YouTube camera reviewer Gerald Undone retires as cameras 'mostly solved'

After a decade of exhaustive camera testing, Gerald Undone says the puzzle is solved and he is, in fact, finally done.

After 10 years running one of the most watched camera-focused YouTube channels on the internet, Gerald Undone has announced he's stepping back from the format and officially retiring.

His core argument is that cameras have become "mostly solved," and without the puzzle to chase, his interest has evaporated.

A decade-long obsession

"I don't wanna do this anymore," he says. "And by 'this', I mean being in this space, in this set, talking about products I don't actually care about, but that I think will draw more views or earn me a bunch of money. I don't want a portion of my house to essentially be a shrine to cameras.

"When I started this channel 10 years ago, I was legitimately very interested in cameras, I was obsessed to some degree, and that version of me would have been ecstatic to have shelves filled with interesting and expensive camera paraphernalia. And while I consider myself very fortunate and feel thankful for the opportunity to build what I did over the last decade, and of course to enjoy the many comforts and perks that come along with that, I also need to accept that my interest in this category has significantly waned as the products themselves have gotten better.

"In my last few camera reviews, I suggested that I was finished with my extensive testing, because cameras felt mostly solved to me.

"I'm the type of person that stays interested in something for the puzzle or challenge of it, and I bore quickly if that challenge is removed."

Walking away

Undone is going to tear down the studio set, stop making long-form camera reviews, do far less sponsored content, and fill the space with things that actually matter to him.

Walking away from 483,000 subscribers and nearly 61 million total views is not an easy thing to do, though at least those views will probably have made retiring financially viable. The detailed reviews he did will be missed, but a decade on the hamster wheel that is being a YouTube content creator is a long time no matter how lucrative.

At RedShark, we're not as sure that cameras are solved as Undone is, so we'll keep at it for a while longer...