The downfall of The Angry Photographer - lost all credibility

I used to find Ken Wheeler aka The Angry Photographer, a Kentucky based hobbyist YouTuber, quite entertaining. In addition to that, I found he offered a great value when it comes to old Nikkor lens recommendations. I started to watch him in early 2015, when I purchased my first Nikon DSLR, and was looking for some nice cheap lenses. He used to be the guy who went against the mainstream, and recommended old cheap used AI/AI-S and D-Series lenses by Nikon, instead of the expensive new modern lenses. He was controversial from the start, and often obnoxious in his videos, but that was fine. I didn't mind it, it was kind of a quirky infotainment, which often delivered a nice chuckle. As months passed by he started to put his face more in front of the camera (his first videos were anonymous), and his channel grew steadily in subscribers and video views. He started to get more and more haters and critics, but at the same time also more and more fans, because he was not only reviewing lenses anymore, he was also sharing various opinions on the camera industry in general, opinions on other YouTubers, and even on magnetism, his second favorite hobby. In 2015-2016 his channel was still relatively small compared to others, and Ken, as eccentric as he was, still seemed genuine and real. In that period he started to like Fuji X cameras, and established himself as a Fuji & Nikon centric YouTuber. Some of his reviews from that time were widely well regarded, like his Nikon D500 and Fuji X-T2 series of reviews. These were thorough and informative, and offered a lot of value to his viewers.

Fast forward to 2018 - what happened?


The Angry Photographer is not the same person anymore in 2018! I don't know whether it's the internet "fame" that went into his head (he's nearing 150,000 subscribers this month), or it's the air in Kentucky, but something seems off with him lately. Here are some things I've noticed:

1) He's becoming the same garbage click-bait YouTube channel like the ones he used to rant against in the past (Fro, Northrups, Granger & co). He's sometimes even praising them (he obviously wants to be part of the "community" now). That's pathetic.

2) He used to be against expensive gear, but today he's shooting with (and shilling for) Fuji GFX Medium Format camera. He owns a body and lenses that cost around 15,000 USD in total! That's the same thing I criticized Tony Northrup for. In addition he also owns several Fuji crop-sensor cameras, his Fuji gear is worth well over 20,000 USD in total.

3) He's become a total Fuji fanboy! There's no more sound judgement of cameras in his videos. He will defend and try to minimize any kind of large flaw a Fuji camera has, and blow up any kind of minor issue a Sony, Nikon or Canon camera might have. We used to get well-balanced and well-thought out videos that offered some good analysis and food for thought, but with his recent videos on Nikon Z Mirrorless cameras he's just talking like a crazy fanboy. I'm not saying that the bar was very high before, but these infantile outbursts of Fuji fanboyism are below anything we've seen in the past.

And it's not that he doesn't understand why Nikon cut some corners with their new Z Series Mirrorless cameras (unlike Sony and Fuji, they still have a huge DSLR business), he's just purposely disingenuous and wants to influence people away from Nikon Z, because he's so obsessed with Fuji right now. One thing is liking a product or a brand, another thing is being obsessed and delusional about it. I think in 2018 he crossed a line, and I, a former fan and defender of his, have finally unsubscribed from his channel.

Voice of reason on the Nikon Z Mirrorless

If you want to hear a voice of reason on the new Nikon Mirrorless cameras (besides my analysis), I recommend Thom Hogan. Here's a list of his recent articles from his blog. I have to say it's really refreshing to read analysis by a sane and balanced person for a change.

- Nikon Re-enters Mirrorless Market>>

- The Post Z Discussion Begins>>

Addressing the one card slot: "Ironically, the Sony fans are trumpeting this, despite the fact that I'd say that their cameras have a somewhat broken two-slot system. I keep reading "pros require two slots." I'm a pro, I don't require it. Do I prefer two slots? Absolutely. But I don't see one slot as a huge drawback, particularly for an XQD camera, where card failures are extremely rare (no cheap body to break, no sloppy protect pin, no pins to bend). It's a combination of marketing/engineering decision on Nikon's part. If you look closely, you'll see that the D850 has benefits the Z7 doesn't (and vice versa). Nikon didn't want to replace the D850 with the Z7, they wanted to supplement it. I'll have more to say about positioning later. But one card slot seems to already be #1 in the "they got it wrong" category."

- What Were Nikon Users Looking For?>>

- The Card Failure Issue>>

Addressing 1 card failure: "The fact that the new Nikon Z cameras have only one card slot seems to have precipitated a massive wave of negative commentary. I have a completely different view, apparently, than most of the folks bemoaning the loss."

- Sony Versus Nikon Mirrorless>>

- Nikon's Slightly Muddled Marketing>>

About Nikon's marketing message: "To understand the Z messaging, you have to understand Nikon. While you might think it's a camera company, it is not. It is an optics company. Indeed, if you look at all the messaging in Nikon's presentation and early marketing materials, you should be able to see that clearly: "Lenses that weren't possible before," "A new dimension in optical performance," "How far can optical performance evolve?"

- The Z Lenses>>

- Nikon F-Mount Adapter>>

More article on Thom's website and blog called Sans Mirror.

In conclusion

YouTuber Darren Miles recently interviewed Ken, and the portraits he made of him clearly show that Ken is not the same anymore. He's very toned down and subdued in the video, which is probably due to being hosted on another channel, but all in all he looks to me like a sad and lonely man with very expensive photography gear (the GFX) which he's mainly using to take snapshots of flowers and cats. I'm not a hater, I'm just disappointed, because I expected much more from him, especially on the new Nikon Mirrorless system. I hope you get better soon, Ken, that's all I can say.