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DPReview.com to close

dpreview.com

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Re: DPReview.com to close

#131

Post by bentcorner »

PaulHoule wrote: post #63
asdff wrote: post #48

Earlier 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…

Honestly though, video walkthroughs are an improvement (navigation aside). It's hard to describe a situation entirely via text, and having that plus a short video showing the exact situation (e.g., finding a collectible in a weird location, strategy for defeating a boss, etc.) makes things so much clearer.

I've had instances where a walkthrough with pictures still wasn't enough and had to find a video showing me something and it only became clear after that.

I recall as a kid that the Zelda OOT water temple was nearly impossible to navigate with a gamefaqs guide. Video back then would have been so much easier.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#132

Post by nunez »

calme_toi wrote: post #69

It's my go-to site before buying any camera related stuff. But I guess it's not making any money for Amazon. Do you know what kind of website would make money? The buzzfeed style equipments websites. Those full of lists of top 10 best vlog/instagram cameras/tripods. Each item on the list starts with some affiliated links, beneath them are some bullets of pros cons, and every couple of graphs there is a google ads. I…

That's what the people want.

Reading is a dying art. No time; everyone is too busy and the Internet is too vast. It's all about videos and twitter-sized text.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#133

Post by asdff »

foldr wrote: post #122
asdff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And of course, the dslr looks perfect in perfect light too. You can do things that make your images even better with dslrs since you have access to the raw files and complete control over exposure. You can underexpose for a night scene to not blow up highlights and shoot at lower noise or at a shutter speed you can hand hold without blur (depends on your current focal length), then pull up the exposure only on the sh…

You can easily shoot RAW with manual control over exposure (and even focus) on an iPhone with Halide or other third party apps. Aperture is fixed, of course.

IMO if a third party app has to bring the feature its not really a part of the phone. Apps come and go. Plus apps like halide are paid so you could think of it as a tax to get to actually use some of the hardware you purchased.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#134

Post by greendave »

Looks like the Amazon acquisition finally caught up. Sad, as DPR was a great resource and had an interesting community, at least until about 7 years ago when they started leaning in more to video content and less into deeply-technical reviews and discussions.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#135

Post by TheRealPomax »

blagie wrote: post #120
TheRealPomax wrote: post #94

I 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.

Small note: this doesn't reflect on Amazon. Barely anyone knew Amazon owns them, and once the site's gone, no one who didn't use dpreview will look unfavourably at Amazon for it. This was a great website that most of the world didn't use which is why Amazon can just pull the plug with literally no repercussions =(

Re: DPReview.com to close

#136

Post by PaulHoule »

asdff wrote: post #124
visarga wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's going to tell you exactly how to compose your pokemon team to beat a gym that doesn't exist in the game

My son made it all the way through one of the older games doing all the fighting with one Pokémon, developing others just to host skills like cut. I have been disappointed with recent fire Emblem titles because level trumps the weapons triangle.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#137

Post by BeetleB »

oktwtf wrote: post #38
fetus8 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're spot on, this is _THE_SITE for extremely detailed analysis of of cameras/lenses/etc. I have no idea what will end up filling the gap of losing something like this. I hope Chris and Jordan continue on their Youtube journey and make the content they've been making, but man, there's still a need for a detailed text based site with super indepth info about modern camera equipment. Such a bummer.

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

DP Review's reviews have the benefit that they use the same methodology, so comparing one camera with another was easy. For example, I can do side by side comparisons of how much noise there is at ISO 1600.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#138

Post by RobotToaster »

giobox wrote: post #9
ragona wrote: post #3

Dang, I'm actually surprisingly sad about this. DPReview is _the_ site for extremely detailed analysis of cameras. When I want to buy something I go through their report first, and it's always extremely informative. It feels like this kind of layoff is part of an end of an era. Amazon used to NEVER cancel projects that customers were using. They just straight up Did. Not. Do. It. I once had to get approval from my VP…

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…

I would've thought with everyone wanting to be youtubers camera sales would've picked up.

Re: DPReview.com to close

#139

Post by codersfocus »

codersfocus wrote: post #68
gannonburgett wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former DPReview News Editor (who left after getting news of this back on January 18th) here: There were 8-10 members of the editorial team that were full time and a small group of freelancers. Add in about 8-10 more devs, who cycled in and out for the most part. So, 15-18 people, tops. By my rough math once, our entire operating cost for the year was about 10-12 minutes worth of Amazon revenue.

Is it true that they're not going to sell the assets, and just shut everything down? If I had connections to an investment banker, I'd be trying to see if there's an in with Amazon...

It might be intentional then. Instead of having that content out there again where they will presumably have to pay affiliate commissions to the new owner, they must've calculated it's more profitable to just get rid of it.
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