This is sad
Iām wondering if Amazon cares more or less for the imdb community? They didnāt care about the 7M/month viewers on dpreviewā¦
2 Likes
With Amazon, dpreviewās owner/āparentā, laying off 27000 people this might not come as that big of a surprise.
Then again, dpreview having 7 million views on average a month and 25 years of good serviceā¦ Shame on you Amazon.
11 Likes
Itās more - much more - than just āsadā. This web-site has been of enormous benefit to so many people, for so long. Iām referring not only to the equipment reviews - which are invaluable when choosing a camera (especially a used camera), - but also to the āgoldmineā of information in the forum.
Just an hour or so ago I was referred to an excellent discussion on ETTR, dating from 2014 (and still absolutely relevant) and the 2013 articles by a previous contributor to DPReview, Gollywop.
The amount of money needed to set up the DPReview web-site to make it generally available, at its current content level, is surely less than a rounding error in Amazonās operations.
Can somebody who understand these things better than I, tell me if there is a possibility that DPReviewās archive material will be captured by some sort of āway backā service (and so continue to be generally available)?
5 Likes
ā¦and an Amazon founder (never mind the rest of them) making ā last time I saw ā $4,000 per second, I guess itās just hard to be profitable, eh? Pretty big divide there, for what itās worth.
SMH
6 Likes
Maybe we need to contribute to Ken Rockwell, Fred Miranda, et al. so they stay in business at leastā¦ 
Have a look here:
378,397 captures thus far. Iām sure that isnāt all the content they generated over the many years.
Some of the links point back to the actual dpreview website, others are actually archived.
4 Likes
Amazon just cares about bottom lines, not communities. DPReview was bought in 2007 which was around the peak of standalone digital camera mania:
Wonder how much of this has to do with declining camera sales? DPReview was born in an era where this technology was taking off and running a website was relatively simpler and somewhat lower cost. Even with all the OEMs pushing their new mirrorless systems often requiring a wholesale swapping of the gear surrounding the camera body sales havenāt really ticked up. Most of the pros I still talk with are only swapping over when their current DSLR dies. I still know a few using stuff as old as a D700. Still clicking and returning on their investment, why upgrade? The market is saturated and mature.
Video is the wildcard but thatās still not a huge market and seems better served by YouTube, TikTok and Instagram reviewers and influencers. I donāt see many Gen Z kids reading 8 page reviews these days. Tops youāve got them for a 15-20 minute video and it better be well produced or ironically funny. Just look at how gray this forum is by and large (no offense).
In the mid-00s digital photography went into a mainstream hobby and required purchase of equipment, now the requirement to purchase something outside of a smartphone. Again, YouTubers and general tech influencers cover this better too.
I imagine as a return on investment for Amazon DPReview is probably pretty low by now. This is probably a mix of decline of revenue, changing tastes of future generations, costs associated with maintenance, and what Iād call photography requiring specialty gear returning to more of a niche thing.
2 Likes
I wonder how many of those sales were point and shoots before camera phones were good enough, and how many are dedicated āproā cameras. I know it means nothing in the dpreview context but I wonder what it means for hobbyists and pros who are on a budget.
Cameras have already been climbing in price, I wonder what future awaits for photographers. Just a rambling, donāt want to change the topic of this thread.
Overall itās pretty sad another decent website is going down. With AIās writing a lot of articles automatically now, it seems like access(Or at least a way to find it) to good information is going to decrease even further with so much to filter through.
1 Like
IIRC from the CIPA data I last looked at sales of interchangeable lens systems have tanked as well. There were film P&S cameras in the 80s and 90s as well and sales were pretty small then too. There was some accessibility triggers involved with digital that produced that bubble. The industry just thought it would go on forever.
Welcome to Dead Internet Theory.
So @patdavid when are we getting PixlusReviews? Seems a hole just opened up in the market.
2 Likes
Unfortunately, no one wants to pay for itā¦ ahem.
Send free stuff, will review.
6 Likes
I did a fair bit of posting at DPReview, where else to 'splain what i learned so well over here?
What Iām really going to miss of the site is the Studio Scene Comparison Tool. A great source of raw files for testing and making camera profiles - Iād crop out the ColorChecker and go from there. Got profiles with rather surprisingly small max dEā¦
12 Likes
Yeah, Iām well aware of it, itās just scary seeing it happen in real time as this hasnāt been the only case lately where sites like these have gone down. Plus the ever evolving AIās.
1 Like
Well that happened fast:
8 Likes
Yeah; not a happy camper right now. Iāve been posting at DPR since 2005. Lots of acquaintances Iāve interacted over the years and am sadden that a business model could not be figured out. I know money talks and bs walks; I get that. Regardless, sadden and a bit angry I am, but I know how it is.
I really hope someone at Amazon can be convinced to sell DPR to PetaPixel for pennies on the dollar. It makes them slightly more money than just deleting the site, and gains MASSIVE goodwill.
3 Likes
WHAT! I share most of the thoughts already expressed - DPReview has been a staple sinceā¦ ever really 
The Internet Archive do archive all kinds of things, I donāt know how it works though. Iāve donated to them a couple of times.
Editā¦ just discovered that the Internet Archive is under attack from big publishersā¦ 
I really hope someone does something! DPReview is a massive source of mostly reliable info. We just canāt loose it like thatā¦ 
Been there since I purchased my Casio QV4000 in the Akihabara shopping district of Tokyo while on a business trip. Had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.
I had been weaning myself for a number of years already ever since commercial bias started coming before good journalism. I know itās inevitable these days but I joined when DPR was still Phil Askeyās one-man-show and the Amazon takeover never sat very well with me from day one.
Besides that, the forums were a source of irritation with weird moderation and threads which ran into the max messages limit on really nothing at all.
I think the best thing about dpr was it gear focus (rather than photography as a whole) which at the same time also happens to be the worst thing about dpr.
The way theyāre doing this though, by just pulling the plug on short notice and not even leaving everything in RO modus for another year or so, is just nasty - for lack of a better word.
4 Likes
Yes, beyond sad. I have enjoyed reading about the latest and greatest or weirdest tech, even though I rarely buy it.
But this is what happens when small niche projects sell out to very big business.
Personally, I dislike videos, especially for still photography. A video isnāt searchable or skimable in the same way as text. I wonāt watch a 30-minute video on the off chance that it has something of interest. Life is too short.
1 Like