After 25 years: Amazon shuts down DPreview
DPreview, a website popular for its camera reviews, will be closed April 10, 2023. Authors and photographers can request a copy of their data.
Screenshot of DPreview's homepage on the day of the announcement. (Image: DPreview.com, Screenshot: Heise Online)
(Bild: DPreview.com, Screenshot: Heise Online)
- Nico Ernst
(This article is also available in German)
The camera website DPreview is dead – at least that's what it looks like so far. On the evening of March 21, 2023 (German time), the website published a short message and a farewell video on YouTube. According to the message, the site will not be updated after April 10, 2023; until then, new articles, which the team is already working on, will be published, writes CEO Scott Everett.
He explicitly states that the closure is part of Amazon.com's annual operational planning. Everett links to a statement by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, which, however, makes no mention of the site's closure. Amazon, like many tech companies, is in the midst of another round of layoffs.
Amazon acquired the website, which was founded in the UK in 1998 as "Digital Photography Review", in 2007, and apparently never understood how to monetize it. As Techchrunch notes, Amazon never managed to successfully integrate the platform into its corporate structure; DPReview is said to have operated largely independently. There was even speculation that Amazon had forgotten that it owned DPReview.
Excellent tests
For photo enthusiasts, this is incomprehensible. After all, despite the general decline in camera sales due to the success of smartphones, DPreview remained one of the best sources for thorough and critical reviews. This includes comparison images, where one can access stills taken with the tested devices at different ISO settings across several camera generations. No other online medium offers such a comprehensive service, and it can't be replicated in magazines or videos - especially since the images can also be downloaded in their original form.
The test images from the testers' home area were nothing short of classic. Although the headquarters moved from London to Seattle in 2010 – close to Amazon's headquarters – the quality of the images of everyday scenes in a port city remained the same. The editorial team and its freelancers did what amateurs and professionals do with new equipment: They went out on their own doorsteps and photographed what they knew well. This shows capabilities of the new hardware at its best.
Fast but thorough
DPreview gained such an outstanding reputation with manufacturers of cameras, lenses and other accessories, that the first reviews of pre-production models often appeared on the same day as the models were unveiled. The production models were then subjected to meticulous testing, including the aforementioned stills and data. This takes many hours of work, photography, writing and online preparation – and it costs money.
It seems that Amazon never understood its service to the photo community. The discontinuation also affects the Youtube channel with 410,000 subscribers; its hosts bid farewell with a sarcastically entertaining clip.
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The authors consider their community, which has been very active in the forums of the site, until the very end. Those who have an account with DPreview can use this link to request an archive of their data for download until April 6, 2023. After that, Everett writes, such requests will no longer be honored. No new content will be posted after April 10, 2023. The website, including the forum, will only be available "for a limited time" after that, says Everett, without providing a specific date. (keh)
