DPReview archive remains online after editorial team closes

Samuel Buchmann

11.4.2023

Translation: machine translated

The news and test portal DPReview had to close its doors on 10 April. However, the website will remain accessible and a few more articles will be added.

The website of "Digital Photography Review" (DPReview) will remain open even after the closure of the editorial team. This was announced by managing director Scott Everett in a short message. He also announced that his team would still be publishing some content in the near future, even though the portal was officially closed on 10 April. Users will probably also have a little longer to download their images and texts from the forums - although it is not clear from the announcement exactly until when.

Two weeks ago, the parent company Amazon surprisingly announced the closure of DPReview. The website was founded 25 years ago. It was probably the world's most renowned trade magazine for test reports and news relating to photography and video. Initially, it was not clear what would happen to the extensive archive of articles and forum posts after 10 April. The fact that these will not disappear has therefore caused a sigh of relief in the photo community.

The portal's archive contains countless camera test reports. DPReview is the only trade magazine to test sensors, among other things, using a scientific approach: The editorial team photographed the same Studio-Szene mit verschiedenen Einstellungen. On the one hand, the results were included in the ratings of the reviews. On the other hand, readers were also able to compare the images from different models themselves. This made it possible to compare the image quality of new cameras directly with freely selectable references.

The standardised test scene changed over the years. However, the last version remained unchanged for almost ten years. It consisted of various photos of people with different skin tones, test patterns and colours as well as objects with very fine structures. The database of the last scene comprises 296 cameras. The fact that these existing test shots remain accessible is a relief - but the fact that no new ones are being added is still a bitter loss for camera nerds. <p

Samuel Buchmann

Senior Editor

Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.ch

My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.