Considering the end of EOSHD - Change or die?

This video contains my thoughts on the future of EOSHD and the YouTube channel. My blog has been around for 11 years. For some of that time EOSHD was one of the most visited camera sites on the internet. I am incredibly thankful for all the real camera enthusiasts and filmmakers I’ve met in this time and who have enjoyed the thousands of posts I’ve made since starting the blog. In the good old days of the Panasonic GH1 and GH2, Canon 5D Mark II and Sony A7S there was a passionate and very artistic filmmaking community around DSLRs and mirrorless cameras at all levels - it was punk! Hollywood film directors shooting with consumer cameras! Broad interest in the hobby from new people and amazing technology. Remember Vimeo at their peak? A friendly community, we were interested in each other’s footage and encouraged each other on and on. So many new and exciting camera releases - so many of them under $1500 and rapid advances in image quality. At the peak of the DSLR revolution there was also regular socialising online between pros and hobbyists and of course at camera shows. Communities like the EOSHD Forum around the world were full of a great mix of people all using the same affordable gear and exchanging their experiences, their knowledge.

But I have realised things have changed and I no longer want to be involved in it. Marketeers and their sponsors, social media influencers and their managers, clickbait and the social media companies have taken over from internet communities and they are pure consumerism. Most of the camera community is no longer even reading 2 page articles on a desktop computer or laptop, just quickly scrolling or flicking through shallow novelty on a phone.

We’re now in age of Facebook and Instagram where the only content that succeeds is a daily treadmill of shallow instant gratification or divisive extreme opinion. They have taken my livelihood away, taken away the spirit of the camera community as it was, and even harmed the very basis of how the internet was originally meant to be, as a technology.

The World Wide Web was not supposed to be dominated by a dishonest bunch of divas and big egos showing off, it was going to be a valuable worldwide resource not laden with adverts and misinformation or bullshit rumours - but detailed experiences and knowledge, not driven by shallow engagement and clickbait.

The internet was supposed to be much more. Thus this new kind of toxic media is changing society and people’s values, personal behaviour and even endangering our mental health.

By monetising the relationship between artists and their audiences, a corporate takeover of culture is occurring, and I can no longer sustain my passion or interest in this kind of new online world any more. Since EOSHD exists in this part of the ‘woods’, I have to get out and try and bring it with me.

After 11 years maybe it is time for a change any way as nothing lasts forever. For those who have stuck by me all along and the friends I’ve met in my role as EOSHD, I’m forever grateful you came on this long and interesting journey with me. It’s the ultimate proof you’re a true enthusiast with a sustained passion and talent, that drives your work, hobby or livelihood which after all is said and done, is one of the most valuable things in life - That spark of interest - That thing that drives you. The enthusiasm. But change is a big part of life too and maybe it is time for me to encourage my interest in other areas too - a less lonely pursuit where I’m not constantly swimming against the current - other ideas I want to try and finding a bridge over the river from my current livelihood to a new one which exists in a part of the world which hasn’t yet been ruined like the mirrorless camera video community is being. By no means I am definitely saying that this is the end of EOSHD but maybe this is the point where I turn the ship around and go in a new direction?