Amazon will shut down DPReview on April 10, 2023. Content will go read only until they eventually take it offline.

It seems odd that they did not seek a buyer for the tremendous resource that exists in their body of camera and lens reviews, and especially the content in their forums for all different types of cameras. There is real value in all that data.

Perhaps someone will persuade them to sell it.

I wonder if it is being sold because camera sales have fallen so much in recent years. The point and shoot camera category has been replaced with the smart phone. Camera makers have mostly concentrated on higher end, more expensive pro or semi-pro cameras with interchangeable lenses.

But even sales there have been lackluster compared to the past.

What if Amazon – from their inside sales data – finds that higher end camera sales are sagging? With that knowledge (if that is what they have), they may no longer see DPReview.com leading to more camera and gear sales on Amazon.

I’m concerned about that possibility – is the era of “real cameras” coming to an end?

Coldstreams