Amazon claims another victim: DPReview.com to close

[AbydosOne]

Summary

DPReview.com will be closing the near future due to Amazon layoffs.

 

 

Quotes

Quote

After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year.

The site will remain active until April 10, and the editorial team is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content.

 

My thoughts

I actually only learned that DPReview was part of Amazon like two weeks ago (I don't frequent the site, but I've been aware of it for seemingly forever).

 

I'd like to hope that they could either spin back off into their own company, or find a home at a different media company (LTTLabs? I'd be super down for more LTT camera content).

 

For the datahoarders out there: time to start scraping. I might yt-dlp through their YT channel for (at least) all their Sony content.

 

Sources

https://www.dpreview.com/news/5901145460/dpreview-com-to-close

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/shocker-dpreview-com-to-close/

[CommanderAlex]

Confirmed, this is sad news for the photography community and will be deeply missed. 

 

 

[SorryBella]

9 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

LTTLabs? I'd be super down for more LTT camera content

More Bran- oh.

[porina]

I haven't actively followed photography in some years but that was a site that popular then. Amazon's business aside, I have to wonder if photography isn't what it used to be. 

[dizmo]

7 minutes ago, porina said:

I haven't actively followed photography in some years but that was a site that popular then. Amazon's business aside, I have to wonder if photography isn't what it used to be. 

With the way phone cameras are progressing I think fewer and fewer people need the resources they provide. It's really to the point where there's little you can do with an entry to mid tier DSLR that you can't get 9/10 of with a good smartphone. 

[TheIndigoCrafter]

This is the third time that Chris and Jordon have switched who they are reviewing for, hopefully they find a good place to call their own.

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

I'd be super down for more LTT camera content

As long as they add a "Linus-approved drop test survivability guide"

[AbydosOne]

8 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

As long as they add a "Linus-approved drop test survivability guide"

FAILED

FAILED

FAILED

FAILED

FAILED

 

"Why is this stuff all so fragile?"

[HenrySalayne]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

With the way phone cameras are progressing I think fewer and fewer people need the resources they provide. It's really to the point where there's little you can do with an entry to mid tier DSLR that you can't get 9/10 of with a good smartphone. 

This.

A decent lens is as much as a top-tier smartphone AND you need skill to get a good picture AND you need time to post-process the RAW image.

[SteveGrabowski0]

At least the domain has some real possibilities with new owners

[porina]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

With the way phone cameras are progressing I think fewer and fewer people need the resources they provide. It's really to the point where there's little you can do with an entry to mid tier DSLR that you can't get 9/10 of with a good smartphone. 

Yes and no. With the proviso I've not used a current high end phone, I feel phones are mostly taking out the wide to standard use cases. The last high end phone I used was my old work iPhone 8 Plus, and I'm sure things have moved on a bit since then.

 

When not on a high end phone, photos do become a lot more challenging. I have a mid range Xiaomi. Lack of OS means it often struggles in lower light compared to iPhones and Pixel devices. 

 

I'm probably biased since I used to do wildlife, I don't know if I had the latest iPhone could I get close to that? I didn't go for stupid long lenses either, typically up to 400mm zooms. You could say this is a niche, and I'd agree. It isn't needed by the masses, but this type of application will take a more radical approach to phone imaging.

 

I was surprised when using a Pixel 3a to attempt astrophotography, it seemed to be using techniques like stacking without the user understanding it to enhance the image. Actually, why was I surprised? Phones seem to use stacking even for "normal" (low light) shots, leaning to interesting attempts at recovery if the subject moves.

 

16 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

A decent lens is as much as a top-tier smartphone AND you need skill to get a good picture AND you need time to post-process the RAW image.

As good as phones have got, I still feel they're still highly processed "good enough for the masses" look to them. Still, good enough is good enough. I still have my DSLR era kit and it is rare when I decide that is the tool I need that I can't get good enough results on a phone.

[darknessblade]

1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

FAILED

FAILED

FAILED

FAILED

FAILED

 

"Why is this stuff all so fragile?"

Carefull what you wish for.

 

Soon the metric for Linus proof Camera's would be having a bar of the

https://ymcinema.com/2020/03/05/meet-the-cunningham-combat-camera-model-c-cinematographing-wwii

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, porina said:

I'm probably biased since I used to do wildlife, I don't know if I had the latest iPhone could I get close to that? 

Not a chance in hell. It’s only pretty specific (albeit, popular) situations that a phone camera can really stretch the computational capabilities, and excel. Where they lack in is flexibility. 
 

The telephoto modules already often use smaller sensors and/or smaller aperture values than the main camera. So image quality, especially at the shutter speeds required for wildlife photography, is already pretty degraded.

 

Additionally, fast action is a weak point of computational photography. Phones often acquire multiple frames at differing exposures to improve dynamic range, and reduce noise (increasing light information by virtue of multiple rapid exposures, instead of doing so via larger sensor), however, in a scenario requiring fast shutter speeds in low light, phones cannot do this effectively. 

 

[HenrySalayne]

1 hour ago, porina said:

I'm probably biased since I used to do wildlife, I don't know if I had the latest iPhone could I get close to that? I didn't go for stupid long lenses either, typically up to 400mm zooms. You could say this is a niche, and I'd agree. It isn't needed by the masses, but this type of application will take a more radical approach to phone imaging.

Yeah, that's exactly one of the things a phone cannot do well (there is no space for a tele lens).

Portraits, wide-angle shots and panoramas are good enough with phones that the hobby photographs would not want to carry a DSLR with lenses around.

 

 

[optimuss]

This is a topic I'd like to hear about on WAN show.. Amazon is just shutting them down, not even selling to anyone (apparently).

[YellowJersey]

F

[Mihle]

Sad day.

[GDRRiley]

Sad to see the site close down but the Video team has moved onto a new site

 

[dizmo]

On 3/21/2023 at 12:18 PM, porina said:

Yes and no. With the proviso I've not used a current high end phone, I feel phones are mostly taking out the wide to standard use cases. The last high end phone I used was my old work iPhone 8 Plus, and I'm sure things have moved on a bit since then.

 

When not on a high end phone, photos do become a lot more challenging. I have a mid range Xiaomi. Lack of OS means it often struggles in lower light compared to iPhones and Pixel devices. 

 

I'm probably biased since I used to do wildlife, I don't know if I had the latest iPhone could I get close to that? I didn't go for stupid long lenses either, typically up to 400mm zooms. You could say this is a niche, and I'd agree. It isn't needed by the masses, but this type of application will take a more radical approach to phone imaging.

 

I was surprised when using a Pixel 3a to attempt astrophotography, it seemed to be using techniques like stacking without the user understanding it to enhance the image. Actually, why was I surprised? Phones seem to use stacking even for "normal" (low light) shots, leaning to interesting attempts at recovery if the subject moves.

I mean, you have Samsung doing pretty crazy stuff with 100x zoom. It'll only be a matter of time before that gets to a more usable level.

You are right though, you're taking a pretty niche use case; most people with DSLRs aren't using them for super long shots

[porina]

6 hours ago, dizmo said:

I mean, you have Samsung doing pretty crazy stuff with 100x zoom. It'll only be a matter of time before that gets to a more usable level.

Without experience of a modern phone I wonder how usable it is at all. Is it more like "digital zoom" which is upscaling for you?

 

6 hours ago, dizmo said:

You are right though, you're taking a pretty niche use case; most people with DSLRs aren't using them for super long shots

I meant that longer lenses were niche in general photography, but I wouldn't consider it niche for ILC photography. What are the use cases for using a serious camera over a phone?

 

"Quality", or accuracy? Photographer chooses what processing is done

Optical effects, as opposed to faking it in software if even possible e.g. telecentric, fisheye, tilt-shift

"Long zoom" - well, long focal length, as many long lenses are not zoom at all. This may cover things like sports and events, wildlife, papparazzi

Non-visual imaging (IR, UV)

User experience, e.g. handling, control, especially responsiveness

 

When I used to be active in the tail end of DSLR era, it was common for people starting to have a 55-250 or 70-300 in their kit as they're affordable and give a decent amount of reach. They wont be used by everyone all the time, but they certainly weren't niche.

[ToboRobot]

This stage of Amazon feels more like MS, Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

[Dom1252]

can we write open source tool to compare cameras and make it public somewhere? like make page under LTT lab? I'd try to write something, but we need database of images, I think Linus can provide that (and if someone manages to pull all data from dpreview that would be epic) 

 

making it open source would mean if the host changes their mind, anyone could pick up

 

I'm thinking tools like dpreview had, where you can compare different sensors at different ISOs side by side