DigitalRev TV is the YouTube channel of DigitalRev Media, a Hong Kong-based photography retailer, social media platform and content producer. The channel was created by DigitalRev CEO and producer Richard Yu and was co-produced and presented by Kai Man Wong. DigitalRev TV routinely published new product reviews, parodies, challenges and how-to guides. For a long time the most subscribed to photography channel on Youtube, with nearly 1.9 million subscribers as of 26 April 2018, changes to the presentation staff since late 2016 have led to a very low frequency of video publication. Sister YouTube channel DigitalRev Plus has also published only intermittent content in this time period.
Background
Known for its funny and irreverent style in the vein of Top Gear the channel's original videos were surprisingly spartan. The channel began in 2007 with a format that usually involved a fixed-camera view of a lone reviewer's hands showing off the details of a particular photography product available at its store. In each video, there was an un-boxing of a product and run down of some of its features. The format changed when Kai Man Wong became the lead presenter. He brought with him a new personal style of presentation with location shooting and diversified the channel's output away from displaying to actively testing products, making group comparisons, and looking at wider aspects of photography such as techniques, construction projects and camera culture. Richard Yu became the unseen 'bloody producer' who sets impossible challenges. In 2015 when Wong moved to the UK, the channel's content was produced by a team in Hong Kong and by Wong in the UK. DRTV worked with Bellamy Hunt on some of their videos, and occasionally The Mijonju Show was referenced.
Presenters
Kai Man Wong was the main presenter of DigitalRev from December 2009 and was joined by camera man and editor Lok Cheung in 2010. In 2011 Alamby Leung, the channel's then project coordinator, began to make appearances in the show resulting in the channel's classic line-up. Change came after the departure of Leung in 2013, and the introduction of DigitalRev's Bokeh blog and Bokeh YouTube channel in 2014. From 2015 Kai presented videos from East Anglia in the UK, often with British fashion photographerPaul John Bayfield, while Lok fronted Hong Kong-based episodes with Ian Wong and Warren Ng. Other former contributors have included Garcia, Barry, Asuka, Rita Law and Hannah Scott. Kai and Lok left DigitalRev in November and December 2016 respectively. Both made an announcement on their personal YouTube channels. Warren Ng and Ian Wong also made announcements shortly after that they have also left DigitalRev TV. From 2017 onwards, Rebecca Leung, Eugene Chan and Tianran He have taken over hosting on the channel and new videos have started to sporadically appear on the channel.
