Amazon snaps up Digital Photography Review

Amazon.com announced on Monday that it has acquired Digital Photography Review, also known as Dpreview.com, a London-based site that specializes in reviews, information, news and discussion forums pertaining to the digital-camera market. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Jeff Bezos, the online megaretailer's founder and CEO, said in a statement that Digital Photography Review is "by far the most authoritative source anywhere for straight talk about new digital cameras." Dpreview, which was founded in 1998 as a hobby by Phil Askey and, according to the site, now employs several other editors, plans to continue to operate independently. Amazon has not otherwise stated specific plans for its new purchase.

[verucabong]

What about Steve's Digicams?

I'd say Steve's Digicams is just as good (if not better) than DP Review. DP Review's not really the authoritative source if you ask me...

[chibimike]

Different target audiences

Steve's is a fine site but is more geared to beginners and casual users. It was my site of choice when I just got into digital photography.

DPReview has much more technical, in-depth reviews that cover subjects that serious amateurs and professionals prefer.

[tdlucas]

Just great

There goes DPReview, down the tubes.
I loved that site. Now it's gonna be
biased and full BS. Stupid Amazon,
they should stick to selling things.

[songzhuang]

It is great, Amazon is focused

I would submit to you that this is exactly waht Amazon has done - stuck to selling things. They are turning to authorities in the field (like dpreview) for the reviews. I love dpreview and will continue to do so as long as they let the crew do their thing.

[aaydogan]

DPReview.com: Comprehensive, but Biased

I've used dpreview.com for years and found Phil's coverage of
the digital photography industry to exhaustive and
comprehensive. In his reviews, though, I have always detected
what I feel is a bias towards Nikon and Canon and against Fuji in
one critical area: flesh tone reproduction. In virtually every
review of a Canon or Nikon product, the sample photos almost
never contain any humans, just scenery or objects. Yet, almost
every Fuji camera review contains multiple images of humans.
As a portrait photographer, the reproduciton of skin tone is a
critical factor in my choice of eqiupment. Canon cameras,
especially at the very high end of the line have terrible skin tone
reproduction and require extensive post production
manipulation. In general, even cheap Fuji "pocket" cameras do a
better job. I wish that Phil's otherwise excellent reviews
reflected this information.

Congratulations to Phil for successfully turning a hobby into a
lucrative sale.