10 Years on YouTube!

It’s officially the Photography Banzai YouTube channel’s birthday. 10 years old…

The result after 10 years.

The first time I remember using YouTube was back in Nagasaki Japan in 2006. I had the desire of doing something with it back then, but at the school I was going to the internet speeds were terrible. Not to mention a group of my fellow foreigners were sucking up bandwidth due to their World of Warcraft addiction, lol. I still have my original account and currently post low quality fast food reviews to it.

At the time, YouTube was often used as a video hosting platform of whatever random stuff people wanted to show others. The idea of cohesive genre focused content wasn’t much of a thing. By the time I started the photography focused channel it was starting to happen.

My first video on YouTube for the Photography Banzai channel was a quick clip where I show a film era Kenko teleconverter working with a Pentax K10D DSLR and 300mm f/4 SDM lens. I was active on PentaxForums.com so that was the motivator to share a video clip.

The first video. I replaced the sound through YouTube’s system at one point.

Before all of this, I was into video editing of “anime music videos” (animemusicvideos.org) starting around 2001 or 2002. I already had this website, but I didn’t put a lot of thought into video or making it an officially focused channel at the time.

The idea to go fully in with the channel was more due to seeing growth as I uploaded more clips. It was a natural progression but happened pretty quickly. With the advent of the partner program that further boosted my motivation to create videos.

As things stand now, I’m glad with how far I’ve come, but there looks to be a long road ahead if I am honest about truly making this my thing.

My latest video where I walk around the downtown area of a city and take photos.

I’m finding it extremely difficult to make photography focused videos that actually find any traction on the platform. I really enjoy producing those type of videos, but I do need to be realistic about what works and what doesn’t.

Of course, equipment and gear focused content tends to do better and I need to be more accepting of that. With the pandemic as it is, I stopped going to the camera shop I filmed hands-on videos at. I’ll have to see how things go. One step after the other… after the other…

Viltrox AF FE 28mm f/4.5 VCM ASPH ED Lens Overview

Viltrox asked me if I wanted to take a look at this unique compact autofocus full-frame prime lens with a focal length of 28mm and a fixed f/4.5 aperture for Sony E-mount cameras. Viltrox agreed to my standard collaboration terms before sending me the lens. In the video I talk about features, how it works in practice, and show photos I had taken on a photo walk with the Sony a7S as well as the APS-C a6000. Viltrox is starting this off as an Indiegogo campaign. They told me that it will eventually be sold through normal retailers: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/viltrox-af-28mm-f4-5-fe-chips-size-ultra-thin-lens They said it will be $99 USD or 109 Euros with discounts during the crowdfunding period. Check out Indiegogo for details. I am not an affiliate of that website. You can check on the status of availability through my usual affiliates: B&H Photo Video Amazon As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases! The front of the lens. K...

Camera Gear Reviews and Marketing Issues Exposed

A great overview by Gerald Undone on his experiences in the field of camera gear related videos! It is an important topic. The more open the better, I’d say. After over 13 years making photography and videography gear videos, I’ve not had a huge amount of success comparatively, but I’ve also never been especially brand safe to begin with for these companies to consider me. 🤣 I think his mentions toward the end of the video are especially important. The unwritten pressure, or worse with companies like Insta360 , shouldn’t be acceptable and should be publicly called out more often. That’s probably the only way things will actually change for the better. I created a video detailing my opinion on the topic further: More of my comments on the video… His YouTube channel. 4:30 I understand that’s what Gerald does, but are there situations where companies are paying for flights and hotel costs of other reviewers with the expectation of a video/article being produced? (EDIT: I’ve seen confirm...

First look at the Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 for Sony E-mount bought from KEH

I've use a Sony Alpha A6000 and the PZ 16–50mm F/3.5–5.6 OSS kit lens with my computer as a webcam for a long time now. It's a lower cost option that has been very consistent outputting 1080p at 30 FPS to a USB based HDMI capture device. The kit lens is generally fine, but it has a few quirks. The biggest issue is that throughout the zoom range the maximum aperture value is not fixed. This introduces technical challenges when I want to show detailed views of product or similar use cases. There are also other considerations I'll talk about later in this article. So I decided to buy the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | C lens in E-mount as a replacement. Links in this article are a mix of paid and through my affiliates. I earn from each in different ways. One is a flat fee and the others I earn from qualifying purchases. Considering them for your purchasing needs helps make the creation of this information viable! I made a video unboxing the lens and trying it out with Open ...

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