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After 25 years of extraordinarily detailed evaluations of digital cameras and equipment, the irreplaceable DPReview is being shut down by Amazon as the corporate proceeds with a brand new spherical of layoffs.
DPReview was based in 1998 in England, and purchased by Amazon in 2007, which in 2010 relocated the group to Seattle to be nearer to its headquarters; I’ve met lots of them through the years as they settled in and round my neighborhood.
The group’s data, acumen and in depth goal testing contributed to evaluations that famously reached near-comical lengths at instances, however that was as a result of shortcuts merely weren’t taken: You may make certain that even minor fashions had been getting not only a honest shake, however the identical therapy a flagship mannequin acquired. Its again catalog of digicam evaluations and specs is an unbelievable useful resource that I’ve consulted lots of of instances. (I truly did a bit freelance work for them myself 10 years again however since then they’ve merely been my valued media friends.)
This consistency and dedication drew and retained a big and devoted group, one which produced remark threads thousands-strong on evaluations and information gadgets as they quibbled good-naturedly (and testily too, it have to be mentioned) with one another and the employees over sharpness and equivalency and the deserves of 1 sensor association or one other.
After all cameras themselves have risen and fallen in favor as they’ve vied with smartphones for imaging dominance — and, when it comes to reputation, misplaced. However whereas far fewer persons are shopping for standalone digital cameras in 2023 than they had been in 2013, or for that matter 2003, the fanatic {and professional} market stays sturdy and the cameras themselves have gotten extremely good. There’s by no means been a greater time to purchase a digicam — and there has by no means been, nor do I think about there’ll ever be, a greater website that can assist you select one than DPReview.
By some means Amazon by no means actually discovered a method to capitalize on this one-of-a-kind asset, and DPReview has carried on through the years roughly untouched, to the purpose the place it appears potential its father or mother firm forgot they owned them. It’s laborious to not see the alternatives that current themselves whenever you personal one of many world’s main professional voices on a serious class, however maybe unsurprisingly, nobody thought to put money into and combine DPReview carefully with Amazon’s different properties. It isn’t the primary time the left hand and proper hand have been incommunicado at that firm.
The group was laid off in its entirety as a part of the most recent spherical of cuts at Amazon, which like different corporations has been tightening its belt — or, maybe additionally like different corporations, utilizing the excuse of macroeconomic headwinds to carry out reductions that at another time would appear pointless.
DPReview is hardly the primary media property to get the axe throughout these turbulent instances, however it’s absolutely one of many oldest and most original. Right here’s hoping the gifted and educated group lands on their ft, and Amazon involves remorse its choice.
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