from Hacker News

DPReview is being shut down by Amazon today

by elijahparker on 4/11/23, 3:39 AM with 72 comments

• by merricksb on 4/11/23, 11:18 AM

  Previous discussions:

  DPReview Will Remain Available as an Archive After It Closes – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35394758 – 124 points|4 days ago|8 comments

  DPReview’s Founder Blasts Amazon’s CEO: ‘What a Waste’ – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35455797 – 208 points|6 days ago|123 comments

  DPReview is being archived by the Archive Team – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35263635 – 478 points|20 days ago|71 comments

  DPReview.com to close – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35248296 – 845 points|21 days ago|369 comments

• by jeswin on 4/11/23, 9:01 AM

  For a $1T org like Amazon, these are distractions. Even trying to transfer it is a distraction; it wouldn't move the revenue needle. It makes sense.

  I mean, it makes a lot of sense when one doesn't value the importance of preserving culture. DP Review forums were the entire history of Digital Photography - millions of posts from the early days when everyone was skeptical of digital cameras, to the modern age when film is somewhat a niche hobby. The suits who made the decision to pull the plug probably never participated in communities.

  It makes me sad to see a part of our shared culture destroyed like this. Reminds of me of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban; this time because some people have no taste.

• by mg on 4/11/23, 7:12 AM

  Some years ago, I accidentally got into the camera comparison game.

  It started with this Show HN about a weekend project which displays flashdrives on a scatterplot:

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7465980

  Over time, I made the chart interactive (so one can filter by specs) and extended it to phones, monitors, tablets, 3D-Printers, MP3-Players, SSDs and also cameras:

  https://www.productchart.com/cameras/

  Not sure how much it can be a replacement for DPReview, which had much more in depth reviews. Open for feedback.

• by pabs3 on 4/11/23, 9:36 AM

  Apparently ArchiveTeam's Distributed Preservation of Service efforts downloaded 123 GB from this site, all of it will be going to archive.org.

  https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/DPReview https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/DPoS https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Warrior

• by zone411 on 4/11/23, 7:44 AM

  When Amazon shut down IMDb's film forums, I contacted them to see if they were interested in selling them to at least archive the content. They were not interested. It's sad to see them kill off another Internet fixture.

• by acherion on 4/11/23, 9:53 AM

  I'm not sure why digitalcameraworld.com has published this news. If you go to the DPreview home page, there is an article – https://www.dpreview.com/news/0507902613/dpreview-closure-an... – that the site will stay in archive mode (ie. read only mode).

  I've noticed, as an amateur photographer and a subscriber to a photography magazine masthead that Future Publishing produces (who are also the owners of digitalcameraworld.com) that the editors and storywriters there are really behind the 8-ball when it comes to timings of their "news" articles. Many of the things that they write are simply out of date by the time it's published on the site. This is just a classic example of that.

• by anuraaga on 4/11/23, 11:13 AM

  This article seems to not include the update, that it will remain as an archive (content is not lost forever) and there seems to still be some updates still coming (who knows, maybe the close will be reverted).

  It's unfortunate that this news seems to be captured only for bashing on Amazon or big tech, when it seems to be more interesting as the end of an era - cameras have been eaten by smartphones for almost all non-professionals, and this seems like a capstone to the camera era. Sad in terms of nostalgia but happy in terms of a reflection that tech advances forward. Pros should still do fine, an alternative will come, and maybe use newer tech like Discord or something. Seems like a great opportunity.

• by ulfw on 4/11/23, 11:09 AM

  And I will stop all camera, lens and accessories purchases from amazon from today. Very simple. No problemo. Shutting down a website I literally grew up with over 25 years to save a buck from a handful or two of salaries is ridiculous for a company with 1.6 Million employees.

• by born-jre on 4/11/23, 9:18 AM

  https://youtu.be/lh8Zdyy3zTQ?t=150

  Some people from DPReview were in WAN show in Linus Tech Tips channel if someone prefers video summary.

• by FeistySkink on 4/11/23, 10:26 AM

  I can't be the only one thinking that Goodreads is next.

• by darkstar_16 on 4/11/23, 7:30 AM

  Sad day. Used to love reading their in depth reviews.

• by cbeach on 4/11/23, 9:57 AM

  It's a sad day. I used to be an avid reader when I was into DSLRs ten years ago.

  My camera gear (Canon 5D Mk4, loads of lenses) has sat in a cupboard for years now.

  The iPhone is a decent replacement in most scenarios - lightweight, easy to use, waterproof and can instantly share to the cloud.

  I miss the DSLR for its telephoto and low-light capability, but the gear is too cumbersome to take with me, day-to-day.

• by 10729287 on 4/11/23, 7:33 AM

  Big loss and very sad news for the photo industry. Here in France there's only one website dedicated to photography remaining : phototrend.fr. Other ones are either dead, general tech mags not caring that much for photography, or paper mag lacking online presence.

• by aidog on 4/11/23, 7:16 AM

  Just accessed it 5 minutes ago and now it is gone with a 429 error

• by janeway on 4/11/23, 7:13 AM

  According to wikipedia it had 14 employees, and in 2007 had 7 million viewers per month. I wonder if Amazon wants to repurpose somehow or just jettison its less profitable arms?