This rainstorm killed 18 people, every day many people die in the rainy season here.
Why the ILC industry should ignore FM, DPR and LL fanatic forums and so-called experts like Thom Hogan, Tony Northrup and PhotographyLife(updated):
Many crazy old Nikon fans at DPR , LL and FM forums claim that Nikon is a tough and much better build camera system than Sony equivalent or Canon equivalent, but in reality I find their cameras (many of their newer cameras including the D810 and D850) quite weak, and their Z7 is not an exception either. I had the Z7 in Hokkaido in 2019, I borrowed it from my Nikon friend and tested it with a few Nikon lenses that I still owned at the time... Well , do not get me wrong I think the Z7 is a good camera for slow paced work and their S lenses, even the kit lens seems really good(optically), but I found it weak and even weaker than my A7R4, let alone the A9 series. Plus, the expensive new card system makes it a much more complicated or frustrating system for many of us to actually try out.
My older Nikon bodies especially their D-SLRs like the D700 and the original D800 were very tough, I admit that, but their mirroless bodies(and recent D8XX series bodies) are very fragile.
In my last year's long lasted arduous Hokkaido conference trip, the very first camera I confirmed to have develop some internal electronics issue in my bag was the rented Z7 , not any of my old Sony cameras.
Sony ILC cameras are supposed to be very weak according to those forums and so called reviewers, but they are pretty tough in real world.
In fact, Sony cameras are much tougher than these old Nikon fans believe them to be....I have never experienced any of my Sony Alpha or even Cybershot cameras failed prematurely, or before I decided to get rid of them....
All my 10 years old NEX5n/r cameras still work just fine, all my A6000 from 2014 or so still work flawlessly. Even my venerable A900 still works. I just do not use them any more , but they still work very well.
Nikon fans claim their camera ergonomics and menu system are much better than that of Sony or other brand systems, but to me and to many Sony shooters Nikon menu system is very odd and kind of clunky too. I honestly prefer the strange Sony menu system to the supposed to be much more sophisticated well designed Nikon menu system. Even if you dislike the Sony menu system very much, the Sony system is highly customizable , so you may be able to make it work great for you........Many so called reviewers never mention this but the Alpha menu system is highly customizable , much more so than any of the Nikon or Fuji cameras I have tried or owned myself.
Then why do so-called reviewers and forum guys always trash Sony menu system?
Well I think because they can find nothing Sony A7X does much worse than any other competing camera system now except the menu and ergo or durability of the system in strange climates(allegedly).
Maybe Nikon fans are so desperate that they have to find something to resist the Alpha or the R or any other system. They know Nikon is a tiny company and not really doing well with the Zs. So the future of the Z system is kind of doomed now.
They know technically most of Sony or L cameras are already quite matured and it is hard to find something really wrong in them or their system now, and subjectively or arguably Nikon may still be better in menu design and overall camera ergo, so they focus on these two areas when it comes to Canon Sony or L vs Nikon discussion at these forums.
That is the reason why they have been so obsessed with ergonomics and menu system comparisons....across the camera systems at a various fanatic forums.
They always trash about Sony menu , Canon menu , Pana menu, etc.....and always hyper critical of so-called Sony ergonomics or menu issue although it is actually an unfounded issue, just a matter of personal preference. They think it is a serious- all camera users undeniably agreed kind of issue as the major Nikon fan camera sites like Thom Hogan, Nikon Rumors and Photography Life have always found it a big issue......
Many of these Sony hating Nikon fans have never used Sony cameras or Canon R or Ls , so they do not really know how bad their menu systems really are, but they do know many so called reviewers or pros prefer the Nikon menu system over those, so they just copy and repeat what Hogan, Northrup , or Photography Life says about Sony, Canon, or Panasonic Leica menu system.
It is really obvious that most of those guys criticize about Sony or Canon new camera UI at FM or LL have no idea what they are actually disliking about Sony as they have never actually used these cameras that they really hate. If you read anything about what they write or wrote about Sony, Canon , or L, you can immediately see they have no idea how Sony, L or Canon R menu system works, but they are so desperate so they must talk about the " Hogan pointed out issue" and repeat how Nikon menu is much better much more efficient than the new Canon R menu or the Sony menu system. Sure I get it many people dislike the Sony Alpha menu system, I used to hate it too......but we'd eventually get used to it if you try to understand or get used to it.......it is also highly customizable , so you can customize it to make it actually tolerable (although you will never really like or love it).
It is a matter of our personal preference , it is not a " one system is clearly better than the rest" kind of issue... though Nikon guys always choose to talk about it as though it is an universally recognized Sony or Canon specific is problem.......and thus their Nikon system is vastly better than anything else from Sony , Leica /Pana or Canon...and that is an universal fact. They always do this to other system users.
They did it to the 5DMK2 and A900 when their D700 was clearly a bit inferior FF package compared to the old Canon and the Sony. They always chose to talk about AF as though every one of us always needed a super fast action AF system. There are many people who never use AF or use AF but not really need any high end AF like the AF of the 1DX3 , the D6 or the A9MK2. For my type of things, pro AF is not a real important aspect or quality of any camera system.
I really do not care if Nikon has a slight edge in this area or the A9MK2 or the new Canon has that over the rest.....it is really not important to me. For me even my A7R2 or A7R AF was good enough.......I always prefer a slower sensor readout system for the max optimal sensor readout quality.
To get the best out of any sensor , we need to choose a slower sensor readout rate.....just like Nikon deliberately did to the first generation Sony 24mp FF chip first used in the A900 to get a bit better(more accurate) quality data out of the sensor...and it worked well great for them with the D3X.
Some people prefer this way to improve the optimal low ISO IQ of our FF system even at the big cost of the overall speed of our cameras or some video features. Some people need to get out of the best possible sensor data and they are more than willing to trade a few frames for a bit more precise read-out chain. Some people are willing to compromise a bit of IQ at base ISO to get a bit extra speed.........nothing wrong with that. But the problem is now we have no other choice but have to compromise everything for a bit faster frame rate with a bit faster AF speed and some extra video features that many of us do not actually need or use.
The biggest problem of this industry is that we cannot have any other choice than the main stream camera sites ask the mainstream camera makers to provide us with their cameras.
If one major site say this UI is crappy clunky useless or whatever, everyone else will just repeat it.....and it will eventually become true or believed to be so.
I know many people actually prefer the Canon R UI that many mainstream camera reviewers criticized so harshly , just because they believe all serious ILC cameras must have the same old 90's style 2 dial UI that was originally designed and developed by Nikon and Minolta.
I also know many people actually prefer Sony menu system as they have been already used to shooting with their Sony cameras for many many years. Many others actually prefer Panasonic and Leica, that is fine. Some prefer the Nikon way of ergo and UI, that is also fine.
I also like Canon menu and UI, but I still prefer Sony or Panasonic for overall UI.....but that's just me.
All that said though, if they want young artist or art students market, they should try to reinvent a true 21st century minded much smarter camera UI based around a 6inch or bigger Phone-quality touch screen. And probably Sony is the only one major camera company to be able to complete that difficult task if they really try it hard. Or just use their PlayStation UI for their Alpha line.....that is very easy to do...
So I think they should start listening to the young artistic students instead of the old gearheads at LL or FM, or so- called pro reviewers ........
The problem of listening to the old fanatic market is that they just tell them what they want the camera makers to do and they try to force the camera companies to do everything in the 90's style that they are so used to using......
I think listening to those old timers and ignoring the young art students the fastest way to kill anyone's successful ILC business. Remember Olympus and Panasonic listened to guys like Hogan or similar guys for many years , they actually changed their original marketing policy methods and plans to what Thom or many similar guys suggested to them on YouTube.....And they succeeded anything in this game? Nothing. As we all know Olympus is dying....... Pana has been really struggling.
The forum guys always tell us Sony , Nikon, Canon, Leica, Panasonic ,etc. need to listen to them, but no , as they have no clue about the market and the real market demands, it is better for the manufactures to completely ignore these guys........and focus on the young students who probably know, or at least will figure out what these companies actually need to do to make the ILC cameras cool again.
Remember most of Nokia fanboys and Blackberry fans told us we would always need physical keyboards. And those two companies the only two smartphone makers in the world to have actually listened to their naive user base, and what would happen to them?
I think listening to the forums especially LL will kill any camera maker. Those fanatics have no idea why the young artists do not want to use cameras or how these ILC should evolve with respect to the UI if any of these camera guys need the young boys' market..only the young artistic people know it and able to help them..or some young engineers at some of these major camera manufactures may actually know it better than any of us. But sadly enough , most of these companies are run by the old Japanese bosses like Canon's Mitarai, who is already 87 years old...... They never let the young engineers try anything new , cause they must micro control everything with their businesses in their traditional Japanese way......and I think that is the biggest enemy of the ILC or Japanese tech industry.
This is why all Japanese electronics industry has been struggling to adapt itself to the new 21st century market.
UPDATE: Hogan says he is neutral or fair to all manufactures despite of the fact he is or has been a diehard Nikon guy.....
Recently he launched another Nikon dedicated new site called "Zsystemuser.com", and is he still calling himself a neutral unbiased reviewer?
He is not the only one fanboy pretending to be an unbiased camera expert, but there are a million sites like his , and most of these guys call themselves an honest or unbiased reviewer.
PhotographyLife is another big Nikon fanboy site pretending to be an honest review site.
Tony Northrup is also very biased.......he is not necessarily a Nikon fanboy but the D850 sensor fanboy.
DPR is clearly biased towards Sony, but at least they are trying to be technical.
FM is also an extremely biased site and that guy even bans any one that does not worship him or agree with his extremely Sony biased view. Before A7R2, he was an extreme Canon biased photographer.
Photorumors is an extreme Nikon fanboy site....
All of these are not honest sites , but I do find Thom Hogan and PhotographyLife more problematic than the others.
Why? Because they are pretending to be really honest or like all brands but their real purpose to review all makes mount systems is to trash anything non-Nikon.
Hogan said in his EOS R5 article Canon has messed up another big chance with the R5, and overall the Z7 is still a far more camera than the new Canon.....
It is really ridiculous , honestly the R5 is a far better much more versatile camera than the Z7.....and we all know that if it hadn't been a Canon, he would have said something very different.
He does not seem to like Sony any more , now he is back to his normal state (extremely partial to Nikon)......but still claim he is fair honest. etc.
Fred Miranda is also biased but he is openly biased and not bashing any other brand than he actually loves using , and he does not claim he is an honest reviewer or fair to all manufactures ,or using all mount systems equally.
So I do not think he is a big problematic reviewer although he is pretty partial to Sony Alpha now. If you do not like his view or his Sony fanboy community, you can ignore or dismiss his site.....
But Hogan is a big problem as he claim he is an honest or fair reviewer to all manufactures.
These days there is no more honest camera site , there are a few honest lens and sensor testers online, but no honest camera reviewers any more.
I think the death of Michael Reichmann in 2015 was the biggest loss in this dishonest industry. He was really honest and very knowledgeable in this photo/video industry. RIP Michael Reichmann..
