Digital Photography Review website shutting down April 10

[Tom K]

The premier website for reviews of digital photography equipment, dpreview.com is shutting down April 10. Apparently Amazon (which bought the site about 15 years ago) is just too broke to keep it going.

This is a huge blow for anyone who is interested in current photographic equipment, software, and techniques. The site has a huge repository of equipment reviews, and their discussion forums have also been a valuable resource - much like here. To quote the movie Blade Runner, when the site shuts down, "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

Which raises the question, what will happen to this site when Lee Jarrett, for whatever reason, is no longer running things? Is there a plan of succession? Or do we just someday click on the bookmark in our browser and get a "404 - site not found" in return?

I've seen it said that once it's on the internet, it's out there forever. I'm beginning to doubt that.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

You might want to check out Ken Rockwell.
Little Kenny is kind of an Elmer Keith of Cameras.
Ken Rockwell's Camera and Lens Reviews

 

[LVSteve]

WOW!!! That is awful news. I've been a dpreview lurker since the early days when it was run by Phil Askey. It has a huge repository of camera and lens tests and charts the changes in consumer digital photography, both good and bad. If all that goes away it will be a sad loss.

 

[riverrat38]

Plus 1 for the Ken Rockwell site. I followed his advice for a nice camera, and have been very happy with it. A Fuji X100 S, just what I was looking for.

73,
Rick

 

[H Richard]

Does anyone know of a site of interest for "Vintage" camera's? 1890's to 1950's. Mostly folding bellows type, etc. I have a bunch I would like to sell, but I don't like to use E-bay.

 

[Onomea]

Maybe these guys will preserve the site? Wayback Machine - Wikipedia

 

[DWalt]

Insofar as I am concerned (Nikon) Ken Rockwell’s site supplies about all the information I have ever needed or will likely ever need.

 

[DWalt]

Does anyone know of a site of interest for "Vintage" camera's? 1890's to 1950's. Mostly folding bellows type, etc. I have a bunch I would like to sell, but I don't like to use E-bay.

Unless you have some really desirable rarities in tip top condition, not saying that you don’t, it is probably not worth the effort to attempt selling them. My experience is that there is very little market interest in vintage folder cameras And that also applies to film cameras in general, with several notable exceptions such as Rollei, Hasselblad, and Leica for which there is a sizable number of collectors. You might find someone who wants to use old folders as decor. That is about all they are good for. Just like darkroom equipment. I had to throw out all of my equipment, mostly very good stuff, because no one was interested in any of it at any price including free.

You could try listing what you have on your local Craigslist. I sold some old view and press-type folding cameras that way some years ago. Is Shutterbug still published? I doubt it as I believe all of the old photo publications have died off long ago.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Unless you have some really desirable rarities in tip top condition, not saying that you don’t, it is probably not worth the effort to attempt selling them. My experience is that there is very little market interest in vintage folder cameras And that also applies to film cameras in general, with several notable exceptions such as Rollei, Hasselblad, and Leica for which there is a sizable number of collectors. You might find someone who wants to use old folders as decor. That is about all they are good for. Just like darkroom equipment. I had to throw out all of my equipment, mostly very good stuff, because no one was interested in any of it at any price including free.

You could try listing what you have on your local Craigslist. I sold some old view and press-type folding cameras that way some years ago. Is Shutterbug still published? I doubt it as I believe all of the old photo publications have died off long ago.

The users of obsolete equipment are not the best judges of values! The older your camera equip the more value it has a decorator stuff!

One of our companies Photographers traded in two large format Hasselblad on high end pro digital stuff. Two years later he bought those fairly modern cameras for $25 each as decor in his studio. The old billows/tripod jobbies were $150+ each! Around central we had mountains of them in camera shops, pretty worthless as cameras, but as Movie props etc. hard to find!

Ivan

 

[DWalt]

The users of obsolete equipment are not the best judges of values! The older your camera equip the more value it has a decorator stuff!

One of our companies Photographers traded in two large format Hasselblad on high end pro digital stuff. Two years later he bought those fairly modern cameras for $25 each as decor in his studio. The old billows/tripod jobbies were $150+ each! Around central we had mountains of them in camera shops, pretty worthless as cameras, but as Movie props etc. hard to find!

Ivan

I remember there used to be a big camera store in Columbus, Columbus Camera Exchange? Wonder if they survived the digital/cel phone onslaught? If you want a reality check as to where the value of old film cameras has gone, just go to eBay and see what used Nikon F Series 35mm cameras are selling for, if they sell at all. Until about ten years ago, I went to many estate and yard sales. Not unusual to find old roll film folders priced at $5 or less and no takers. Also old Polaroid cameras. One I had which I really liked back in the film days was a Zeiss Contessa, which was a folder. I have no idea where it went, probably into the garbage can. Sad, as it was perhaps the finest 35mm fixed lens rangefinder camera to come out of Germany during the 1950s. I also had three or four of the old Kodak Retina 35mm folders. They were also made in Germany. I didn’t use any of them much, and I sold them in the late 80s before digital became entrenched.

 

[pantannojack]

Sorry, I lost interest in photography when we went digital. What shall I do with my FM2n, Ftn, FE2, Pentax Spotmatic, 16mm Sigma? My D90 is so far superior, but boring. The magic is gone.

 

[DWalt]

I have two D90s, decent digital cameras for general use even today, but the movie function is nothing to write home about. The second D90 (body) I bought had fewer than 1000 clicks on it, and I think I paid around $90 for it off eBay, shipping included. One benefit of the D90 is that truly excellent Nikon kit lenses can be had dirt cheap. And so can those with a little better pedigree if you look for them. I bought two Nikon mount Sigma 28-70 f/2.8 lenses as a package deal from Goodwill, in nearly as-new condition, for around $50 - for both. And they appear to have excellent image quality. I don’t need two, but at that price, why not?

I had a Nikon Ftn and an F4 both of which I sold back when there was a market for them. I also had another Nikon SLR, the model of which I do not remember, but I believe an F60. It quit working and was not worth the cost of repairing it. So out it went.

 

[oldbrownhat]

The premier website for reviews of digital photography equipment, dpreview.com is shutting down April 10. Apparently Amazon (which bought the site about 15 years ago) is just too broke to keep it going. ...

I didn't know Amazon had bought it. That's bad news. I'm not into photography but found it really useful and detailed when I wanted to look something up.

Drat