6K4OY
etc etc

I like some of these guys. Some are (or were) trusted journalists, but now basically sales people.

Anyone else find this disappointing? Or is it just the way of the world now?
 
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furq said:
Anyone else noticed the trend of photographers plugging camera accessories/software in return for cash via affliate links?

Last year, the Internet was awash with glowing coverage of Luminar 4... by reviewers who directly profited when users bought the product. In fact Skylum has paid out $7m in commission! https://skylum.com/affiliates

The latest is REVORING, a variable step ring adapter on Kickstarter which is currently being 'sold' by...

Kai W - www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJIrIyokjI
Gordon Laing - www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfmskxcADsY
Philip Bloom - www.youtube.com/watch?v=alWnyf1-w5o
Damien Demolder - www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGZXSi6K4OY
etc etc

I like some of these guys. Some are (or were) trusted journalists, but now basically sales people.

Anyone else find this disappointing? Or is it just the way of the world now?
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More than affiliate links. I was offered a sizeable payment for a review of Luminar. I didn't accept it, but it was offered.

I was paid by Wix to make a video and I accepted it as I was genuinely looking for a new web host and thought Id try it. In the end I went with smugmug. I was also offered payment by square space, but as Id already done Wix, I didn't think it fair.

I also had lots of other offers for various things over years, mainly dash cameras and action cameras. I did reviews on most, but I was always honest.
One product was so bad I told people not to buy it in the video I was paid for.

It is the way of the world, but you need to distinguish the genuinely good reviews of things, from the "Im not going to say anything bad because they won't pay me" reviews.
 
The only photography YouTubers I watch now are Rob Sambles, Mark Kerton and Steve Perry.

GC
 
TCR4x4 said:
More than affiliate links. I was offered a sizeable payment for a review of Luminar. I didn't accept it, but it was offered.
Click to expand...

Ugh. Good for you.

Clearly some shocking stuff going on out there. :-/
 
It depends what system I'm running, for example Snap chick? came across her when I shot Nikon [at least that's what she was shooting at the time] I found her one of the most irritating 'reviewers' on youtube over the years. Maybe she's not as cringe inducing nowadays? I remember her doing her very loose, er, reviews from the bathtub ... she's still not as nauseating as Jared Polin or the Northrups though :D I also find Kai a bit of a knobend, did so even back in the old DigiRev days but still used to watch a lot of their reviews.

I've watched just about them all over the years, more just to get a look at the gear so whoever got their video up first got the view. But very few I will watch no matter what they are reviewing, like The Camera store [well, now the original duo are with DPR so that] Kentucky man [only does Fuji, which is how I found him and his reviews are very chill, more like podcasts] Mattias Burling, Christopher Frost and for fun, Camera Conspiracies. There were others that seemed to fall away like The Hybrid Shooter, Darren Miles, The Angry chap [actually a good source of info on vintage lenses, can't take him serious outside of that] and many other more casual channels

I wouldn't take ANY of them too seriously. And it really irritates me that they're all sponsored by some crappy Square/snap/shoot-space company now, some of the smaller reviewer pretty much have a 2 min advert beginning of the video - I know they have to pay bills, but most of them started doing it as a hobby and I felt their videos were much better then - less try hard
 
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Some great replies on here and some names I hadn't heard of to check out. Keep them coming.
 
Is Thomas Heaton a reviewer? I know he occasionally talks about gear but by his own admission he's crap at reviewing it. Thoroughly enjoy his landscape stuff still.

Chris and Jordan of DPR are my 'go-to' reviewers. I don't really watch any of them for definitive opinions as the conclusions are always heavily based on one's own shooting style or requirements but those two are good entertainment. DPR website is a great resource for very thorough reviews too.

Gordon Laing is excellent for really thorough reviews. They go on a bit but if you're serious about buying something, I think he is excellent.

One that I really struggle with is Three men and a blind elephant. He's a likeable guy but the faux drama, misplaced philosophy, his delivery and his little catchphrases drive me up the wall!
 
Nick Carver is probably my favourite Youtuber at the moment. There's just something about his delivery that makes it a relaxing watch while at the same time the content tends to be incredibly informative. But like a few others mentioned here, reviewing is a pretty minor part of his channel.

gad-westy said:
One that I really struggle with is Three men and a blind elephant. He's a likeable guy but the faux drama, misplaced philosophy, his delivery and his little catchphrases drive me up the wall!
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Glad I'm not the only one! For a while I kept mixing him up with Ted Forbes. Ted doers do a lot of gear reviews but it's his art-of-photography stuff that makes his channel worth subscribing to.
 
Carl Hall said:
I'm going to go against the grain here and say I really enjoy Kai's videos. He has a good sense of humour and I find his videos more interesting than other videos where they just read a list of specs.
Click to expand...

Yup.
He may be trying to be a Jeremy Clarkson and he may be juvenile at times but I find him relatively harmless and often entertaining.

Other than that I like David Thorpe and the Camera Conspiracies guy.
 
If Youtube serves any useful purpose it's as evidence of how few people understand the importance of scripting and the even greater importance of rehearsal and subsequent editing. :sulk:
 
I agree on photography life. Worth a (huge) mention is another of their main contributors Spencer Cox who is far to young to be such an utterly fantastic landscape photographer.
 
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