Is the digital photo craze dead? DPReview.com shutting down.

[Sharktooth]

I'm going to miss the review videos by Chris and Jordan. They're a lot more entertaining than the usual dry videos you see elsewhere.

 

[Sharktooth]

After a brief search, I found that Chris and Jordan are moving to PetaPixel.

Chris and Jordan moving to PetaPixel

 

[Richard Man]

And one day, Photrio / APUG too shall retire to the big tub of fixer in the sky. Nowadays most photo sites are used for "search for historical info" anyway.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

The DPreview videos on YouTube are in no way the worst offenders, but I have found too many channels on that site are focused on 'why I switched to Nikon / Canon / Fuji etc. and why you should feel concerned about this as well' - ignoring the possibility that it is perfectly reasonable to own equipment from more than one brand.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

My thoughts exactly. It's the camera you always carry and it's very, very capable. You can even shoot raw if you wish to get the best possible results. And yes, if only one could get more focal lengths apart from the standard wide angle one.

The new cellphones have the normal wide angle, extra wide angle and telephoto.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I'm going to miss the review videos by Chris and Jordan. They're a lot more entertaining than the usual dry videos you see elsewhere.

They've moved to PetaPixel.

 

[Rolleiflexible]

I used to paint back in the day. Mixed my own colors from the juices of fruits, vegetables, crushed rocks and vanquished foes.
But thankfully gave up all that nonsense when film photography was invented. Now I can happily make 36 portraits in less time than it takes those hipster painters to select a brush.
Painting? Don’t miss it.

And with AI, who needs a camera?

 

[Anon Ymous]

The new cellphones have the normal wide angle, extra wide angle and telephoto.

Mine has wide, ultrawide and macro. I'd trade the ultrawide and macro for a tele, with decent resolution.

 

[BrianShaw]

After a brief search, I found that Chris and Jordan are moving to PetaPixel.

Chris and Jordan moving to PetaPixel

Well that’s great news! Especially for PetaPixel…

 

[TJones]

Mine has wide, ultrawide and macro. I'd trade the ultrawide and macro for a tele, with decent resolution.

The iPhone 14 Pro includes a 2x tele lens.

 

[VinceInMT]

All crazes die, which is great, because it clears the field for long term ruminators.

That all crazes die is a good thing, otherwise we’d still have disco and guys wearing leisure suits.

 

[Anon Ymous]

The iPhone 14 Pro includes a 2x tele lens.

And an eye watering price tag. I'm using a very modest Xiaomi smartphone at the ~200€ price range.

 

[Pieter12]

That all crazes die is a good thing, otherwise we’d still have disco and guys wearing leisure suits.

And carrying flip phones and shooting film with point and shoot cameras. Oh, that's what hipsters do.

 

[VinceInMT]

And carrying flip phones and shooting film with point and shoot cameras. Oh, that's what hipsters do.

I don’t know but I was referred to as a hipster because I shoot film and drive an ‘83 Volvo 240. Who knew that after 70 years I’d finally be hip at something.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

If you include cell phones in this debate, there is no debate. Check out the video below (which charts annual sales starting in 1951) that kind of sticks a fork in it:



Should add...the only thing I use my cell phone camera for is labels and prices while shopping, for later reference.

 

[jp498]

Of course expensive digi cameras are mature now...

The other human-interest, non-review articles seemed like low quality filler. Petapixel is barely better.

 

[madsox]

Well, that's disappointing. But not too surprising, as others have noted - the growth of digital cameras (actual cameras, separate from phones, etc.) has certainly followed a progression down to an almost complete stop now.

Where will I find my comparison reviews of obscure old cameras now?!? And lenses and such, I've actually gotten a lot of useful knowledge from DPReview over the years.

 

[BradS]

If you include cell phones in this debate, there is no debate. Check out the video below (which charts annual sales starting in 1951) that kind of sticks a fork in it:

WOW! Thanks.

 

[Huss]

And with AI, who needs a camera?

Correction - and with AI, who needs a digital camera?

 

[Huss]

Places like Amazon buy all sorts of companies only to then shut them down because they are not "core" business. It wasn't when you bought so...duh.

Amazon also ruined Whole Foods. Just turned it into another supermarket. While it was expensive as the original Whole Foods, it had amazing delis, incredible selections of foods, and my old Venice location had a wine bar where they would also cook up whatever you bought from the meat or fish counters, they had so many small food stalls. It really was great.
Now it is just jammed w their own label pre-packaged stuff, and booze.

 

[Sharktooth]

Mike Eckman had an interesting posting on his site today. He was lamenting the loss of historical data when web sites close down. This will likely be an unfortunate side effect of the dpreview site closing. Whether you liked the site, or not, there is/was a lot of useful historical information there, and it all could easily disappear in the blink of an eye.

Mike Eckman on loss of historical data with dpreview shutdown

 

[madsox]

Amazon also ruined Whole Foods. Just turned it into another supermarket. While it was expensive as the original Whole Foods, it had amazing delis, incredible selections of foods, and my old Venice location had a wine bar where they would also cook up whatever you bought from the meat or fish counters, they had so many small food stalls. It really was great.
Now it is just jammed w their own label pre-packaged stuff, and booze.

Oh, don't get me started on Amazon. I loathe Amazon, and not just because AWS is "the competition".

Mike Eckman had an interesting posting on his site today. He was lamenting the loss of historical data when web sites close down. This will likely be an unfortunate side effect of the dpreview site closing. Whether you liked the site, or not, there is/was a lot of useful historical information there, and it all could easily disappear in the blink of an eye.

I'm going to go read this. And that's another thing I often lament as the Internet gets eaten up and reconstructed/deconstructed by larger and larger corporate interests - the tribal knowledge we old timers have built up over 40+ years is discarded, the remnants locked away in pay-per-view vaults and all the relationships and intangibles are just dropped like packets in a bitstorm.

 

[Moose22]

I'm going to go read this. And that's another thing I often lament as the Internet gets eaten up and reconstructed/deconstructed by larger and larger corporate interests - the tribal knowledge we old timers have built up over 40+ years is discarded, the remnants locked away in pay-per-view vaults and all the relationships and intangibles are just dropped like packets in a bitstorm.

Feature, not a bug.

That's just the way it is with the giants. They want to silo off what was originally an open ecosystem so they can be the gatekeepers of... well, everything. More data to slurp, more advertising to sell, and blogs and forums like it was 10 or 15 years ago just get in the way of that.

I totally agree about the loss of tribal knowledge. And I prefer not to deal with the googles and the facebooks. It is one of the reasons I participate here, in an old school forum, as opposed to the larger corporate silos.

Anyway, it is disappointing to see DP Review's loss from a historical reference standpoint. I don't think wayback machine is the same as an actively hosted site.

I'd love to know the precise reasoning behind it, whether it is because Amazon doesn't see enough ad revenue, or (my guess) they're not predicting enough photography related sales to make it worth carrying as a surveillance device? I'm pretty sure a good portion of what I see advertised on the amazon is affiliate stuff. Often Adorama, for one I recognize. We likely never will, though, as decisions of a corporate nature are driven by tons of hidden factors like internal politics and not just the bottom line.

 

[Sean]

I think planned obsolescence is getting harder and harder for many tech companies. For most people, we have enough computing power and image-taking resolution that a yearly upgrade has been pointless for many years now. I recently purchased an M1 MacBook air for biz, photo and web stuff. I can't fault it and everything is instant no matter what I throw at it. Now they talk about the M3 chip about to come out, well I think I'm set for at least 5yrs or until this M1 breaks. I have been using a Fujifilm XT-3, and I would never need more than what this cam does, so will likely use it until it dies. Seeing as arcade machines from the 1980s are still going, I think there is a good chance I'll get 15+yrs out of it at least, and now they are already pushing the XT-5. Tech seems close to being wholly dependent on 1st-time users, which must be a dwindling market?

 

[mshchem]

Sad to see all the information lost. I have photo magazines from 30 years ago that I use to shop on the internet.

Niccolls frequently shoots candids of his kids, cute as can be. He does a good job. Hopefully this continues. I've never got involved on their forums which are out of control