It is no secret that there have been growing pains whilst building DRobertsPhoto (the brand, the website, and the HQ). The image of perfection is not one I have tried to sell, and have used the metaphor of Sisyphus multiple times to illustrate that; both Hellenic and Caumusian. Unlike YouTubers who create a circular environment of decorate set-shoot-edit-post-repeat ad nauseum. The “look” of the studio often matters more than the usability, the speed of the algorithm and expectations of the audience dictate the flow. As such very little information online is relevant to what I wish to achieve. I don’t think there is a single guide out there that shows you how a normal guy with an idea of making something to be remembered can make that a possibility. Most of my information is hard-won the old fashioned way, but some of it was imparted wisdom; begged, borrowed, stolen. Some was given freely. Yet, I can’t shrug the feeling that the discomfort came from wearing shoes that are too tight…

I want to continue on by stating I am a normal guy, I am not a trust fund baby but neither am I a starving artist. I am extremely lucky in many ways, but that does not mean I don’t have my handicaps. I can understand how this article may seem contradictory in that much of what I consider is a dream to most, or five years at 23% apr. for the rest. It’s why I made sure to give Meike or Brightin Star the same attention as ZEISS, same field-based testing, same attention to the edit, the narrative, the review. I do it because for someone that lens is all that is in reach. When I was coming up we didn’t even have those choices, we just gambled on Soviet lenses and old thoriated Takumars. I made articles with those budget options, led collabs in editorials; to most that’s the ceiling. Even the biggest of YouTubers pay for that kind of publicity. But the thing is, I never chased money. There are times where I've had a fair amount, what many would call a lot even, and times I had barely enough petrol to get to work. But when your feet grow you don’t stay in the same shoes. When your hands get cut and nails chip and bleed, perhaps you start thinking that it’s gloves that you really need.

There is no perfect camera, no perfect lens. Just the best at that given moment and for that given task. It is a question that providing your pockets are deep, can be answered fairly easily. My pockets are far from deep and I measure cost in time as much as USD, but there isn’t a whole lot of reason to buy a race car and fill it with pump gas. I identified my task, I identified my projected usage; needs first, then wants. Sometimes that works out, other times you realise that theory does not play with reality.

In early 2023 I set out to buy a camera. I wanted my Sony rig back (after liquidating during the pandemic), and I had penned a script for a short so looked to something motion-capable. I toyed with the idea of an A7SIII or an A7RIV, and ultimately came home with a computer. The choice itself I still think was correct, much of what I did in the years that followed was because my computer just worked. The problems I faced with the Fujifilm’s would have been mirrored (but in post) by still using the MacBook. Now, buying a new lens is exciting, a new body feels revolutionary. It’s an easy sell, marketing loves it. I upgraded my cameras because the ones I had just could not make it further up the hill. I was not about to make that mistake again, with computers. I upgraded my MacBook to a PC because it failed the sole task asked of it — to keep up. I replaced the Fujifilm cameras for the exact same reason. I could not go into Discover Temples of Thailand handicapped by equipment. As radical as it may seem, once I owned the A7RV and FX30, my thought was not to FX6 (or what have you), but to my computer. I knew that when I was done shooting Discover Temples I would need to bolster my post-production suite. That was given, and quite frankly obvious. Yet since then a set of unusual circumstances have occurred in this world that made me rethink how I approached my computers; and as such how solid my foundations really are. I realised quickly that the industry and photographers have their eyes on the wrong prize, and spent the last days of 2025 chasing what I believe should be in a photographers crosshairs…

So what are Yamato and Musashi? Well first Yamato. It means “The Great Harmony” and was the first name that the Japanese peoples bestowed on what is now known as Nihon, or Japan. It is also the name of the spirit of Japan, Yamato-damashii. It was made manifest during World War II as dreadnaught-class warship, largest of its time The flagship of the Imperial Navy bore the nations namesake on her hull, and the rising sun flew at the stern. It is also reimagined by one of the first renowned sci-fi pieces from Japan Space Battleship Yamato, recycled and repurposed in a last ditch mission to save Earth. As Ursula LeGuin wrote in her Tales of Earthsea “names have power.” Very few names written by man hold more power than Yamato, not a name I chose lightly.

Yamato sits on my desk — a monolithic creation that may as well be fed coal and breath steam. Arguably the end-point for an individual attempting to create a computer with consumer parts. For the tech obsessed; she sits withing a Havn BF360 complete with dual 180mm intake and houses an i9 14900K, which with the aide of Thermal Grizzly’s Contact Frame, Duronaut paste, and a 360mm radiator, manages to bench over 39,000 on Cinebench R23 in normal conditions (OC, 90c thermal limit, normal fan speed, typical ambient). She also houses a 5080, 6TB of NVMe storage, and 64GB of RAM. I consider this the endpoint for a reasonable build an individual could come up with.

However, Yamato had a sister. A vessel so modern and impressive that Imperial command was housed within her bridge. Although she never saw the last stand of Okinawa, she was present for the largest naval battle mankind has ever seen. Musashi shared the red hull of her sister, and the same fate befell both. Musashi is also the name of the greatest swordsman to have lifted the Katana (and boat ore if tales are true). Musashi founded an entire school of martial practise Niten Ichi-ryu, and codified it in what is now known as The Book of Five Rings. Musashi Miyamoto stood at Sekigahara, present when the fate of Japan was decided; blade in each hand. His life and times have most recently been chronicled by Mangaka Inoue Takahiko-sensei in the serialisation Vagabond, a demonstrably superlative work. Not a name I choose to use lightly either. Nor do I find the circumstances incidental. Nature loves repeating patterns.

Musashi is modest in comparison; Micro-ATX, 32GB RAM, i7 14700, and 5070. I’m not done filling her up with drives yet, and for her purpose I am considering a 4TB main drive over the mirrored 2TB drives of Yamato. Even so, with a 360mm radiator and the contact frame, she still manages 33-34,000 on Cinebench R23. If Yamato is my Skyline R34 GT-R “Godzilla” with the AWD 4WS and RB26DETT, Musashi is my Silvia Spec R, sure she only has a SR20DET but she’s RWD, short wheelbase, and small tyre. Perhaps a more fitting analogy would be Yamato as Odachi and Musashi as Katana. More importantly, it means that where the real work needs to be done I now have an empty seat that can be filled.

Let us not forget that these systems were not created in a void. They mirror to my capture systems. I would have hoped that I managed to effectively build computers that share not only parity with the capture systems they were designed for, but also what I wish to export. Yamato is my A7RV’s counterpoint, it is large, heavy and uncompromisingly powerful. Musashi is paired with my FX30, ancillary but just as important to the mission. The first is tuned based on a decades experience and with the goal of archival permanence, the latter with expansion and iteration in mind, reducing friction for experimentation. Despite differences, they are both dedicated to their respective tasks within DRobertsPhoto.

If you think I hit hard with a Fujifilm backed by a 13700 and 3060, those were just my bare-knuckle days. All I did was put on some weight to go after the belt. Yamato hits like Tyson and Musashi dances like Ali — the gloves are on until the bell rings or I go out on a stretcher. Even if I lose a few, you know I’ll be back in the ring again. It’s where DRobertsPhoto lives.

In the following Equipping DRobertsPhoto articles I will talk through my process of selection, trail and error and the overall evolution. In the On Workstations and Workflow articles I present the circumstances and reasoning. Yamato is operational, Musashi is close to sea worthiness, but final selection of NVMe and software is being made. The exact configuration of the machines are as follows:

I understand that there is far more available: Threadripper, DDR5 up to 128GB, 5090, even NVMe drives of larger single capacity (8TB 9100 Pros), but each of these would triple the cost and result in perhaps 10-20% gain. I truly consider (as of 2026) Yamato to be the peak of consumer-available hardware. As Musashi serves a different purpose to Yamato, and is currently using repurposed DRAM-less SN770 drives, the decision to move to Samsung 990 Pro is being considered for the price-to-volume (at least compared to the SN850X, though still devoid from reality) and larger DRAM cache compared to the generally preferred SN850X. Due to its purpose as an editing bench, a single larger 4TB NVMe may be more beneficial than mirrored redundancy. I would like to hope that there is also room for flexibility so that I can adapt the HQ as future needs present themselves.

Whilst not intended as a build guide to be followed, just as my choice of Sony A7RV and 35mm f/1.4 G Master is not intended as such, it is an example of what is currently used for the work produced. This is a transparent look into the movement behind the watch face. Much can be done with less, and I have personally done so myself. I see much less being done with more, which is a more telling sign of the times. In Vietnam many special forces soldiers adopted the M1 Garand — a legacy rifle — as they thought the technical marvel of the AR-15 derived M16s unsuitable to the theatre of operation. This is my Vietnam, and even though I am chasing the legacy of the black rifle, any tool that gets the job done is the right tool for the job.