Andrew Reid Is an Idiot

Andrew Reid, self-proclaimed filmmaker, gear reviewer and founder of EOSHD, who incidentally peddles in-camera profiles for as much as $49.99 (you heard right – that’s not a typo!) continues to lash out at his peers, first by slamming DP John Brawley for failing to show the proper deference, next by bashing Blackmagic for not sending him a Pocket 4K to review, and in his latest act of childish tantrum fits, by throwing shade at Caleb Pike of DLSR Video Shooter, Chris and Jordan of DPReview, Kai W. and Tony and Chelsea Northrup for being paid shills.

In an almost surreal front page rant, Top 6 videos on EOS R with combined 2 million views and not a single mention of the rolling shutter in 4K, Reid all but accuses these and other YouTubers of being nothing more than cogs in Canon’s huge marketing machine (or more specifically ‘borderline illegal marketing’), and, as inconceivable as it sounds to any rational human being – that they are single-handedly responsible for Canon’s dominance over Sony and Panasonic! I don’t have any statistical evidence, but reviews I’ve seen of recent Canon products have all been rather lukewarm, whereas those of Sony and Panasonic have generally been extremely favorable.

Note [3 May, 2019] As far as Canon’s dominance goes, just how mistaken Andrew Reid was can be seen in this simple graph, which shows sales of the Sony a7 III soaring while Canon full frame mirrorless sales have tanked. (image BCN+R)

Reid claims that not a single one of the above reviewers so much as mentions the poor rolling shutter performance of the EOS R in their first-look videos (an outright falsehood, BTW), which he considers to be an even more egregious fault than the outlandish 4K crop factor.

When I pointed out that these were just first-look and first impressions videos, and that Chris and Jordan explicitly direct viewers to DPReview’s website for the complete review (where the rolling shutter is mentioned), Reid conveniently sidesteps my comment. This is the same person who buries the EOS R’s lack of IBIS at the very bottom of his own review, likening it to Panasonic’s niche crop-sensor GH5s rather than comparing it to Canon’s two direct full-frame rivals, Sony’s a7 III and Nikon’s Z6.

What gives Mr. Reid the divine authority to decide for each and every living human being which shortcomings are the least forgivable anyhow? His shitty YouTube channel?

In reply to his article, I wrote:

Kai doesn’t go hysterical over it [the rolling shutter] because he probably wasn’t expecting any better than Canon’s 5D Mark IV, but he clearly expresses his disappointment.

Not only does he mention the rolling shutter, he shows us an example of it.

Will this come as a shocker to Canon shooters switching over from their DSLRs? I highly doubt it.

The rolling shutter on the Nikon Z7 is worse than Sony’s a7R III, but I don’t see anybody shouting to the heavens about that camera either.

You don’t even mention rolling shutter in your preliminary look at the Z7.

I also take pains to show that Kai’s message did not fall on deaf ears:

The point was not lost on Kai’s viewers, either. One writes in the comments section:

its crazy how my gh5 is still the best video camera after all this time. that rolling shutter makes it a no go for me.

and another says:

1.7x crop in 4k mode, horrible rolling shutter, 1x card slot. ¿ Overheating ?, I better stay with my Sony a7rii.

and another:

[…] PROFESSIONAL filmmakers will NOT lap this up. We don’t use still cameras for serious filmmaking. As you show here, the rolling shutter is unbelievable even in normal HD, not to mention 4k. As a still camera its marvelous. I just cannot stop laughing when people think the video is acceptable, when it is orders of magnitude below a student film.

and another:

Holy rolling shutter cow.

and yet another:

Reid responds with a rambling and incoherent excuse which ends with gratuitous ad hominem attacks, threats of physical violence and a stern warning for “telling him how to run his site”:

The earliest initial impression I had of the EOS R was the rolling shutter. The earliest impressions I had of the Z7 was that it was nicer than my Sony A7R III in the hand, and in terms of the image, and the rolling shutter didn’t stand out as anything abnormal, unlike on the EOS R. It just wasn’t an issue for me. Ditto on the D850. It wasn’t immediately obvious from the get go, the minute I opened the box.

So we’re 10 minutes into Kai’s video, out of 13 minutes and yes it seems there’s a 2 second mention. So I should probably give him the benefit of the doubt. But when I watched it the first time just after release as a subscriber to his channel, I am pretty sure it wasn’t in. There are such a thing as ninja edits and re-uploads. But let’s be clear, I’ve nothing personal with Kai, he could be a nice guy, but he doesn’t help our cause as customers – he doesn’t give the problem any gravitas. He’s not even a proper reviewer. He’s an entertainer. He turns it into a positive in those few seconds of a mention, which are just soft pawing out claims to the effect of the 1080p “has an advantage” because it has less rolling shutter than 4K, ‘just like that wonderful best selling 5D IV you all bought’. That’s how it comes across to me. It may technically be a ‘mention of rolling shutter’ but it’s not a mention in the sense I meant it in my article – a mention of just how BAD the rolling shutter is on this camera. He just sweeps it under the rug in less than 5 seconds in a 13 minute video and doesn’t really criticise it. That’s the *whole point* I was making in the article – none of them mentioned the rolling shutter in terms of it being amongst the worst on the market in 2018 and immediately OBVIOUS straight out of the box in 4K.

So whilst @jonpais is calling EOSHD “fake news” and telling me how to run the site, perhaps he should realise one thing. I am a bit disappointed by his remarks. All the squabbling on the forums over the past few months from him and the Sony fanboyism in every subject, treating some threads like his own private inbox for chats and arguments, all leave a bitter taste for me because he’s a long-time member. He seems to have gone from productive posting in the early days of the forum about Panasonic, up through being rewarded by being promoted to a mod, back down to being a non-mod due to bad behaviour, and now he’s cruising for a bruising or even a ban. I just find that incredibly self destructive.

See what he just did there? Kai ‘ninja-edited’ his video the moment after Mr. Reid finished skipping through it – a video uploaded over a month before, with some half-dozen contemporaneous comments about the awful rolling shutter! Let’s get real: are we really supposed to believe Kai edited his video just because of Mr. Reid’s stinking blog? It’s insulting to any thinking person’s intelligence. In fact, it’s not even possible to re-upload YouTube videos without also losing all the likes, dislikes and comments. But distorting the truth to suit his own twisted version of reality is nothing new to the hot-headed Mr. Reid.

Mr. Reid then proceeds to hurl insults and demand apologies from anyone and everyone who dares to point out his own glaring inconsistencies. Forum members who disagree with him or who neglect to lavish him with praise are ‘fuckwits’.

Farewell, Mr. Reid!