This is so ffffing sad to read. I've only recently become an active user of the forum, as it's the last island of active Samsung NX mirrorless camera users (some of which run Linux), and it was really great to have a polite and civil discourse with other nerds sharing the hobby.
DPReview.com to close
111–120 of 387 posts
Re: DPReview.com to close
#112This is incredible.
Have we really come to an era where so few people care about cameras and taking good pictures that it warrants a shutdown of _the_ camera review site?
Re: DPReview.com to close
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do think times have changed though, DPReviews fortunes arguably have mirrored the fortunes of the ILC (interchangeable lens camera) market. The site (along with flickr.com...) was a daily visit for me 15 years ago at the height of the DSLR boom, but I honestly now can't remember the last time I checked. ILC/DSLR annual sales volume peaked in ~2010 I believe, and has rapidly declined ever since really, another victi…
Gloomy prediction: based on Samsung Moongate, the next logical step after the smartphone camera replacing the DSLR is AI replacing the smartphone camera. Or at least substituting for underlying camera quality. Take a 10MP image and have the AI fill in the detail. Or remove detail (see the google advert for editing people out of your holiday photos). Or put in some detail that wasn't there.
While I agree that ML-based image-enhancement and photography/videography assist at capture time will continue to offer highly useful capabilities, I don't agree when that argument is used to support the separate contention that mobile imaging will make larger format ILC/DSLR imaging irrelevant. The reason is that ML (and computational photography in general) is fundamental tech that can improve all categories of imaging. It's a metaphorical tide that lifts all boats equally from pro battleships and tankers to hobbyist racing sloops and yachts to consumer speedboats and jet skis.
(note: I'm setting aside the current misguided one-click "make it better" AI features as a temporary aberration that the marketplace of consumer tastes will correct. There's already backlash emerging around over-enhanced AI images on social media.)
Re: DPReview.com to close
#114Lots of people here saying they used to visit this site regularly. I'm curious as to what they got out of it (some people say they used to visit the site daily). I can see the value when you're looking to buy a camera, and reading reviews makes sense to me in that very narrow context. Besides that, why visit a camera review site daily? How frequently were people buying cameras? Professional photographers, sure, I can see the appeal.
Re: DPReview.com to close
#115I used to visit this site a great deal but I haven't been there in years. I don't even know how many years. Other than generally Amazon doing layoffs my guess is interest in equipment that they talk about has dropped greatly and specifically because of smartphone cameras (Iphone in particular in my case). I have an expensive Sony Camera (several thousand for the body with a $2000 lens and other lenses) and haven't us…
The thing with this website is that it is one of those leave it until you need it situations. 10 years ago or so I was in the market for a new digital camera, and used their site heavily during that search. Of course, being a prosumer camera, it still takes great photos 10 years later, so I haven't been in the market.
There was a time where upgrading your digital camera constantly was necessary, because sensors at the time struggled in low light and you saw some really big gains for a while especially in the entry level. That said, even a 2005 5dmk1 is still a great camera today as elderly as it is compared to any other piece of consumer technology, and blowing up its 12 mega pixels into a huge print down the side of a building will probably still look a lot better than doing the same with a new phone with twice as many pixels. Having pro cameras last a long time of course hurts sites that favor a customer base that is constantly changing gear and checking in.
Re: DPReview.com to close
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I agree that there is some valuable content on the site, there are certainly others to fill in the spots... You want detailed look into equipment? Checkout Ken Rockwell's site[0], or byThom[1] [0]: https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/reviews.htm [1]: https://bythom.com/reviews--books/index.html
Sites like these are also dying breeds with their days numbered. Informationally dense, text and figure, lightweight websites are not being made anymore. Sites like dpreview or Ken Rockwell are pretty clearly holdovers from days long gone and sensibilities long abandoned. Today, all that information that could be read in 5 minutes on dpreview is drip fed to you in video form from a gesticulating talking head, over 25…
Cue "it's all so tiresome" from Empire of Dust
Re: DPReview.com to close
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sites like these are also dying breeds with their days numbered. Informationally dense, text and figure, lightweight websites are not being made anymore. Sites like dpreview or Ken Rockwell are pretty clearly holdovers from days long gone and sensibilities long abandoned. Today, all that information that could be read in 5 minutes on dpreview is drip fed to you in video form from a gesticulating talking head, over 25…
I think of how video game walkthroughs have gone this way. It used to be you'd find exhaustive 300k text explanations of everything in a game. Now there is a "let's play" video that goes on for 40 hours, you have to find the right video to watch, then seek to the right place in that video, it's exhausting. The one case I found the video was better was in a certain level where the way forward was to make a jump that d…
Try the GPTs they might know the game tricks and adapt to your specifics without search, of course if the info is prior to 2021.
Re: DPReview.com to close
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gloomy prediction: based on Samsung Moongate, the next logical step after the smartphone camera replacing the DSLR is AI replacing the smartphone camera. Or at least substituting for underlying camera quality. Take a 10MP image and have the AI fill in the detail. Or remove detail (see the google advert for editing people out of your holiday photos). Or put in some detail that wasn't there.
Smartphone photos are already heavily ML-processed, with actual details and colors being replaced by what the model thinks looks best. The moon thing was just the most blatant example.
I haven’t noticed any invented details or colors in smartphone photos that I’ve taken myself. Most of the claims of this that I’ve seen online are not very convincing. Of course you sometimes get artifacts from sharpening and de-Bayering, but those can occur with any digital camera.
Re: DPReview.com to close
#119Sad news. I've never bought a digital camera without first checking that website. Invaluable resource. I've been following their youtube channel as well for a few years as well and they just did an episode on this: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLikDUacsC8 This does make you wonder if this was the only possible outcome for Amazon or whether they are just too indifferent/lazy to make an effort to sell this to some…
Probably it was all to report reduction in headcount.
Re: DPReview.com to close
#120I assume a full site mirror will be submitted to the @internetarchive? Because it would be insane to pull 25 years of detailed information that cannot easily be found elsewhere off the internet just because your dad doesn't want you living at home anymore.
Probably not. This is an incredible knee jerk. It's closing with 2-3 weeks notice.
This does not reflect well on Amazon. This could be sold, spun out, archived, given back to the founders, or many other things. 20 days is not enough time to do anything worthwhile, though.