End of an era, DPReview.com will shut down next month

[EricN]

Bullshit. It’s 100% fair. If you’re a photography site, there should be some good example photos shown from the cameras and lenses reviewed. And the majority of the photos I saw accompanying reviews, when I used to visit the site, were usually pretty boring and unspectacular.

I’m not trying to denigrate their hard work and I hate to see another resource go the way of the dodo, but it doesn’t change the fact that I usually didn’t see spectacular photography on that site.

I think you're missing a small point. That is they are WRITERS who reviews photography equipment.

 

[Del Paso]

I think you're missing a small point. That is they are WRITERS who reviews photography equipment.

Which is TDP Brian's advantage!
He is not only a gear reviewer, but also a photographer, and, my opinion, knows which camera or lens features matter in real life.

 

[entoman]

Almost everyone here, quite rightly, is expressing sadness and concern that our standard resource for technical reviews and comparison tests has fallen victim to Amazon's greed (er, I mean "restructuring", of course).

Yet, so far, no one has commented on the potential impact on *photography* itself. Sure, we have good ol' CR for Canon enthusiasts, and one or two specialist rumour sites for other brands.

But where, other than on IR (which has recently changed ownership, and could face a similar peril) are we going to find detailed and trustworthy comparison tests in future? How will we know which brand and model is "best" for our individual requirements?

The loss of dpreview will result in far less information being available to prospective purchasers, and I can't help feeling that this will have a detrimental effect on camera sales of all brands.

dpr played a major role in stimulating the purchase of cameras, lenses and associated equipment. The loss of that resource could have a major negative impact on sales, which in turn can push up prices, reduce choice and threaten camera companies.

 

[woodman411]

Almost everyone here, quite rightly, is expressing sadness and concern that our standard resource for technical reviews and comparison tests has fallen victim to Amazon's greed (er, I mean "restructuring", of course).

Yet, so far, no one has commented on the potential impact on *photography* itself. Sure, we have good ol' CR for Canon enthusiasts, and one or two specialist rumour sites for other brands.

But where, other than on IR (which has recently changed ownership, and could face a similar peril) are we going to find detailed and trustworthy comparison tests in future? How will we know which brand and model is "best" for our individual requirements?

The loss of dpreview will result in far less information being available to prospective purchasers, and I can't help feeling that this will have a detrimental effect on camera sales of all brands.

dpr played a major role in stimulating the purchase of cameras, lenses and associated equipment. The loss of that resource could have a major negative impact on sales, which in turn can push up prices, reduce choice and threaten camera companies.

Says you. Have a look at Bryan’s tdp if you haven’t already, he’s much more objective than dpr and I’ve already given 3 specific examples of why. To me, we lose nothing with dpr’s demise, quite the opposite actually.

 

[entoman]

Says you. Have a look at Bryan’s tdp if you haven’t already, he’s much more objective than dpr and I’ve already given 3 specific examples of why. To me, we lose nothing with dpr’s demise, quite the opposite actually.

I'm very familiar with Bryan's reviews, and they're very good. But you've missed a major point. He only reviews Canon and Sony cameras (and sees just about everything through rose-tinted glasses), so on TDP you won't hear a single word about the excellent cameras by Panasonic, Leica, Olympus, Fujifilm or Pentax - and he no longer reviews Nikon products. Likewise you'll not hear a single word about newly released products from e.g. Laowa, or anything about drones from DJI etc. No cambag tests. No technical articles. No videos. No reports about photography competition winners. No technique articles. No comparison guides either as far as I can see.

Let's be absolutely clear - I don't in any way blame Bryan for those limitations, he's just a one man band with occasional helpers. I always read his Canon reviews, as I like to gather information from as many sources as possible in order to get a representative selection of opinions. But there's no way that TDP is an adequate substitute for DPR, or ever will be. And I have a feeling that Bryan himself would agree with me.

 

[woodman411]

I'm very familiar with Bryan's reviews, and they're very good. But you've missed a major point. He only reviews Canon and Sony cameras (and sees just about everything through rose-tinted glasses), so on TDP you won't hear a single word about the excellent cameras by Panasonic, Leica, Olympus, Fujifilm or Pentax - and he no longer reviews Nikon products. Likewise you'll not hear a single word about newly released products from e.g. Laowa, or anything about drones from DJI etc. No cambag tests. No technical articles. No videos. No reports about photography competition winners. No technique articles. No comparison guides either as far as I can see.

Let's be absolutely clear - I don't in any way blame Bryan for those limitations, he's just a one man band with occasional helpers. I always read his Canon reviews, as I like to gather information from as many sources as possible in order to get a representative selection of opinions. But there's no way that TDP is an adequate substitute for DPR, or ever will be. And I have a feeling that Bryan himself would agree with me.

Maybe you care about Olympus, Fujifilm, Pentax, and Nikon, but for the majority of people, these are all dead-end products and companies, sorry to say, and the marketshare numbers reflect this. Full-frame has come down in price so much that it's also made m43 increasingly niche, like Panasonic products. It has become just a two-horse race between Canon and Sony. Leica is an exotic German niche that not many people will appreciate or understand, least of all dpr. For drones, I find the reviews on Tech Gear Lab much more detailed and comprehensive than dpr. Laowa lenses... can't help you there. Photography competitions... WorldPressPhoto.org ?

Let's be absolutely clear - I still maintain it's all good without dpr.

 

[neuroanatomist]

dpr played a major role in stimulating the purchase of cameras, lenses and associated equipment. The loss of that resource could have a major negative impact on sales, which in turn can push up prices, reduce choice and threaten camera companies.

Major? Unlikely.

 

[RunAndGun]

I think you're missing a small point. That is they are WRITERS who reviews photography equipment.

Doesn't change anything. I said the photos were lackluster. Doesn't matter who shot them.

 

[woodman411]

Doesn't change anything. I said the photos were lackluster. Doesn't matter who shot them.

You would think that is fundamental, to know how to take good pictures before commenting on the tools that enable it, right? Their photo samples look very amateurish, to put it nicely. It's also telling that they took a picture of a picture of someone's face as they rated products - that tells me they don't know how important it is to take a real picture of someone (they should take it in a series, both indoor and outdoor, day and night, with and without flash), and how real pictures show the nuances of the contrast, detail, colors, the overall rendering, it's all subtle but apparent in real portrait shots. Instead they overly focus on dynamic range, iso-invariance, etc. things with little meaning but important for them to make their case for Sony.

Someone made the comment that before, dpr would humbly defer to real professionals to rate professional bodies, but at some point, that humility apparently evaporated and they determined for themselves which camera product is better, even though they still have no clue how to take professional looking photos. That to me is arrogance. If rating entry-level or consumer-level products, fine, because that's their level of photography. I gave an example of them complaining that the RF 85 f/1.2 is too large, they actually listed it as a Con, which is ridiculous when you think about it. That's like a regular driver complaining that an engine in a supercar is too big. Let professionals evaluate professional tools.

 

[Fischer]

You would think that is fundamental, to know how to take good pictures before commenting on the tools that enable it, right? Their photo samples look very amateurish, to put it nicely. It's also telling that they took a picture of a picture of someone's face as they rated products - that tells me they don't how important it is to take a real picture of someone (they should take it in a series, both indoor and outdoor, day and night, with and without flash), and how real pictures show the nuances of the contrast, detail, colors, the overall rendering, it's all subtle but apparent in real portrait shots. Instead they overly focus on dynamic range, iso-invariance, etc. things with little meaning but important for them to make their case for Sony.

Someone made the comment that before, dpr would humbly defer to real professionals to rate professional bodies, but at some point, that humility apparently evaporated and they determined for themselves which camera product is better, even though they still have no clue how to take professional looking photos. That to me is arrogance. If rating entry-level or consumer-level products, fine, because that's their level of photography. I gave an example of them complaining that the RF 85 f/1.2 is too large, they actually listed it as a Con, which is ridiculous when you think about it. That's like a regular driver complaining that an engine in a supercar is too big. Let professionals evaluate professional tools.

Most photographers that read DPR and buy a RF 85 f/1.2are not pro's but money-flush amateurs - and to many of them size and weight matters. I don't mind large, heavy lenses myself as a trade off for better optics, but fully understand why many do.

 

[EOS 4 Life]

Doesn't change anything. I said the photos were lackluster. Doesn't matter who shot them.

It does to me.
People should review products that they are qualified to review.
DPR reviewers were quite qualified to review cameras like the R50 but they used to bring in pros to review professional cameras.
Somewhere along the lines they stopped doing that and it was well after Amazon took them over.

 

[koenkooi]

It does to me.
People should review products that they are qualified to review.
DPR reviewers were quite qualified to review cameras like the R50 but they used to bring in pros to review professional cameras.
Somewhere along the lines they stopped doing that and it was well after Amazon took them over.

For me it is not such much about being qualified or not, it is about about being very opinionated about things outside your target demographic. For example Gordon from Cameralabs goes through the same process for every camera/lens he reviews and tries to present the findings in a reasonably objective manner. And the conclusion at the end is his personal opinion. The DPRreview reviews tend(ed) to be very opinionated and fixated on specific things, like DR, IBIS and BSI.
Just like every camera review by Steve Dent at Engadget will contain a phrase like "The menus are confusing, Sony menus are much better" for every non-Sony camera.

 

[entoman]

Maybe you care about Olympus, Fujifilm, Pentax, and Nikon, but for the majority of people, these are all dead-end products and companies, sorry to say, and the marketshare numbers reflect this. Full-frame has come down in price so much that it's also made m43 increasingly niche, like Panasonic products. It has become just a two-horse race between Canon and Sony. Leica is an exotic German niche that not many people will appreciate or understand, least of all dpr. For drones, I find the reviews on Tech Gear Lab much more detailed and comprehensive than dpr. Laowa lenses... can't help you there. Photography competitions... WorldPressPhoto.org ?

Let's be absolutely clear - I still maintain it's all good without dpr.

So, all that counts is the particular brand that *you* are interested in, and sod everyone else!

 

[entoman]

Most photographers that read DPR and buy a RF 85 f/1.2are not pro's but money-flush amateurs - and to many of them size and weight matters. I don't mind large, heavy lenses myself as a trade off for better optics, but fully understand why many do.

In the case of a lot of expensive lenses I agree entirely - there must e.g. be many more amateur birders and sports shooters buying big whites, compared to pros. But in the case of a RF85 F1.2 my guess would be that the majority of buyers are pros or semi-pros making money out of portrait photography.

 

[John Wilde]

Maybe you care about Olympus, Fujifilm, Pentax, and Nikon, but for the majority of people, these are all dead-end products and companies, sorry to say, and the marketshare numbers reflect this.

Nikon has a small (12%) ILC market share, but they aren't going anywhere, because their Imaging division is profitable. It's in the "pro price range", but their Z9 is said to be an extremely good camera. This is supposed to be a "busy release year" for Nikon.

 

[shadow]

Hopefully somebody will bot scrape all the old data, reviews and equipment details data, flush it through Chatgpt to spin it and repopulate a new website with it. Otherwise its wayback machine for any historical info. The dpreview forum comments design was a pain to troll through unlike here with xenoforo, good choice.

 

[David - Sydney]

Hopefully somebody will bot scrape all the old data, reviews and equipment details data, flush it through Chatgpt to spin it and repopulate a new website with it. Otherwise its wayback machine for any historical info. The dpreview forum comments design was a pain to troll through unlike here with xenoforo, good choice.

Yep, it seems that it is being done. ChatGPT is unlikely until their training datasets are updated after 2021.
https://petapixel.com/2023/03/22/to...eam-is-attempting-to-back-up-all-of-dpreview/

 

[David - Sydney]

You would think that is fundamental, to know how to take good pictures before commenting on the tools that enable it, right? Their photo samples look very amateurish, to put it nicely. It's also telling that they took a picture of a picture of someone's face as they rated products - that tells me they don't know how important it is to take a real picture of someone (they should take it in a series, both indoor and outdoor, day and night, with and without flash), and how real pictures show the nuances of the contrast, detail, colors, the overall rendering, it's all subtle but apparent in real portrait shots. Instead they overly focus on dynamic range, iso-invariance, etc. things with little meaning but important for them to make their case for Sony.

Someone made the comment that before, dpr would humbly defer to real professionals to rate professional bodies, but at some point, that humility apparently evaporated and they determined for themselves which camera product is better, even though they still have no clue how to take professional looking photos. That to me is arrogance. If rating entry-level or consumer-level products, fine, because that's their level of photography. I gave an example of them complaining that the RF 85 f/1.2 is too large, they actually listed it as a Con, which is ridiculous when you think about it. That's like a regular driver complaining that an engine in a supercar is too big. Let professionals evaluate professional tools.

I didn't really use DPR's sample shots in their reviews but their standard test shot was interesting.
To bring in professional photographers would cost money unless they were doing it for free which is unlikely especially if there were models involved .
The other professional photographers would be Canon's ambassadors or pre-release reviewers which would only share images "in the best light".

 

[David - Sydney]

I buy most of my camera gear used, the loss of DPReview and its extensive back catalog and gear timelines will be especially disappointing.
Not everyone needs the latest tech, and DPReview has always been a good resource to find out basic specs and features of older gear.

I wonder/hope that Amazon will be willing to sell the back content to some other site or pool of site operators to enable access to the existing content, even if its just the written reviews/specs.

I guess we'll see...

Nah, it will get scraped to archive the site. Someone will need to pay for storage/ server costs though for the ~4 million articles and posts!

 

[EOS 4 Life]

Nikon has a small (12%) ILC market share, but they aren't going anywhere, because their Imaging division is profitable.

It is newly profitable and there is no guarantee that it will stay that way.
The Z 9 shows what Nikon is capable of but Canon and Sony are making it tough for everyone else.
I do however appreciate the Nikon Z lens selection.