I will miss especially their big raw files galleries for many recent cameras:
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This is why I often PDF print web pages and interesting discussionās. You never know when they will disappear or you will lose access. It does make you wonder going forward in life when things are not put in books or print or whatever how much information will simply be discarded or disappearā¦
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I have to say I was expecting this. Not a huge dpreview follower but I did notice a decline over some time now. Seems they lost/let go a lot of staff a while ago and never rehired. Just outsourced occasional reviews. The quality of gear shots and amount of reviews went downhill with dpreview tv being basically the only thing.
Shame about the studio scene raw samples though.
edit: Amazon is just awful, thereās no excuse for not ensuring the data lives on in accessible form. I hope people avoid and work against Amazon in every little or big way they can.
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That looks interesting - hadnāt come across those people beforeā¦ seems anyone can help their archiving process. If I had more internet bandwidth Iād look at setting it up. (Iām already struggling with data allowance and have to run a VPN due to some kind of throttlingā¦)
I figured that nothing could be lost by writing directly to Andy Jassy - so I did just that. Got a balanced, polite response telling me that my suggestion ( to host a āread-onlyā snapshot of the web-site) would be examined again.
Breath-holding is not recommended.
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As a fun little diversion, I exported my gear review section on DPReview to my own blog: Reviews
I also requested a data dump of my data, though Iām not convinced theyāll actually do it. Although, come to think of it, I might do a GDPR request for all my data, which theyād be legally obliged to honor. It might just be hoisted upon some poor sysadmin, though, who really has better things to do than humor my unnecessary request.
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Yes, I had a very similar impression. I read a lot of their reviews recently because I was shopping for a camera, and the obsession was about tracking AF; with very little said about camera controls and menus. It looked like the reviewers didnāt read the manual and certainly havenāt spent enough time with the camera. Controls are menus can be very different between manufactures (and sometimes for the same manufacturer), so superficial intuitive exploration does not always reveal the potential of a camera.
Reading the manuals first, and going into a store and trying cameras (and lenses) for a few hours was much more helpful.
Personally, I donāt find his advice on cameras very useful. He basically suggests a Nikon DSLR depending on budget (D3500 and up). Which is certainly a great choice for some users, but definitely not all.
While centralized collections of reviews by the same team are nice, because they suggest some kind of standard for comparison, we just have to face the fact that for cameras and lenses this may not be practical. No one has enough time and money to buy all the equipment and spend at least a week with each camera and lens (which I think is the necessary minimum for an informative review).
But everything is reviewed by someone, and the web makes it easy to find. I found the āI bought this camera, have been using it for a year, and updated this review 3 timesā-style articles and blog posts most informative.
Well my point was thereās value to individual, independent reviews and reviewers (rather than corporately sponsored) so theyāre worth supportingā¦ Even if Iāve not done so in the past.
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Indeed. If I want to see a comprehensive measurement set on a camera, I go to PhotographyLife or ImagingResource. If I want to know about the practical handling of a Nikon camera, I go to Thom Hogan. And so onā¦
Itās really about putting critical thinking between all the different information sources and your decisions.
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Yeah, Iāll vote for that. You can keep your infuriating āYouāre Holding It Wrong ā¢ Mk IIā phone, where the camera button works only when you donāt want it to.
And bring back DP Review (after 10th April).
Well maybe itāll give PetaPixel something to do besides publish drivel like this:
Talk about a waste of bandwidth.
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One of the regulars has proposed trying to create a follow-on forum at A practical thread about the future: Site Feedback and Help Forum: Digital Photography Review
I donāt think Pixls would serve as an appropriate successor for a significant portion of DPRās userbase, since a lot of them arenāt using FOSS software.
But perhaps this might be an acceptable location for the refugees to discuss forward plans for the stuff that doesnāt fit here?
I have to admit Iāve not really specifically read PetaPixel (other than when I ended up there via search), but that kind of drivel isnāt encouraging.
IIRC they were banned on /r/photography for years as blog spam and /p/ mocked them endlessly. Of course /p/ mocks everything almost.
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Have you read his About page? About Ken Rockwell & KenRockwell.com
I have a big sense of humor, and do this site to entertain you (and myself), as well as to inform and to educate. I occasionally weave fiction and satire into my stories to keep them interesting. I love a good hoax. [ā¦] A hoax, like some of the things I do on this website, is done as a goof simply for the heck of it by overactive minds as a practical joke.
Or the page about his tip to Hawaii linked here: āIāve been winning major awardsā (also from the About page)?
He is honest about trolling his readers. 
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In attempting to proffer my comments, DPReview already responds with:
"An error has occurred
The requested thread has reached the maximum number of allowed posts.
Please contact us if you have any questions."
Thatās a measure of the importance people attach to this web-site, isnāt it ?
Color me sad. The āoldā DPReview was where I learned a lot about photography and equipment. A hell of a lot. I used to pore through the comparisons and sample shots, drooling over all the equipment choices and what was better than what. I suppose Iām talking about the days around 2000-2010 (the Phil Askey days, I suppose). As things became less and less organized and specific, I started losing interest in the site, but in those days, it was of prime interest to me.
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This is going to be his legacy! This is how he is going to be remembered in the photographic community.
+1
I regularly used DPReview for comparing cameras. Not only between new models but also comparing to older ones (what I already have).
They also have (soon it will be āhadā) extensive amount of pictures taken at various ISO and various lenses. Without these repositories it would be very hard for a person to decide what to buy. And if some of us are to purchase equipment from Amazon then we will have to return it. Either way - it is a big stain on Amazonās name.
What Amazon is not realizing is that one can work hard for years to build a good name, to be respected and then ruin it in a matter of days.
Lastly - some of us will simply ditch Amazon when it comes to photo equipment and look towards companies that have bigger respect to the community.
Such a shame, such a loss.
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