11-15-2019, 05:50 PM
Sebastian is the 3rd guy.
Can we please stop the blame game and also please stop any speculation about what happened that kept me from writing reviews for so long? And can we also please not turn this into a competition of who has more life to handle? I was tempted to give you a sneek peak into some of the details, but thinking about it all day, let me please be very clear: this is none of your business (with 'you' in this context being the whole audience here and not a particular forum member). All I want to share is that it was not a single incident that dragged me away from here for a foreseeable time, it was a chain of things happening, often out of nowhere and unexpectedly, and quite often when I just felt things would calm down and I could move on with reviews again. That's why you occasionally got some feedback from myself here, that's also why I kept getting new gear for reviews, not to intentionally create a pile to hopefully work on some day, but because I felt ready for it... and then something else with higher priority showed up again. I don't need any advice of the kind like "hey, just learn to handle it". I learned, many times now, and I am moving forward. It's been a difficult time, frustrating for sure, not only for myself but also for Klaus, whom I can not thank enough for being very understanding and incredibly patient.
Please accept that outside of this forum there are many other things that have a much higher priority for me and deserve my full attention, dedication and commitment more than lens reviews. Still, despite all the excuses I could come up with for the past, I feel guilty for not having published anything for so long. And I honestly can't wait for that to change again.
It does not need anything to motivate me, JoJu. All I need is some spare time. No donation can buy that. And talking about donations: lack of funding is not the issue we're having. Both Klaus and me are fully motivated and fortunately able to invest time (if available), but also some money into the reviews. To give you an example: There are currently 12 camera bodies here, including the now retired D3x, that served PZ/OL as well as me reliably for more than a decade (even though I am really tempted to do just one more and final review with it, just out of nostalgia). 3 bodies I regularly use for my own photographic needs, all the other ones are current or retired cameras that were only bought for reviews. On top we need regular software updates, modern hardware to process the increasingly bigger files, storage for current review data and to archive old ones. Getting the lenses for reviews is just one of many aspects of the funding OL needs.
Also, some work happens behind the scenes that you don't necessarily see mentioned anywhere. The test charts need regular care, it takes some time to build new ones (like the LED bokeh chart Klaus came up with, I have one, too, now). Layouts and templates have changed and sometimes things need to be updated in all reviews (the initial publication date can be found in all reviews for a while already, did anyone notice that? That was manual work). And on my side, unfortunately all cameras I used in the past are outdated by now. Most of the new ones are already around (still waiting for the X-T30 and the Z50 to be delivered), but it takes some time to set up new review workflows for each and calibrate the parameters. It's something that needs to be done and finished before I can publish anything again. I could sit down and publish reviews based on the old review cameras, sure, but who would want to read them?
No, unfortunately it's not that easy to find someone else to fill the gap temporarily. It would most of all require a lot of time to teach someone how to do it, including all the things that could go wrong and how to recognize and avoid them. If I had that time, I could just do the reviews myself instead.
Yes, some things need to change for OL to survive, most of all the rate we publish reviews at. But it is and always has been something we did in our spare time, and I personally don't want to change that.
Can we please stop the blame game and also please stop any speculation about what happened that kept me from writing reviews for so long? And can we also please not turn this into a competition of who has more life to handle? I was tempted to give you a sneek peak into some of the details, but thinking about it all day, let me please be very clear: this is none of your business (with 'you' in this context being the whole audience here and not a particular forum member). All I want to share is that it was not a single incident that dragged me away from here for a foreseeable time, it was a chain of things happening, often out of nowhere and unexpectedly, and quite often when I just felt things would calm down and I could move on with reviews again. That's why you occasionally got some feedback from myself here, that's also why I kept getting new gear for reviews, not to intentionally create a pile to hopefully work on some day, but because I felt ready for it... and then something else with higher priority showed up again. I don't need any advice of the kind like "hey, just learn to handle it". I learned, many times now, and I am moving forward. It's been a difficult time, frustrating for sure, not only for myself but also for Klaus, whom I can not thank enough for being very understanding and incredibly patient.
Please accept that outside of this forum there are many other things that have a much higher priority for me and deserve my full attention, dedication and commitment more than lens reviews. Still, despite all the excuses I could come up with for the past, I feel guilty for not having published anything for so long. And I honestly can't wait for that to change again.
It does not need anything to motivate me, JoJu. All I need is some spare time. No donation can buy that. And talking about donations: lack of funding is not the issue we're having. Both Klaus and me are fully motivated and fortunately able to invest time (if available), but also some money into the reviews. To give you an example: There are currently 12 camera bodies here, including the now retired D3x, that served PZ/OL as well as me reliably for more than a decade (even though I am really tempted to do just one more and final review with it, just out of nostalgia). 3 bodies I regularly use for my own photographic needs, all the other ones are current or retired cameras that were only bought for reviews. On top we need regular software updates, modern hardware to process the increasingly bigger files, storage for current review data and to archive old ones. Getting the lenses for reviews is just one of many aspects of the funding OL needs.
Also, some work happens behind the scenes that you don't necessarily see mentioned anywhere. The test charts need regular care, it takes some time to build new ones (like the LED bokeh chart Klaus came up with, I have one, too, now). Layouts and templates have changed and sometimes things need to be updated in all reviews (the initial publication date can be found in all reviews for a while already, did anyone notice that? That was manual work). And on my side, unfortunately all cameras I used in the past are outdated by now. Most of the new ones are already around (still waiting for the X-T30 and the Z50 to be delivered), but it takes some time to set up new review workflows for each and calibrate the parameters. It's something that needs to be done and finished before I can publish anything again. I could sit down and publish reviews based on the old review cameras, sure, but who would want to read them?
No, unfortunately it's not that easy to find someone else to fill the gap temporarily. It would most of all require a lot of time to teach someone how to do it, including all the things that could go wrong and how to recognize and avoid them. If I had that time, I could just do the reviews myself instead.
Yes, some things need to change for OL to survive, most of all the rate we publish reviews at. But it is and always has been something we did in our spare time, and I personally don't want to change that.
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opticallimits.com