Another one bites the dust

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

[MrSMW]

I think that once any company is sold to ‘portfolio management companies’ whose main intent is to try and make money from it but don’t really give a fig about who the user is, it’s a pretty quick downhill slide into oblivion.

[herein2020]

7 hours ago, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

Imaging Resource is gone (really), without announcement.

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/08/imaging-resource-is-now-offline-as-the-camera-website-shuts-its-doors/

Was my preferred, above DPReview.

The only good news is that cameras are so good these days and social media has reduced most forms of produced media to warranting barely more than a passing glance so no matter what camera you buy your biggest competitor will be the cell phone vs the camera you did not buy.

[kye]

6 hours ago, herein2020 said:

The only good news is that cameras are so good these days and social media has reduced most forms of produced media to warranting barely more than a passing glance so no matter what camera you buy your biggest competitor will be the cell phone vs the camera you did not buy.

Or so complicated that it's only Gerald that will tell you that when you're in a certain codec and connect a HDMI monitor then the eye-detect AF doesn't work any more.  That's a real example from the S5, and it was mentioned by others too, but I've seen heaps of gotchas like this that matter to people and no reviewers ever dug far enough to find them.

[Emanuel]

Looks like times are ending. Crazy world. Sad story.

[kye]

27 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

Looks like times are ending. Crazy world. Sad story.

I don't think so.

Most of the photography blog were just endlessly repeating "more resolution cameras, more resolution lenses, more resolution computers" but using different words over and over again.  The odd post of "15 things to do with a fisheye lens" disguised this myopia, but it was the water that the entire camera internet swam in, and still mostly is.

Now cameras have huge resolution and social-media can sustain the endless resolution-navel-gazing that people seem to want.  I think there's room for one or two blogs that discuss non-resolution-based-topics, but that assumes that the writers actually have enough knowledge of non-resolution-based-topics to keep a blog alive.  That's drastically fewer people than there were camera blogs, thus the "market correction" we're currently experiencing.

[Chxfgb]

I don't understand why they can't leave the website live and just stop updating it. Web hosting can be very cheap. They can leave affiliate links and ads to pay for the hosting. I have used the site many times when considering lenses and probably have clicked an affiliate price link, I expect the same applies to a big percentage of photographers and videographers.

[ntblowz]

Part of the camera history just gone like that

[Emanuel]

6 hours ago, kye said:

I don't think so.

I hope not, but it's sad to see anyway : (

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

2 hours ago, ntblowz said:

Part of the camera history just gone like that

Yep. Their comparometer image test, together with DPReview one, was one of the best ways to compare cameras.

[hyalinejim]

It's a pity to see it go. I used it from time to time for reviews and to check out RAW files from various cams.

Here are some other sites from the old days of the internet that I still use for researching contemporary and vintage lenses.

https://www.opticallimits.com/

https://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/

And for RAW files to mess around with:

https://www.signatureedits.com/free-raw-photos/

 

Any other interesting sites to add to this list? (before they all disappear and we're stuck watching gear reviews about what gear to buy to make a gear review... for eternity)

 

 

 

[newfoundmass]

This is really unfortunate.

DPReview seems to still be active. It's strange. They even posted a video (not by Chris & Jordan) on YouTube. 

[kye]

14 hours ago, Chxfgb said:

I don't understand why they can't leave the website live and just stop updating it. Web hosting can be very cheap. They can leave affiliate links and ads to pay for the hosting. I have used the site many times when considering lenses and probably have clicked an affiliate price link, I expect the same applies to a big percentage of photographers and videographers.

You've clearly never run a site or a business!

If you've never run a site then you'll have no idea how much effort goes into running it and maintaining it in the background.

Sites require constant maintenance as they are constantly under siege from spammers, hackers, new user requests etc.  Even if you disable comments and logins and all the Web 2.0 functionality you still need to update the software regularly or hackers will pWn your site and turn it into an ad for viagra or to support Putin.

That's the site, but to keep paying for it you need to have an active bank account and need to keep putting money in it.  That bank account was probably under a business name, and to keep that active you need to keep the business name active, which means filing tax returns and dealing with whatever other accounting and government tasks are required.

Did your business have anything else associated with it?  Offices, parking, permits?  You'll need to manage those things too.

The list is truly endless.  There's a good reason that social media sites like Medium or Wordpress or Facebook or YouTube are so popular - because maintaining your own platform is literally a full-time job.

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

Dave Etchells just wrote an article on PetaPixel telling the story of the closure of Imaging Resource. 

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/10/imaging-resource-founder-shares-the-tale-of-his-sites-untimely-demise/

[Davide DB]

20 hours ago, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

Dave Etchells just wrote an article on PetaPixel telling the story of the closure of Imaging Resource. 

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/10/imaging-resource-founder-shares-the-tale-of-his-sites-untimely-demise/

Sad story indeed

[herein2020]

On 5/10/2023 at 8:50 PM, kye said:

You've clearly never run a site or a business!

If you've never run a site then you'll have no idea how much effort goes into running it and maintaining it in the background.

Sites require constant maintenance as they are constantly under siege from spammers, hackers, new user requests etc.  Even if you disable comments and logins and all the Web 2.0 functionality you still need to update the software regularly or hackers will pWn your site and turn it into an ad for viagra or to support Putin.

That's the site, but to keep paying for it you need to have an active bank account and need to keep putting money in it.  That bank account was probably under a business name, and to keep that active you need to keep the business name active, which means filing tax returns and dealing with whatever other accounting and government tasks are required.

Did your business have anything else associated with it?  Offices, parking, permits?  You'll need to manage those things too.

The list is truly endless.  There's a good reason that social media sites like Medium or Wordpress or Facebook or YouTube are so popular - because maintaining your own platform is literally a full-time job.

 

@Chxfgb I agree 100% with @kye, I maintain my own website and some weeks I spend more time on it than actually shooting content. It needs updates nearly weekly, frequently the update will break something or change the look of something so I have to troubleshoot, Google changes their SEO algos so I have to try to keep up with that, the website needs to be backed up, backups need to be monitored to ensure they were successful, you have to monitor and renew your domain name before it expires, you have to monitor and renew your hosting plan before it expires, if you make one penny of revenue then state, local and feds govs all want to split that penny into non-equal parts while making sure that you get the smallest part of that parted penny, etc. etc. 

My site is relatively small, I can only imagine how much additional work would be needed for much larger sites. Also, the longer the site ran without new content the fewer visitors it would receive until it reached the point where the only ones viewing the content were the admins. Behind the scenes it was probably already close to being there anyway; the hardcore photography enthusiast demographic is exponentially shrinking and as it does sites like those will appeal less and less to whoever is left.

[John Matthews]

It looks like the imaging-resource.com is now being forwarded to https://www.outdoorphotographer.com.

I wasn't of that site before though. It looks like a lot of the content from imaging-resource is at the new site. I'm hoping I can find the lens review stuff as that was my favorite part about it.

[IronFilm]

On 5/10/2023 at 9:59 PM, Chxfgb said:

I don't understand why they can't leave the website live and just stop updating it. Web hosting can be very cheap. They can leave affiliate links and ads to pay for the hosting. I have used the site many times when considering lenses and probably have clicked an affiliate price link, I expect the same applies to a big percentage of photographers and videographers.

Ditto, I'm surprised that places such as DPR and IR didn't go for the option of simply archiving the website, and have it be static with no new content added. And just slap heaps of adds on it. It would surely be profitable. 

But I guess the profits would be so small (especially after a few short years, once it had declined and new traffic had dropped away due to no new updates) that it would merely be a rounding error on their accounting balance sheet. And the oversight management costs and the distraction it takes away from their core focus, means it isn't worth the few pennies to them to keep it running along on life support. 

  

On 5/12/2023 at 1:24 AM, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

Dave Etchells just wrote an article on PetaPixel telling the story of the closure of Imaging Resource. 

https://petapixel.com/2023/05/10/imaging-resource-founder-shares-the-tale-of-his-sites-untimely-demise/

I'm eagerly looking forward to DPReview's reporting on the closing of Imaging Resource. 

[Andrew Reid]

There isn't one reason for the decline in websites like DPR and IR, but clearly the ad money has shifted to TikTok and YouTube social media influencers, and away from written articles so that is a big reason. The jazz media company that bought the magazine company that Dave sold IR to back in 2019, saw no worthwhile profit in IR's books.

Not only are these sites predominantly about written articles, they are about a subject that is fast turning into a niche.

Smartphone cameras are mainstream as we all know, and that means proper cameras are now about as mainstream as cassette tapes.

I think AI will accelerate this retreat even further.

The other general trend is that both DPR and IR were not ideal from a content point of view, it was often like reading advertising copy, as is the case with so much in the camera world in 2023. There is a lack of drama, a lack of true insight, it has all become a bit dry.

The camera companies should be really worried about these two canaries in a coal mine and they won't be the last to die. It points to the fact that the camera industry should probably do something to stop the rot and support the remaining sites.

Sadly they won't.

[Anaconda_]

@Andrew Reid - as an independent blog / site, how do you feel about the future of eoshd?

Of course, I don't know the ins and outs, and maybe I've got things a bit twisted, please correct me. However, if being honest about cameras meant companies stopped inviting you to events and launches, but being advertising copy has lead the others to fail and close down, does that put you and this site in a better position with manufacturers?