Photography, photographers, and sponsorships
Before start with this entry/rant, just want to mention that not all content creators and ambassadors will hide their bias. Some will mention that they are getting paid by X company, and some say that even if they are getting paid for a review or got access to the gear before hand, one of the conditions is their integrity. These reviewers that may get access to gear before others (like Potato Jet, Gerald Undone, Tony&Chelsey Northrup…) do an unbelievable good job and they are not scared to point out the problems of the gear they are reviewing. If you are a content creator/reviewer that try at all cost not show any bias, thank you, this entry should not offend you or even surprise you because is a known problem in the industry and the market.
Recently I had the pleasure to exchange words with quite a few photographers that even if I recognize their work, their bias is bigger than their legacy.
Any brand ambassador will have a bias for the products of the company they are ambassadors. They get a free promotion that translates into organic visits to their sites, improves ranking, and ends up with a large economic impact on the creator. Maybe they do not make money directly, but for sure they benefit indirectly. Just saying, if I get a booking for every 100 visits, and I am on the bottom of Google, if you appear on the top 10, you may get 10000 visits, meaning a potential 100 bookings. Once you are at the top, you need to do something wrong for the algorithm to position you down again.
Whether you are a content creator that promotes a brand (You get paid for it), the situation is a bit worst than the previous, you need to keep good critics of your sponsors or good luck.
Why all of this? Simple, the 80mm f1.7 and Hasselblad X1D.
You can read my comments about the 80mm 1.7 on a previous entry, but as an overview, I feel the lens is heavily outperforming in the gf lineup. Checking all ambassadors' reviews, and sponsored YouTubers, their bias was just out of the roof.
How can you say the IQ of the lens is good? Is soft and the amount of CAs at 1.7 is just not justifiable. If you do not print or you only display your work on IG, ok. But if you want to deliver the best to your customers, what?, are you serious?, you can create fantastic images, but the number of hours in postprocessing trying to fix those flaws, I do not know, does not add to me, I am a photographer, I try to minimize the amount of retouch.
Hasselblad?
A company that is struggling to stay afloat becuase they are getting smashed on the high end by phase one and on the lower high end by Fuji.
There are a few creators that the bias for their sponsors should be a red flag for any viewer. They have inconsistencies like supporting M43 because you do not need high mpx images, and then later switching to the Hass X1D because they need those mpxs. Or that the image quality of the X1D is superior to PhaseOne, GFX, etc. When the GFX 50 has the exact sensor, better microlenses, and better processor. When any single review or benchmark signals that the gfx100 is far superior to the previous systems (except for phase one 150 on DR, and still, real scenarios show better IQ for the gfx100, just lower resolution). The one exception that the content creator points out, just for confirmation bias, puts above the rest of cameras a Canon eos R, having 14 stops of DR at ISO 800, for real, I need to know the test benchmark. I own the eos R, and the sensor of the 5dMIV-EOS R is years behind of the medium format ones on IQ.
The following image are fom photonstophotos.net
Yes, those 14 stops of DR at 800ISO, what the heck is that canon EOS-R, an ARRI? Oh, wait, is barely 8, that sounds familiar and what I was used with Canon.
And now the other cameras, gfx50, 100 and x1d. Well, surprised, exactly the same than the rest 99.99% of media with the single exception the content creator pointed out.
If you are going to defend a point of view, try to be objective, do not say, I use this and it is what I like the most so it has to be the best. No it is not, there are objective measurements that disproves you. This why some content creators get trashtalked, because of one minority that without any logic, keep defending an incorrect point of view, and trolls extrapolate to other content creators when they do not agree with their opinion.
I will not name anyone, this is not a witch hunt, this is just to remark one thing. Before jumping into a system or buying gear, read multiple reviews, do your dd, check how they behaved in the past and their sponsors, Admire their work, but not their reviews, they can not be trusted. Of course, they will jump to defend themselves but, learn from their work and how they use the tools, but do not follow their advice about the tools. Gear is expensive and more when you move to medium format or professional system, do not trust a single youtuber for such, do not trust me, just read a lot of reviews, rent the system and if you like it, buy it.
I’m not sponsored by anyone. I buy all my gear and will continue to do so.
