DPReview to close on April 10th 23.

Forums › Digital Imaging › DPReview to close on April 10th 23.

Geektastic

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#303951 22-Mar-2023 22:27

Photographers here will probably be familiar with DPReview.

Sadly, due to cost cutting at Amazon (apparently) who have owned the site for several of it's 20+ years, the site will shut down on April 10th along with all the forums etc.

It says it will exist in read only form for a while (unspecified) and then all that collective knowledge will just be binned.

networkn

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#3053513 22-Mar-2023 22:38

Wow, that's the end of an ERA. Seems incredible it couldn't have just been donated to the community or they couldn't find a new home for it, rather than shuttering it. Certainly doesn't feel much notice either.

Geektastic

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#3053515 22-Mar-2023 22:43

networkn:

Wow, that's the end of an ERA. Seems incredible it couldn't have just been donated to the community or they couldn't find a new home for it, rather than shuttering it. Certainly doesn't feel much notice either.

I agree.

It reminds me a little of when BA decided to end Concorde because they claimed it was not economical. Richard Branson offered to buy all the aircraft and run them as part of Virgin Atlantic.

BA said no - I think just because they did not want anyone else running them having claimed they were not economic. Had I owned shares in BA I would have been livid because Branson offered money and BA just decomissioned the planes and stuck one in a museum making nothing from the asset. Branson offered £5 million per aircraft!

Handle9

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#3053519 22-Mar-2023 23:01

networkn:
Wow, that's the end of an ERA. Seems incredible it couldn't have just been donated to the community or they couldn't find a new home for it, rather than shuttering it. Certainly doesn't feel much notice either.

It’s pretty hard to see why they owned it in the first place.

Given the extremely limited impact on their balance sheet, and the extent of their overall restructuring, they’d get more impact by using their resources elsewhere rather than make any effort to save it. They are getting rid of 18,000 roles. 11 at DPreview will just be a tick box exercise.

If they got an offer they’d probably listen but they aren’t going to be proactive.

alasta

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#3053636 23-Mar-2023 08:32

That's a real shame. I haven't visited that site for a long time but I used to spend a lot of time there during a period of several years when I was obsessed with cameras. I learned a lot from the articles and forums.

Bung

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#3053646 23-Mar-2023 08:57

I did get the DPR email. Strangely only about 1 in every 3 months seemed to arrive.

Thinking about other sites I used to visit I found that Steve's Digicams closed in 2017 after Steve died aged 64. Yes, it has been some time since I bought a camera.

Jaxson

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#3055034 26-Mar-2023 20:52

DPReview heralded the transition from film to digital, which to be honest alone should have internet archiving value. Very odd to see no obvious attempt to on sell, just simply a shut down.

They copped a lot of flack from the film traditionalists originally who didn't think digital photography would ever last, much as even today the video crowd cop similar flack from the still image purists who believe a camera can't possibly be used for both mediums.

To this day they remain a go to for new product analysis and photography discussions that otherwise occur on brand specific forum sites. It is a big loss to the photography specific community for sure.

Assume the idea that everyone would purchase their photography gear through Amazon only didn't pay off, so it's now dumped?! That said with the move to ever increasing camera capabilities on cell phones, the dedicated cameras are dropping off sales significantly nowadays, and to be really fair a LOT of the "I can't believe it's going" comments are also paired with "I personally hadn't visited recently but..." statements as well.

Likes of these guys able to bounce to another new home:

Handle9

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#3055043 26-Mar-2023 21:09

Jaxson:
Assume the idea that everyone would purchase their photography gear through Amazon only didn't pay off, so it's now dumped?!

I doubt this has much at all to do with DPreviews performance, or lack thereof. Amazon is going through a huge restructure and this is a very very small part of it.

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Handle9

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#3095509 27-Jun-2023 16:48

DPReview has been acquired by Gear Patrol. I’m sure they’ll restructure at some point, and Chris and Jordan aren’t returning from Peta Pixel, but at least the archive will remain.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/21/23768266/dpreview-acquisition-gear-patrol-camera-photography-reviews

rb99

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#3095732 28-Jun-2023 10:05

Every time I try to go to their website I get a 403 error.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

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#3095733 28-Jun-2023 10:07

rb99:

Every time I try to go to their website I get a 403 error.

Loads fine here. Try incognito or clear your cache.

rb99

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#3095746 28-Jun-2023 10:12

I'll have a go, but its been like that for weeks and its the same in Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

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#3095747 28-Jun-2023 10:13

Incognito doesn't fix it.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

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#3095750 28-Jun-2023 10:21

Nor does clearing cache.

Maybe the use of a DNS service, but never used to be a problem.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

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