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A
Stephen, I'm at an activation at the Influencer Olympics, also known as Coachella. It's so amazing. Why are you not here? Stephen? Did you go to the Influencer Olympics this week? What is that Coachella?
B
Oh, geez. No, I did not. I did not watch. I didn't even know it was happening. I know nothing about Coachella.
A
They should call it the look at me, look at me, look at me event. Because everything about Coachella isn't about the music. It's about being seen and filming yourself and posting that you were there, but not actually giving a shit about anything
B
else about the music.
A
It's not the music. It's. Look at me, I'm in Coachella. I'm wearing this outfit. It's the. It's the modern day Burning man for influencers.
B
And then it's the opposite with festivals like Bonnaroo, where it's like the hippie dippies that absolutely love and get lost in the music. About the music, man. Not so much about the influencer stuff, but yeah, Coachella is definitely that vibe for.
A
You know, I. I sent a video to a friend I saw of these people. They were going nuts. It's like on the side of a street, someone was playing like it was after a Haley Williams concert. And everybody's like, singing misery business. They probably weren't even born when it was written, actually, but they were all singing misery business. And they're like, having fun. I don't know what the fuck fun is.
B
You're such a curmudgeon.
A
I'm not. I've never enjoyed, like, I've never been to a show and been like, yeah, I feel like this is really speaking to me.
B
See, I'm the opposite. I absolutely love music. I mean, obviously I in the radio world for so long just because of my passion for music.
A
How'd that turn out?
B
Yeah, the radio world is obviously dead, but music is not dead.
A
I just don't feel like that. I don't know. We're all physiologically different and I just don't fall into the. Like, everybody is dancing, so. Oh, it's the energy coming off of everybody makes everything amazing.
B
See, you gotta feel the music, bruh.
A
Feel the music. No, I sit there and I'd be like, you guys look like idiots. Anyway, speaking of, the reason I bring up Coachella is my neighbor two doors down. Not my.
B
Not three doors.
A
Direct neighbor. No, no, no. Too soon. Two doors down. Well, technically, three doors. No. Technically, two doors down. No.
B
Two and a half, two.
A
Well, if you decide, it depends on which one of my houses? You're counting?
B
Jesus.
A
Because there's two next to each other.
B
Such a douche.
A
That's one door. That's a. Does the garage door count? If the garage door counts, then it's three doors down. If not, it's only one door down. Two doors down. Anyway. You just keep sidetracking me, Steven. So my neighbor, she was at Coachella, and she's like. I put her in her 40s, right? Very similar to me. And the only reason she was at Coachella posting videos is she works for a drug company. Like a Tylenol. Like Tylenol, Motrin. Motrin, stuff like that. And so they're doing an activation. So she used the word activation. And nothing pisses me off more than these stupid marketing bullshit terms like, yes, we have an activation going at Coachella.
B
You have to explain that to me. What do they mean by activation, Steven?
A
Every time we go to an event, a canon event, a Sony event, and Sony takes us to a shooting environment, that is an activation.
B
Oh, my God.
A
When they take us to go fly in a hot air balloon, that is an activation.
B
I've never heard it worded that way.
A
Yeah, an activation is. They're like, okay, all right, we need to do an activation at Coachella. So what we need to do is make sure that we get influencers there and there's things for them to engage with then that will make. They'll make social media content, which then we can measure the next thing. I hate impressions. We had a billion impressions. Whoop dee doo.
B
How do they have activations being a drug company? I mean, minus illegal drugs.
A
No, no. People get drunk, people get wasted, people have headaches, people are dehydrated, so they're
B
hitting hard on, like, the hungover audience, probably.
A
Or pain. It's all pain relief, because that's what that is.
B
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your pain.
A
I don't know. Get your finger out of my ass. Zero.
B
Is this a pleasure scale?
A
Zero. Oh, no. But I really despise the term activation. And I really despise these corporatized terms like impressions, because they're meaningless. I always bring up in 2007, the MySpace World, or 2005, the MySpace World, where they're, like, sending out a press release that so and so got a million MySpace spins on their song. And I was like, yeah, I could sit here and hit refresh. And every time I hit refresh, the play goes up, the counter goes up one.
B
Man. Don't you wish YouTube views were like, that.
A
Well, no, because it would be vanity numbers.
B
We know, sitting here all day, refresh, refresh, refresh.
A
Well, we know certain YouTubers that basically pay to do that and call themselves a success with, what was it, 3 million subscribers now?
B
Oh, my God, 3 million.
A
But. But a new video goes up that they don't pay for, and it gets 7,000 views and 12 comments. Eight days later, it still has 24 comments, but. But 1.2 million views and 400 likes.
B
Yep.
A
Which is just so wrong because it's just so out of the question because you look at. You look at our viral video the other day, and let me. Let me bring it up. You look at our viral video the other day, and it. And it has 19,000 likes, 2669 comments, and 830,000 views in nine days. That's how you know a video is legit. If you see a video that has a million views but has under 100 comments or even under a thousand comments with a million views and it has very little in the way of the likes, you know, they're fraudulent or they're like advertised views, meaning they paid for it. All right, now, before I get back to Coachella, let's give you a rundown of the things we're gonna talk about today. We've got. I'm off to London. We'll explain why. I'm off to London. We've got an update on the viral video. I just told you how many likes and comments it had, but I want to share with you how much revenue it has made with the 820,000 views. We want to share what we found out about why NASA chose Nikon over Canon. Because we don't think we found any tests that showed Sony, but we have information about that. We can talk a little bit about my 4 by 511 minutes of chaos. Not because it was an amazingly viral success, but because quite the opposite. It did the exact opposite of what I viral video did. But there's some comments I wanted to talk about. We've got GoPro Mission 1 discussion, and DJI Awesome Pocket 4 dropped just an hour before we started this podcast. So wrapping up the influencer Olympics at Coachella, I only wanted to bring that up because I hate the term impressions and I absolutely despise the term activations because I think it's just so some of it can be done well. Or think of when Sony does a Sony Condo or Sony. Yeah, Sony Camp or Sony has different cameras things around the country, those are considered. That's the term activation. I call it Marketing, semantic. You know, it's semantics, it's tomato, tomato. I just hate corporatized terms that are just. People throw shit around to make them sound impressive. And they're like, yeah, we, we set up an activate. You know who, you know who used to do that? Stephen. You know where I was going with that?
B
I know exactly who you're talking about.
A
Oh, God. I used to have someone that I was close with that would throw around stupid terms all the time. Like take a phone call during just having a discussion and say, sorry, I'm. I'm in a meeting right now, I cannot talk. Can I call you back? I was like, what are you, what are you talking about? Yeah, not a meeting.
B
I have a sales buddy that uses a lot of those types of terms. And I'm like, so you're basically just cold calling all day. That's all you have to say.
A
Let's get into London. I'm off to London tomorrow. There is a song that you should play when you land in London. By three doors down, there's a three doors. It's a good London. I've done it, I think every time I land in London. And I'm taking Austin because we're gonna do some behind the scenes filming. What's going on is a friend of mine is doing like a documentary series potentially on AFC Wimbledon. They are a soccer team where John Green is involved. Old YouTuber John Green got involved with them and I've been wanting to go out and see a real football match in London and this is my opportunity to go do that. And so we. I have some ideas that I want to capture there because what's interesting about AFC Wimbledon is that the town owns 75% of the team so that they can never leave. It is a really fascinating story. You can go on YouTube and see some videos from like nine or 10 years ago that my buddy did do with John Green. That explains the whole story of AFC Wimbledon and how the town came to be or how the town, you know, owns the team so they don't get screwed again. But if you live near Wimbledon and you are an AFC Wimbledon fan and you are going to be there on Saturday for their soccer. Sorry. For their football match, I better get it right. I don't want to get Green street hooligan. Email me@supportronosphoto.com with the subject line AFC Wimbledon, because if you're going to be there, I'd like to meet you outside of the stadium, probably before the footy match or sometime during the day. But I'M going and I've got some ideas of what I want to capture. Not taking any long glass. And the reason I'm not taking any long glass is because to me, it's not a about soccer. It's about the story of the team and the fans and the people and, and, and what's going on in the stadium. Not so much soccer. Football.
B
I still never understood why we call football football and not soccer Football.
A
Yeah. I don't know. I'm sure you could ask Chat. GPT. Fine. Fine, Steven. Send me down the rabbit hole.
B
Here we go.
A
Why is.
B
This is why I just don't talk.
A
Why is soccer called soccer in America and not football? Well, thank you for asking, Jared. Well, it's actually a British invention that Americans just kept using. Here's the short term.
B
So when I call it football, it
A
started in England back in the 1800s. There were multiple versions of football. Rugby, football association football, rugby, rugby, blah blah blah, associated football, soccer, whatever. Fuck this. Boring.
B
See, rugby is kind of that in between soccer football, American wise.
A
Yeah, well, why don't they call it, you know like Scissor Bee? You know, if you're gonna have rugby, you know.
B
That's a great name.
A
Scissor Bee.
B
Yeah, it just flows off the tongue nicely. Scissor be.
A
We haven't said much about Subaru.
B
Sounds like a Subaru driver.
A
Anyway, we're off to. I'm off to London. Steven's not. Austin's coming. We'll try to make some vloggy vlog content like we did in Paris. This time with me assimilating into the community of Wimbledon.
B
I hope they have a lot of sing alongs on street corners that you can join.
A
Oi, oi, oi.
B
Just buskers everywhere.
A
What? Shit. I'm trying to think of some from Ted Lasso. Jamie Tart. Tart. Tart. To tart to tart. Jamie Tart. Tart Tart to tart. To tart. Jamie Tart. Tart. Jamie Tart. Isn't that what his name. Jamie Tartt. Roy. Roy Kent or whatever.
B
I never finished season three.
A
No, you should. It's really good.
B
I watched one and two and just never got back on again. My time is so damn limited now.
A
Season 4 is on its way.
B
I never finished Billions. I never finished all these shows.
A
Yeah, yeah. Billions is one of those that, that you could watch at any time basically because it was. Okay, so. All right, let's go on to the viral video analytics right now just to give you guys some information about that. So the views now are at 833 and a half thousand views, which is only 763,000 more than normal. Watch time hours is 55.5 thousand. It's gained 2 point, sorry, 2900 subscribers. To put that into perspective, we only add 2000 subscribers a month these days. That's because YouTube doesn't care about subscriber growth anymore. They just care about its recommendation feeds.
B
And view wise we're hitting, you know, roughly a million views a month. And those two videos alone combined are pretty much our monthly views.
A
Yeah, the two NASA videos have given us a million views because Certainly the Rory McElroy 11 minutes of chaos didn't add much because it hasn't added 20,000 yet.
B
About.05% right from what the NASA video did.
A
Yeah, not very, not very good. It's just the luck of the draw. So in terms of revenue, last week we told you that it had made what, 20, $300 or was it 1300 or something?
B
I think we were at 1300 when it first.
A
Yeah, so now it's at $3550.87. So.
B
Which still is not what I thought it would be. I was thinking more like that 5, $6,000 range. I mean people have to understand like YouTube ad revenue is not great.
A
Well, it depends again on your niche. It depends on your cpm, which is playback based cost for every thousand. Where it's $17.11 now that is a good CPM, $17.11. But we would like it to be higher. Like I will say that during the pandemic, all the financial channels, the crypto channels, huge, they were doing 40 to $50 CPMs, they were raking in the money when it came to that because they were just getting a ton, a ton of views.
B
I wonder what the tech channels make. Just because I think of Linus tech tips and MKBHD, they're the ones that are doing 2, 3 million views almost a video daily. It's pretty insane.
A
Yeah, I wish we had a look into that. We don't. But let's, let's skip on over to the second video that we put up. The. What is this called? What's the Difference?
B
Yes, that's where we broke down the photos from the moon. Far side of the moon, as people like to say.
A
So remember last week I said I didn't get super excited about going viral because I knew that it's not something that's repeatable. And we saw that right away when we put up this video. This video was not doing well.
B
We also Put it out at like 11pm at night.
A
Yeah, it went out pretty late, but then. But it wasn't even for at least 24 hours before it shot up. So now it's at 201,000. It's done. It's added 613 subscribers. So we've added 3,000 subscribers between those two videos. This video has done $1125 with a quarter of the. With what was that? Three times less.
B
Very, very odd.
A
Or four times less, because times four, four, two is eight. It's done. But. So let me give you those analytics real quick on the revenue it has. It's a $21.10 CPM.
B
And what was the other one?
A
$17.10.
B
Huh.
A
So 8, 9, 18, 19, 20, 20. So it's done $4 more per. So it's theoretically. Well, it's technically making more money, but with less views. So I don't know.
B
Could it be because people were talking about it more when that video came out where the other video was kind of early on during the Artemis mission?
A
Well, maybe YouTube is like, well, his last video did really well. Or then they sell. They sell ad videos. And there used to be a thing where you were YouTube preferred. Right. Only the top 1% of certain channels. We used to be. It. It was weird, but that they would sell ads against your views at higher value. So the MKBHDs of the world, the Linus Tech tips, the ones that do really well, it costs more to place ads in the system. YouTube takes care of all of this.
B
And I do feel like it should be that way. It's very similar to getting a sponsored video. Like a creator that's just starting out is getting much less money than someone that's making, you know, a million or 2 million views per video.
A
You know what? I should also have prefaced this with Stephen.
B
What's that?
A
That's my take home.
B
Oh, yes, yes.
A
YouTube takes 45%, so you add 45%. So almost 50%. So our video that's done 3200 or $3500 or whatever it was, basically has done $6800. But YouTube takes their cut.
B
So has it always been 45%?
A
Yeah, since day one.
B
Wow, that is a huge percentage.
A
It is, but it isn't. It's not. Because how many terabytes of upload videos have we uploaded in 17 years?
B
Yeah, I can't imagine.
A
We don't pay money for storage. We don't pay money for bandwidth. We don't pay money to employ all of the employees that keep YouTube allowing us to reach billions of people. We don't have to sell the ads, and we can sell our own ads for product placement ourself. Like this activation is brought to you by the FroKnowsPhoto Bootcamp. Now, there's a bonus if you sign up from watching this podcast, which someone did last week. Thank you for doing that. You'll get a free 17x22 print from the frokiv of your choice. If you do make a purchase, make sure when you email in, you type in the secret phrase. There's a new secret phrase this week, Steven. The secret phrase is Bing bong bop. Head on over to bit ly may 30 fro. If you've been waiting to sign up, now is your time. There's less than 10 spots remaining for the May 30 boot camp, and we'd love to see you here. Bing bong Bop. After you purchase, send an email that says Bing bong Bop and let me know which print you want, and I'll have it ready for when you get here to the boot camp. Boom. Bit ly may 30 fro. That wasn't meant to be an activation. Technically, that's not an activation. An activation would be the boot camp
B
I was gonna say is free.
A
That was just a segue, Steven. That was a segue. We were talking about money.
B
But it's not an activation.
A
It's not? No. An activation would be if froknow's photo goes to Alan's camera for free and tells people to show up because there's an event. Alan Zapalooza was technically an activation. All right, can we put that video to rest now?
B
Yes, please.
A
All right, But I thought it was interesting to share the analytics with you people because no one. I mean, very few people share the behind the scenes of how that works. So technically, if it made twenty twelve hundred dollars, it really did. Three thousand dollars.
B
So I do actually have some notes, by the way, on how they were trained on the cameras. The Z9 and the D5. Specifically, NASA's photo and video trainers said all astronauts underwent four to six hours of camera training upon joining the program.
A
They should have sent them to the FroKnowsPhoto Bootcamp and used the term Bing bong bop.
B
They say once they had a space assignment. So the Artemis mission, they completed then 10 photography classes, which in total amounted to 20 hours of training, which really isn't that much.
A
It's not a lot of training. No, but remember, they're astronauts. They gotta train on everything, and that's why I say they learn so much well.
B
And they specifically said that they taught them how to go beyond the basics. So I assume full manual control. And what I found really interesting is that they trained the astronauts by photographing inside a mock up of the Orion capsule with a giant inflatable moon suspending in the dark. So I guess they were photographing from inside the capsule, this fake moon, and mimicking settings that would be out there in space.
A
I mean, that's practice.
B
It is. It's practical practice.
A
Yeah.
B
They said, quote, for training, we'll give them a problem or request for a certain kind of photo and then we let them work through how they're going to accomplish the task. In the end, when they're on their space mission, we can't be there with them. So they need to feel confident that they can figure out some of this stuff on their own. I just found that very interesting that they actually had this mock up and only had 20 hours of total training. And again, that whole mission was kind of based around photography.
A
This is an activation.
B
It's a practice activation.
A
Right. A NASA activation, if we're going to call it something, at least. I mean, I got tired of hearing long lens, but I get, I understand why they call it the long lens. That's just their, their terms. And that's inside baseball generally. We wouldn't be hearing, excuse me, the behind the scenes of their discussions, but it was all open.
B
And the long lens discussion goes all the way back to the original Apollo missions. Like they called that the long lens back then too. So that's just like a NASA term at this point.
A
Hello. Hello. What's that? What's my nickname? Oh, yeah, it's long lens.
B
Also, I did a lot of research trying to figure out like, did they test other cameras? Because I saw someone mention that they tested an R5. And my question was, did they go and test other camera brands, other memory cards, stuff like that, not just Nikon? And I did end up finding the white papers on their initial camera testing for the entire Artemis mission. And it turns out they tested the R5 along with the Nikon D6 and Z7 II all the way back in 2022. NASA says that the Z9 was not available when they did that initial testing. Since this was just a few months after the Z9 was announced, I think it was only like three months later. We are actually doing a video on this. It should hopefully be out this weekend. It has a lot more information than what I'm about to read. But I wanted to Kind of give you the Cliff notes on how they tested the D6, the R5 and how they ended up with the Z9. They tested the cameras in a vacuum chamber with temperatures ranging from negative 22 degrees to 104 degrees. And Wi Fi was used to capture the video and the images. They immediately ruled out the Z7 II because it kept having communication errors throughout all the testing. They did four K30H 265 video tests in ambient and hot temperatures ranging from 70 to 104 degrees. The cameras recorded basically until they overheated and what they call self shutdown with all these cooldown periods in between. And then they also tested stills in these vacuum chambers where all cameras were tested in hot environments, 104 degrees only, and images were taken in 30 second intervals until again the cameras basically overheated. And in the end, based on their line charts for video, the R5 actually recorded video for longer times during the overheating tests than the D6. But both were basically even when it came to capturing stills in a hot environment before they both overheated. It seems like the R5 body stayed significantly hotter than the D6 in these tests, especially for the hot tests, which makes sense because it's oversampled. I couldn't find any final conclusion or summary on these tests. All we know is that in the end they chose the Z9 even though they spent specifically didn't do the testing. The white paper says multiple cameras from different manufacturers were considered early in this project, but the z9 was selected as a result of a previous trade study. Significant changes to the firmware of the camera specifically for this project allows for improved camera operation with respect to space missions. So they did pick the Z9. Again, it looks like they didn't specifically test it that we didn't find that we couldn't find. So all of this is public information. You can go and find all of their testing on NASA's website. I searched cameras, Nikon, Canon testing, lunar testing, Artemis, all of that. And the only test I could find was this specific test. And again, these cameras were tested for the Artemis mission, but mainly for the lunar mission. So Artemis 3 and 4, not so much Artemis 1 and 2 and now
A
it's Artemis 4 and 5. Probably because 3 is no longer going to the moon.
B
Yep, yep, yep. And then they also tested several CFExpress memory card brands and including Sandisk, Lexar, Prograde and Sony. They chose Prograde Iridium cards in the end in 400 gig and 1.6 terabyte capacities and prograde basically says that Prograde digital memory cards were selected due to their ability to sustain high performance and reliable operation in a high radiation space environment. Prograde's Iridium series of cards exceeded the capability of other CFexpress type B memory card brands when tested in a space like environment. Prograde worked with NASA on the Artemis campaign for over a year and a half to finalize the key deliverables in card design and post mission support. It's interesting stuff again. That video should be out hopefully this weekend or maybe a little later. There's much more information in that video, including how they actually customized and tested the Z9, how they made the custom grip, all that kind of stuff for the lunar environment in the Artemis missions.
A
Cool.
B
Yeah, I just thought it was a good follow up to both NASA videos.
A
That's because people wanted to know the
B
fact that they actually tested another brand outside of Nikon. It seems like they've used either Hasselblad or Nikon throughout NASA's existence. Pretty much.
A
A lot of it came down to Nikon's willingness to adapt and tweak and change firmware. And not saying that Canon would say no. I just don't know. Canon just like saying no to me when I ask for adapted firmware because I really want to adapt the firmware to allow me to do certain things.
B
I also did find, during that, during the research of trying to find all the testing and stuff that I found the original signed document from Nikon's president explaining all the legal things about how they're going to tweak the firmware and what NASA is going to specifically do and what Nikon specifically is going to do for their Z9 and the testing. Really, really interesting stuff.
A
Yep. So when that comes out, you'll probably not get a notification. So who knows how it gets served to you in the YouTube world.
B
Yeah, I think this video is more for our audience, not so much for the rest of the world like the other Artemis mission ones. But so it kind of goes hand in hand a little bit.
A
That's funny because I got an email from a news station in San Diego and I don't even know if they ended up using it, but one of the guys was like, can we do a Zoom interview with you about your findings? And he didn't really say what he was going to talk about. So I get the guy on the line on Zoom, I turn on all the lights here, I do our setup and everything and he's asking questions. And some questions were just like bad, like, not like I'M like, you're gonna need to explain what you're actually asking because you're like, oh, yeah, you noticed. You mentioned there was like shadow area. I'm like, yeah, what's the question? Like, what are you talking about? That doesn't make. You gotta. You gotta. I don't know what you're talking about. So there was some of that. Of course they cut it and they may be just use a couple seconds, but they were more fascinated about like why I said it was like night and day. The difference anyway. And then they always ask like, can we use your YouTube video? I'm like, it's a YouTube video. You don't need my permission. I still don't understand that. It's a public thing. It's on. You can run the YouTube video.
B
When it comes to commercial use, I could see it being different.
A
I think it. I guess to me it's a YouTube video and if it's for the news, it's newsworthy. Just like when we use clips in the photo news fix, they can use a clip from my YouTube video. That is true. Yeah.
B
Yeah. I guess they still seek permission every time, I guess.
A
Yeah. So speaking of videos that didn't do well, my 4 by 511 minutes of chaos with Rory McElroy, which I thought would maybe catch some interesting feedback because Rory just won the Masters.
B
Same with the NASA videos. We tried to capitalize on topical news like the Rory McIlroy winning the Masters.
A
So I've been sitting on this video for a while. It's a 11 minute look at something that was happening behind the scenes at the truest event last year. If you go to jaredpolin.com and on the front page you click on 4x5 project, you can then see all the different 4x5 stuff I've done. Click on the one that says Truest PGA or Truest 2025 PGA and you can see all of the photos in whole, including the ones that ended up being in this 11 minutes of chaos. Now, I called it 11 minutes of chaos because as a photographer trying to. The chaos nature of it was all of these screaming kids screaming for Rory to sign their autograph, which he was going down a line nicely to sign as many autographs as he could and say hi to as many people as he could, which he doesn't have to do. There's these corrals at these events where they bring in the kids. And yes, there's some adults or parents that are with the kids to be there. But. But it's a way that the kids can get up close and personal and get autographs from their favorite golfers. So the chaos part is there's a bunch of people floating around, there's security, there's police, there's volunteers. It's not easy to use a 4 by 5 when someone is moving. And so some of the comments you see are people being like, well, you made the wrong decision. You should never have used that. I wasn't asking whether I should have used that camera or not. I was using that camera for the entire event for four days. And I ended up with amazing images that nobody else at that event would come back with.
B
But you're not just going to mix in random digital color photos with this entire black and white 4x5 project. You know that would be just weird, right?
A
And I wrote here, just because it's not easy doesn't make it the wrong choice. Now, if I was hired to document Rory's round of golf and post and what happens after the golf event, I'd maybe use something different. But on the flip side, if I was assigned to photograph this event with my 4x5 because someone saw what I'm able to do with my 4x5, then absolutely I would try to do this. And I came out with I think one of six images there. Well, maybe two of six. I like the one that's from his back where you see the Nike swoosh and him signing autographs and all the fans are out of focus. He isn't perfectly tack sharp. But in a 16 by you'd never know that because of how large my scans are.
B
I've always said it though. I think the characteristic, the aesthetic of the 4x5 is that slight blur. Slight. It's not perfect.
A
Right. And So I would 100% use this camera. It's not the wrong camera. The other point that I wrote here is you'd never see the bad pictures or the pictures that didn't turn out. You'd only see the final best of the best with honors, sir. No one showing the behind the scenes or like I do. So you'll never know what I came out with. You only get to see what I share. And that comes down to the. You are the last line of defense between putting out quality work and shitty work. So if you put out a shitty photo that's on you. I'm in this case showing you the behind the scenes nature of what it was like to try and capture something with this 4 by 5 in a non setup environment. Was it going to be the perfect choice? Absolutely not. Did I come out with quality? Two keepers, 100%. And if all I showed you were those keepers, you'd never know about anything else. In the grand story of my truest 2025 event, those two images, the image of the little girl and the kids down low with Rory standing up is incredible. And when you watch the video and you see that a cop almost walked. A police officer almost walked in the way when I pressed the shutter, I wasn't sure whether he got into the frame or not. So I don't know until I see the developed shot. Is it perfect? No, because I wish I didn't cut their feet off. I didn't even see the little girl when I was focusing. But that is one of those happy accidents. At the end, you have a side of Rory, and you have this little girl reaching up with her hat. That, to me, is a beautiful shot.
B
It's a shame Rory isn't in it really, though. Like, he's barely on the edge of that frame. It's almost hard to. If there was no context given, you'd be like, what is this image of? Like, who is.
A
I get it. Yeah. I mean, there's only so much I can control out there if I didn't have anybody in the way. And I could be like, Rory, hold here. Because he actually got down low, you see, in the video, to sign an autograph for her. But at that point, there were people already standing in my way, and I couldn't quickly rewind like wind. And I don't think I would have gotten the shot. That's the nature. That's the chaos of the event. That's what I was trying to show you, that I'm winding a shutter four times to get the right shutter speed. Oh. The other thing that I saw comments about is this is why F8 and be there was invented. And then I sat there and I said, did you not finish watching the video? Because I literally mention F8 and be there, and why I don't want to F8 and be there. Yes, F8 and B there would have probably guaranteed me that Moore would have been in focus. Or, yes, Moore would have been in Focus at F8, but that would have not. That wouldn't give me what I was looking for out of that lens. That is why in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, F8 and B there was a thing because they couldn't control as much, and they didn't have the ability to do what we do today. So they would F8 and B there set the camera to F8, which spreads out the field of focus.
B
Depth of field.
A
Yeah, well, the depth, but also the zone focusing. So when someone shows up, you have. That's why on the Leica, Everybody talks about F8 and be there because it's the zone. You could see it on the lens. So on the Leica lenses, when you look at the top of them, it shows. Like if you were to go to F8 at this, it would say from 3 to 7 meters will be in focus. So it's like you have this range and then you wait for the subject to get there and you shoot the picture. I didn't want to do that. So anyway, that video flopped, did not do well, will never do well. And that's just what happens.
B
That's the nature of YouTube. Going from an 830 plus thousand view video to a 15,000 view video.
A
Just what happens.
B
Yep.
A
All right, two more things to talk about. We've got the GoPro mission one. You want to get into GoPro. You know what this means for them.
B
Yeah. So this is what GoPro really, really needed. With major competition now, especially from DJI and Insta360, they now have the Mission 1 series that they just announced. I'm not sure if this marks the end of the Hero era or if this will be a standalone series of cameras and they'll still announce future Hero cameras. I don't know. It seems to me that the Mission one is now the new Hero.
A
Yes. And we don't know the pricing.
B
Yes. So we don't know the pricing. I think they said late May, there's the Mission one. That's their basic model, the Mission One Pro, their flagship, and the Mission One Pro ils, which we'll get to in a minute, that's their interchangeable lens version.
A
Now, they all have the same sensor.
B
Correct. So at their core, they all share a brand new 1 inch, 50 megapixel quad Bayer sensor powered by a GP3 processor and a new Enduro 2 battery that they put out. That'll give you better run times and thermals. And then the Sensor is about 25% larger than the one found in DJI's Osmo Action 6, their competition. And the other competition being Insta360, it's 43% bigger than the Ace Pro 2 sensor and it overall has larger microns for better low light capability.
A
So it's going to be interesting to see what their prices are.
B
So the Hero 13 Black goes for about $430. It's on sale right now for 380. I'm going to assume that it's like a $500 camera. The Ace Pro 2 for example, goes for about $400 and the DJI Osmo 6 goes for same thing, about $430 roughly. I don't know, maybe they'll try and compete and keep it at that. At least their mission one, the base model at that $400 price point. But I can see the flagship Mission Pro being a lot more along with the Mission Pro ils. Obviously.
A
I think one of the confusing things with the ILS thing is you hear micro four thirds, but it's a micro four thirds mount.
B
Correct. So it's not a four thirds sensor. It is a one inch sensor. They all have the same sensor. So what is the crop factor is my question. Also, there's no autofocus in that model. You know, I get it, like this is going to be probably a crash camera or something like that, but it's not going to be something you're going to be focusing with. Just keep that in mind.
A
Yeah, and it's just the whole. You said Micro four Thirds is dead and it's not.
B
But again, it's not a Micro four thirds sensor, it's a Micro four thirds mount. I assume they chose the smallest mount for a reason. So it's not a giant full frame E mount or RF or Z mount or anything else on that camera.
A
Because at first I thought micro 4/3 sensor and I was like wait, DJI has the Zenmuse system which isn't even that pricey, that has a micro 4/3 sensor. Auto, I think autofocus for the drones. Or maybe you have to pull the focus. I don't know, I've never used it. But they at least have it. They have that option too.
B
And that's where I think 4/3 kind of shines in these applications where you need like a smaller drone, you need a smaller action camera, something like that. Not like a everyday usage camera. Unless you're like a birder or wildlife. Maybe for that extra crazy crop factor. Yeah, at least for me.
A
That's my takeaway with micro 4/3. It's dead in a real camera sense, but not dead when it comes to other uses that just give you a bigger sensor in something that is needed to be smaller.
B
So back to what they all have by the way. They come with a fixed 14 millimeter equivalent lens that has 159 degree field of view. I'm pretty sure that's pretty standard for most of the GoPro Hero Series. It does now have a 14% bigger touchscreen. It's now waterproof down to 66ft which
A
is nice right out of the box. That is.
B
I think it's the 360 is usually around that 30. They all can take up to 8k video although there are different frame rates depending on the model. Now the Mission one again is that basic stripped down model. They all start with open gate AK30 video capability and can capture slow motion up to 960 frames per second with the GP log 2 profile and a 240Mbps bitrate which is pretty high for a GoPro. Now the Mission One Pro, like I said earlier, is the flagship, kind of like their Hero Black series and it has all of that and also gives you full manual control. On top of that 8K 60P and 4K 120 open gate. It has HDR support, timecode support and there's other stuff too that differentiates it from the base model. And then I think just the ILS is the same as the Pro. Right. But with that new mount.
A
Yeah.
B
And then they also announced a new wireless mic system with I think 32 bit float audio recording and stuff like that again to compete with DJI and AM. So it's a big move from GoPro. Not something I expected. I think it's something they absolutely needed. We'll see if there still is a market for the action cameras. I mean GoPro is a massive brand. You know, it's like Kleenex or something. When people think of a action camera they say it's a GoPro. They don't say it's a DJI or Insta360. At least regular people.
A
Yeah, I talk about this on Photo News. Fix that. This is something we talked about them needing five years ago, a larger sensor. GoPro like Sony went ahead and made one for 899. But it was a lot of money back in the day, whatever it was. But they made a 1 inch sensor style action camera that a lot of movies set started to use.
B
It was like a little box like square camera. Right, or something like that.
A
Well, it wasn't a square, it was like a GoPro but it was shaped the same.
B
They just like kind of completely abandoned that.
A
Yeah, well that's the thing is GoPro also just laid off another 26% of their workforce. Their stock was at 88 cents. It's gone up a little bit today. But they are, they're trying. It depends on the price. We don't know the price so it's hard to say, like, if they come out at 499 or 399, you're like, all right, that's interesting. A one inch sensor. That's great. On the flip side, how long is it going to take for DJI and Insta360 to be like, sure, here's a one inch sensor camera. Go fuck yourself, guys. Because. And we'll do it for even less money than GoPro. That's just, that's just the thing is they took so long to get there, they didn't innovate and evolve that these other companies came along and ate their lunch.
B
And DJI and Insta360 remind me kind of like Sony in the, in the major camera world where they are the ones usually innovating and putting out the new technology. And GoPro I feel like is always the one kind of playing catch up.
A
They're action cameras and we'd use whatever camera gives us the best shot or good enough shot. And when you put it in the environment, seeing that the Ace Pro 2 has that smaller sensor, I would like to see the Ace Pro 3 in the future come out with a 1 inch sensor. And I think that's something they probably are already gonna do. I didn't mention this. I don't know if I talked about that. We got the drone in. The insta360 sent their anti gravity G1 drone in. I really loved flying it the other day. I just love the feel. So if you look up some anti gravity content, those goggles they have, they did an amazing job creating goggles to fly it around with. And when you put it up in the air, because I flew it at my dad's house for a video that we're doing. When you put it up in the air and you're wearing the goggles, you can just move every which direction you want and see everything. It feels like you're flying.
B
You just have to focus on actually flying and not what you're shooting. That's, that's the beauty of it. Where because it's 360, you can reframe and do everything. In post, where obviously with old drones you had to worry about both the cinematic aspect and what you're filming from a filmmaker perspective along with flying the drone. Right.
A
You know what's funny or something that reminds me of the time at the Grand Canyon where we're sitting in the back of a vehicle leaving the Grand Canyon chasing a storm. Right? The storm was chasing us coming out over the Grand Canyon, right when we were leaving. You Me, Todd, Matt Joffe, and we're in this vehicle and we're sitting in the back and we take the. The drone is flying. This is an old DJI drone, which they were not easy to freaking fly. They didn't have great communication. So we are flying the drone. This is allowed on this property. This isn't in the national park. And we're sitting there and I think Todd was flying it or somebody.
B
I was trying to remember, like, who was actually. I don't know, I don't think it was me. I think it was Todd because I want to say I was actually filming like you in the car or something. I don't remember.
A
Well, what was amazing that was happening outside was there was a massive thunderstorm behind us over the Grand Canyon and there were wild horses running across the open plains.
B
It's an amazing shot. Unfortunately, the footage looks like garbage today. I mean, those old drones, the compression and the artifacting and just how shitty the compression was in general. It's so bad to look back on.
A
That was. That was. That was an amazing thing.
B
That was. And. And if you had a 360 drone at the time, that's where you don't have to worry about capturing the storm behind you and the horses running in front of you. You just fly it and then you can reframe and post and use both angles. It's pretty amazing. You let me put it on the other day this week, and it was pretty mind blowing to watch Back to playback some of the content that you shot on it of your dad's house. Because I could literally just spin around using the headset and I felt like I was actually flying. I felt like I was frickin Peter Pan.
A
Yeah. And so when I was flying it and getting more creative with it at my dad's house. So as you turn your wrist. Cause you're holding a remote. The drone just follows exactly what your wrist is doing. But I was moving my body, flying between trees, going up. I was physically feeling like I was flying and moving. It was great. Even just for that, just to see all around. Like, even if you're, say, a home improvement person, you're a roofer, right? You can put the drone up and yet you may not need the 360 as much. But just to be able to put it up above the roof and to be able to see everything. Oh, it could be really good for business.
B
Really, Ken.
A
So, all right, so that is the GoPro Mission Series. And then this morning, DJI dropped the awesome Pocket 4, which Steven is going to talk about the specs for.
B
So this just got announced like an hour or two before we started recording. I didn't have much time to look into it. But here's what I did find out about it right off the bat. Seems more like a minor refresh than a major update. I think we've been waiting what like two and a half years since the Pocket 3 came out. That camera was massive. We kind of slept on that. And I wish we didn't because we both were like, eh, whatever. It's not gonna be a big deal. End up being like a massive deal with a lot of creators, a lot of people using them buying that camera.
A
We also don't get anything from DJI anymore. Correct. So there's nothing we could have done to be like, yeah, we want to use this.
B
Well, we could have bought it it ourselves.
A
But if you could have found it. They were super hard to find. They were like 800 bucks.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
To me it's not worth $800.
B
Was it always 800? I think for the Crater combo kit, because it sells for like 500 now.
A
I thought it was 800 bucks. Even 500 bucks is overpriced.
B
So it looks the same the Pocket 4 overall, but now has a slightly modified joystick. It has two additional buttons on the front, one custom button along with the one zoom button. It's generally the same size and weight, but it's slightly heavier and taller. Not enough to even talk about really. Same lens, 20 millimeter F2 equivalent. Same touchscreen, but a little brighter. I think it's about 300 nits brighter. Better battery capacity, an extra 250 milliamps with up to 240 minutes of record time now, opposed to 160 minutes in the Pocket 3. And the one thing that's nice about this new version is it now has built in internal storage. 107 gigabytes of internal storage. And it has a much faster transfer rate from the camera itself. I think it's an 800 mega megabytes per second rate, which is huge because micro SD cards are notoriously slow for their transfer speeds. Now this has the same 1 inch sensor size, but it is a new sensor. It's an extra stop of ISO in the native range and they also claim two stops more dynamic range when you're shooting. Log still has four 2.0 color profiles, but now they're matching the full D log from the higher end drones with a higher bitrate and better color instead of that D log M version that the Pocket 3 had. From what I've seen, it seems to be doing much better in low light, retaining highlights while lifting shadows. Although I've seen side by side footage and I almost feel like I prefer the look of the Pocket 3 when it comes to like normal daylight. It almost looks a little too hdry.
A
100%. I saw the same thing. I was watching potato jets video and I watched some other YouTuber guy who did side by side and they're like, you can see that it's brighter on the DJ Osimo 4. I'm like, yeah, but it's shadow area. It should be darker. Yeah, yeah, I like the look there.
B
I just always try to mimic what the human eye sees for the most part. Like, hey, I get it. I could show 16 stops of dynamic range and just pretty much ungraded log footage. But it doesn't look like what I see. Like I want to mimic the blacks, the shadow areas. I don't want to have, you know, complete lifted crazy shadows unless I'm trying to show something that people can't normally see or something like that. In terms of frame rates and resolution, it will now do 240p and 4k up from 120. But there's no D log in those SLO mo modes. Unlike the Pocket three. I believe you could still do log in those SLO mo modes. Weird that they removed a lot of the 2.7k options I noticed from both the regular video resolutions and the SLO mo frame rate. It has a new 2x lossless zoom. Obviously it's digital, not optical. I believe it was just a complete digital zoom before and it's 4x lossless zoom. If you're doing 1080p and not 4k, there's six new film simulations. So hello Fuji people. This has film simulations that you can mimic the whole Fuji look if you wanted to. It has better subject tracking with an updated active track mode 7.0 and gesture control now has been added as well. And I think they said active tracking is now available in all of the modes. The issue with the Pocket 3 is that it was only it was not available in like the low light and the SLO mo modes. Price can't find it anywhere. Can't find it listed anywhere. I don't think this is going to be sold in the US at least anytime soon because B and H doesn't have it. Have it. Adorama doesn't have it. I only find European pricing. It's odd. I mean it looks like it's equivalent to around $550 $600 when you do the conversion, but I can't find it.
A
It has to do with DJI and the government fighting right now.
B
Yeah, I just thought that was more about the drones.
A
Yeah, well, you know, look, we know this thing is super, super successful. We know that every influencer at Coachella doing activations.
B
Exactly.
A
Loves this thing and they just point it and shoot it. They leave it on auto. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is the modern day flip camera. To be honest with you.
B
It is.
A
Even though the cell phone is the modern day flip camera.
B
Good way to put it.
A
This is a bigger sensor. It's going to give you better quality. It's going to be stable footage. If they do connect it with a microphone, that's always welcome and wonderful. Just don't expect to get cinematic footage with background blur. That's going to look interesting. Now could we make a movie out of it? 100%. Can Peter McKinnon take it on his trips and make awesome vlogs with it? 100%. Because he knows how to edit and he knows how to get cool shots. Same thing. But majority 99% of the people are going to use it just to film whatever they're doing. Every sports team. Yes, every sports team has one of these or because they hand it to their influencer staff, their team, you know, the college kids and they're. And all you see them is do these pull in and whatever. It's just giving them clips. That's all they care about, clips.
B
Well, the fact that it has the built in gimbal, the gimbal that actively tracks you, that kind of stuff like that is great to just hand anybody and not someone that is, you know, good with cameras. They can just use it and hit record and it does it all. Where a phone is a little more limiting, I do think this is kind of that in betweener camera, between a phone and a real quote unquote camera. A great camera to give like you said, like their social team or something like that.
A
So this goes. Let's go back to GoPro real quick. This is a market that GoPro could have gotten into five, six, seven, eight years ago.
B
Surprised they didn't.
A
Not everybody needs an action camera. That's what this has proven. Not everybody needed an action camera. So why didn't they come out with the non action camera that was like, hey, we've stabilized this for people that maybe you don't want to do action, but this could be a. You want to be an influencer and go to activations that could have been A direction that they went to.
B
Now I will say I don't see many Pocket 3 users upgrading to this. I think this is maybe Pocket 2 users upgrading or someone that just never bought a Pocket camera to begin with. But this is very much like a version 3.1 of the Osmo Pocket opposed to like a whole new version 4. Like I said earlier, like more of a minor refresh than a major update.
A
It's the same reason you never upgraded GoPros until four generations, right? Yes, this got slightly better and that got slightly better. But in everyday use that the people are using these DJI Osimo pockets for, they no pun intended, they don't care.
B
Now the reason they might have kind of kept it fairly basic and not a major upgrade is because there are rumors of a Pocket 4 Pro version coming out, which makes sense after this release and announcement that one is rumored to be paired with an ultra wide and a telephoto lens, like a dual lens gimbal basically which will allow for optical zooming opposed to digital zooming. Kind of like your iPhone having you know, two or three separate lenses. So maybe it will make sense having this kind of basic version and then a pro version. But I don't know. Some of these lineups are getting so busy where they're having 2, 3, 4 different models of the same camera, just slightly different.
A
Yeah, well, and then you go on to YouTube two weeks ago and. And it's potential that what I'm reading is there might be an Insta 360 version coming out as well.
B
Oh, I guarantee Insta360 has been working on something like this since the Pocket 3 came out for sure.
A
And that's what we've talked about. Like they went after gopro and if this thing was a success for insta360 or so, so not insta360 for DJI, then why wouldn't they go that direction? I venture to say that you'll see that coming out as well and we'll see what happens. I mean this is why GoPro is in such trouble. And I personally don't think that GoPro coming out with this new line of cameras with a 1 inch sensor is going to save them. I don't think the majority of people in the world give a shit. I think that they'll still go with the DJI, they'll still go with the Insta360. Maybe the creator community at whole like the. The movie studios or people making shows might gravitate towards the GoPro because of the options that it gives them, but I don't know that that's enough to sustain them as a company.
B
Exactly. I feel like that audience is such a niche audience. I mean it's just like the Sony cameras. A lot of the higher end productions would make it like a little crash camera or something like that. But how many people are actually buying that? Which is probably why they never did anything after the initial release. What was that? The RX0, right, or something.
A
RX0, Sony RX RX0.
B
Oh, they did put out a version two, but never a version three.
A
RX02. One inch sensor, ultra compact. Thousand dollars. That was the difference. It was super expensive.
B
Wow. That was seven years ago that that got released.
A
Yeah, I mean it had a 24 millimeter lens on the front of it, not 14. I don't know. I think it was a well thought out, a well thought out camera because it was higher quality.
B
Wow, look at this. I'm looking at B and H. There's actually a cage that someone made that has a micro 4/3 mount for the RX.
A
I did see that.
B
Wow.
A
I saw that the other day.
B
Yeah. The RX0 Mark 2, it's basically what the GoPro is right now, but it's also $1700. It's a modified RX02, basically. Basically within micro four thirds mount. Hmm.
A
Sony was basically ahead of the game there when it came to those one inch sensors.
B
Almost two ahead of the game.
A
And it was just super expensive though, so. But a lot of movie studios used those because it gave them better quality than what GoPro was doing seven years ago. So we'll see. My expectation is it's gonna come out at like 499 for the basic, you know, 6799 for the other. And interchangeable is going to be like 1200 bucks.
B
Yeah.
A
You know, and then I think Insta360 will strike back with a one inch something and so will DJI.
B
You really think it's going to be 1200 for the micro four thirds mount version?
A
Maybe call it a thousand bucks. I don't know, maybe 499. I mean what if they did 499, 599, 699.
B
Yeah, I was going to say I could see more along those lines because I mean there's not much difference between the regular basic stripped down version and the pro flagship version minus a couple extra features. So $100 difference makes sense. And then yeah, obviously the mount for the iOS version, maybe $200 more than that. I don't know.
A
We'll have to wait and see. Yeah, we'll have to wait and see.
B
But GoPro is officially back. This might be their comeback. Who knows?
A
Yeah, we said that. I remember when their stock was 89 or $90, not $1. Well, GoPro is up 2 1/2 cents today. It's up 2 point up. It's down. No, it's not. And it's dead. And you lost all your money. Thank you, Homer Simpson. No, it's now up less than 2%. It's at $1.14, which yesterday it was at 88 cents when I made Photo News fixed. So if you put a billion dollars in, you made some money right there. It's at the highest it's been in a month. Cause if you go back, the low was 62 cents and the all time high going back to what is this date? Oh, it's only 2014. So September 20th of 2014 it was as high as $96.45. Could you imagine being like, yeah, GoPro and then holding on and now it's
B
at a dollar, losing everything.
A
All right, guys, that is basically where we're going to end this. If you would like to come to the boot camp, head on over to bit ly may 30 fro. Use Bing Bong Bop in the email after you make a purchase to me to let me know that you came through this specific episode. We'd love to see you here. There's less than 10 spots remaining. It's going to be a small intimate group as it always is and there's a lot of hands on learning. The biggest thing we do is take away the fear of shooting so that you're not afraid when you walk into any situation. It doesn't matter your skill level, it doesn't matter what gear you have. We've had all types of skill levels and all types of gear levels from the least expensive DSLR to the most expensive high end camera. And it's all about what you do with it. And that's what we do here is we teach you how to use it, but we also teach you about photography. That's the main thing. It's not about the gear, it's about what you do with it. So we hope to see you here.
B
Just make sure to say Bing Bong. Whatever. Just like inside out.
A
Bing Bong Bop. What about inside out?
B
The character Bing Bong, remember?
A
Oh, there is, yeah.
B
Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong. Bing Bong. Who's your friend that likes to play?
A
No.
B
Is that inside out, like snuffleup looking guy.
A
Oh, really?
B
Yeah.
A
No, I don't remember. I mean, I watched it. It's a very sad movie. All right, we're going to call it a day, guys. This is episode 193. I am going to be flying to London this evening. Remember, if you are an AFC Wimbledon fan and you are around that area, I'd like to see you. Email me at supportrow knows photo dot com. Steven, anything else you want to add?
B
That is it. Have fun in London.
A
All right, guys, thank you very much for listening to episode 193 of Raw Talk. Jared Poland, fro knows photo. Com. See ya.
B
Bye.
Influencer RANT!!! DJI's LACKLUSTER New Camera? Will THIS Save GoPro?!
April 17, 2026
In this engaging and candid episode of RAWtalk, Jared Polin (“FroKnowsPhoto”) and co-host Stephen dive into the current state of the photo/video gear industry—ranting about influencer culture, discussing Coachella activations, dissecting YouTube analytics, digging into NASA’s camera choices for Artemis missions, debating the recent (and possibly critical) GoPro Mission 1 announcements, and scrutinizing DJI’s new Osmo Pocket 4. The episode is loaded with humor, industry insights, and hands-on experience, providing real talk for photographers and gearheads alike.
Coachella as “Influencer Olympics”:
Jared opens the show mocking Coachella's shift from a music festival to an ego-fueled influencer showcase.
“They should call it the look at me, look at me event... It’s the modern-day Burning Man for influencers.” — Jared (00:21)
Marketing Lingo Rant:
Jared despises terms like “activations” and “impressions,” considering them empty, corporatized buzzwords.
“Nothing pisses me off more than these stupid marketing bullshit terms... activation... impressions... they're meaningless.” (02:27, 03:28)
Sarcastic Reflections on Social Metrics:
Discussion on fake engagement and how to recognize “fraudulent” metrics on platforms like YouTube by comparing likes and comments ratios.
Viral NASA Video Breakdown:
Jared and Stephen candidly share their analytics:
"YouTube takes 45%, so you add 45%. So almost 50%... since day one." — Jared (16:16)
Second NASA Video and CPM Variance:
Subscriber Growth Perspective:
Astronaut Camera Training:
“...they taught them how to go beyond the basics... in a mock up of the Orion capsule with a giant inflatable moon.” — Stephen (18:57)
Testing Canon and Nikon (and Sony?):
Memory Cards:
Why Nikon?:
“A lot of it came down to Nikon's willingness to adapt and tweak and change firmware…” — Jared (24:33)
Behind the Scenes:
“Just because it’s not easy doesn’t make it the wrong choice.” — Jared (28:50)
Zone Focusing & the ‘F8 and Be There’ Debate:
Transparency in Creative Process:
GoPro’s Make-or-Break Moment?:
“GoPro is a massive brand... but DJI and Insta360 ate their lunch while GoPro was sleeping.” — Jared (38:59)
Market Competition & Innovation:
Minor Refresh or Gamechanger?:
“We know that every influencer at Coachella doing activations loves this thing... This is the modern day flip camera.” — Jared (48:22)
Comparison to GoPro and Phone Cameras:
Market Shakeup Forecasts:
“I personally don’t think... the 1-inch sensor is going to save them. I don’t think the majority of people in the world give a shit.” — Jared (52:33)
Historical Parallel with Sony’s RX0 Series:
“They should call it the ‘look at me, look at me’ event... Everything about Coachella isn’t about the music.” (00:21)
“YouTube takes 45%, so you add 45%. So almost 50%... since day one.” (16:16)
“A lot of it came down to Nikon's willingness to adapt and tweak and change firmware…” (24:33)
“DJI and Insta360 remind me kind of like Sony in the major camera world where they are... usually innovating and putting out the new technology. And GoPro... is always the one playing catch up.” — Stephen (39:41)
“This is the modern day flip camera. To be honest with you.” — Jared (48:22)
“Sony was basically ahead of the game there... when it came to those 1 inch sensors. Almost too ahead of the game.” (54:01–54:06)
Jared’s Coachella rant:
The hilarious, salty play-by-play on how music festivals became just marketing “activations” for pharmaceutical companies and Instagrammers.
YouTube Honesty:
Candid breakdowns of CPMs, ad revenue, and how views versus engagement reveals truth behind a video’s success.
NASA Camera Trials:
Deep nerd-out with real NASA whitepaper data—testing gear in simulated lunar conditions, including why Z7 II failed and Z9 won.
DJI Osmo Pocket as the “Influencer Flip Cam”
Acknowledgment that most creators just want a point-and-shoot gimbal—not an action cam.
Stock Market Reality Check:
Jared’s deadpan delivery in tracing GoPro’s stunning stock crash—from $96 to under $1 a share.
The episode keeps an informal, irreverent, and industry-insider vibe. Jared and Stephen blend sarcasm, technical acumen, and humility, making complex topics accessible while digging into data and market realities.
This episode delivers a rapid-fire mix of gear reviews, industry gossip, YouTube strategy, and market predictions peppered with humor. If you want real talk about photography’s “influencer Olympics,” the raw truth on creative business numbers, or the evolving battle between GoPro, DJI, and Insta360, this is a must-listen.