Trouble in Kombi Life. Most of you just see the battle that I am having keeping the Kombi alive, you don’t really get to see the challenges of running this channel.

For a while now I’ve been struggling to share the adventure with less than ideal equipment, hiding the crappy shots in the editing.

Our main lens for the Sony NEX 5N camera broke last week (although the camera has been working on and off for a while now).

50% of the footage that we recorded with our FD lens and GoPro this week was unusable. In this video I tried to explain why both of the cameras we have are good additions to our main camera but how neither can fully replace the main camera.

Having 2-3 times more footage to work through is one problem, but the MAIN ISSUE is that I am having is that the laptop is too old and slow.

My cameras are set to record at 25% of the quality that they could potentially produce as the laptop wont play back the HD vids.

I can barely see due to the low quality and it still only plays a fraction of the video sequence and all in an area of the screen smaller than your smartphone. Only 1 speaker works, only 1 USB slot works (and the footage is spread across 6 Hard Drives)

I now find myself in a position where I am fighting the dying technology to the point that I am loosing most of my week in a technical battle rather than enjoying the journey of a lifetime.

You guys wouldn’t respect me and I wouldn’t respect myself if I didn’t do something to address this issue.

Kombi Life isn’t like a TV show, there is no investment money or budget for the equipment required to produce the videos. I’m happy that the YouTUBE platform exists so that I can share the adventure with you and feel very grateful that I earn some gas money from the clicks on the advertisements. It all helps, it’s just video equipment isn’t cheap and my earnings are only just enough to keep me afloat (living a very VERY frugal lifestyle)

If you want to and are in a position to do so you are welcome to help us. I have the Patreon campaign… This is where you can sign up to contribute $1 and up per video (you can even cap it at $1 total for the whole month) There are some cool rewards for your support. All of the money received goes back into the channel to replace broken equipment. Don’t worry if you can’t – I can’t support the channels that I watch either on a YouTubers wage 😉 Support is necessary, welcomed but by no means mandatory..

I know this video isn’t produced well, I know the message isn’t clear, I know you can see my frustration. I also know that many of you wont be able to understand these challenges that I am facing.

Yet I feel like clear communication is the most important thing in all relationships (including yours and mine) and therefore I want you to know why I am becoming increasingly frustrated and that at the point that it is affecting my happiness and sanity I have to do something about it….and if that means to stop making videos for a while then so be it! I hope you understand.

I’m going to try and write a few articles about Kombi Life for some magazines to generate some money to invest in the channel. I’m also looking for sponsors that might be able to help me continue to share the adventures with you. Until I get this sorted I’m asking for your patience and support. Hugs from the Kombi.