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Swiss lens manufacturer Irix has announced its lens lineup is completely compatible with Canon EOS R cameras when attached using Canon’s EF to EOS R adapter.
In an announcement post on its website, Irix says ‘it is possible to control the aperture from the camera’ and notes that all metadata is transferred properly from the lens to the camera including focusing distance and other exposure details.
Irix specifically mentions its 11mm F4, 15mm F2.4 and 150mm F2.8 1:1 Macro lenses.
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There’s plenty in this world that we’re not sure about (Peas in guacamole? The resurgence of 90’s fashion trends? Pineapple on pizza??) but one thing we’re certain of: a few companies, many of which are headquartered in Japan, will produce new cameras, lenses and photographic accessories in 2019. And just like every year, some will be great, some will be OK, and one or two will be crushingly dull.
Thanks to some early product development announcements we already know a little of what the next year holds in store, but much remains a mystery. We can only guess what the next 12 months will bring – guess, hope, and play backseat camera engineer.
In the spirit of New Years’ resolutions, we got together as a team and talked about what we’d like the major manufacturers to do next year. Things we want to see fixed, directions we’d like to see taken (plus some we’d like to see reversed…) and products we’d like to be released. So without further ado, here are our collected New Years’ resolutions, on behalf of the manufacturers, courtesy of DPReview. Call it wishful thinking.
Feel free to play along at home via the comments.
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Oh, Canon – where should we start? You’re one of the biggest camera manufacturers in the industry, but you’re still among the most conservative. This year you’ve teased us with a range of superb new RF lenses, but we’re really hoping that 2019 brings a slightly higher-end camera to shoot them with. But even as you build out the RF lineup, we hope you don’t neglect EF-M. An M50 successor with un-cropped 4K would be lovely – pretty please?
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Fujifilm, you’re the darling of camera reviewers everywhere. You’re one of the few brands that, from time to time, still makes products which are better than they need to be in order to be competitive. The X-T2 was a great camera, and you didn’t need to replace it, but you went and did it anyway! The X-T3 was one of our favorite cameras of 2018. It almost made up for the ‘4K capable’ X-A5… But we’re still hoping for more in 2019.
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Let’s be honest, Leica – this is pointless. It doesn’t matter what we want, or what we say, or what anyone wants or says, you’re Leica! You’ll just continue to do whatever you want, and there’s every chance that in a few weeks’ time we’ll find ourselves reviewing a limited edition ping-pong-bat-rubber-clad Melania Trump signature-edition M10. And that’s why we love you.
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Nikon, you’re getting there. You launched the Z-mount with a bang in 2018, but despite its high-end pricing you must have known that the flagship Z7 wouldn’t be quite enough to tempt professionals and enthusiasts away from their D850 and D5 bodies. Don’t let the haters get you down, though. Keep up the pace and turn the Z mount into the professional system that we know it can be. We’re rooting for you.
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Olympus – we feel for you. You were among the first manufacturers to create a modern mirrorless camera, and now, a decade on, you’re the only brand that doesn’t (or isn’t preparing to) offer its customers a full-frame sensor. We know that it’s been a tough few years for you guys over in the camera division but we’ve got a few ideas for how you can disrupt things in 2019 and beyond.
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As you prepare to enter the full-frame market in a few months, we can only imagine that things are pretty hectic in your Osaka headquarters right now. Hopefully you’re not working the engineers too hard, and they get a little downtime to read DPReview, because we’ve got some suggestions that we think might really help Panasonic out in 2019.
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Pentax, we need to be careful what we say here…
We admire your loyal customer base, and we respect the way that many of them react to anything short of uncritically gushing praise for their favorite camera maker with… let’s say… passion. But we’re also terrified of them. For the record, we like a lot of your products! And we want you to succeed just as much as your customers do. Here are some suggestions.
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Sigma, we hardly recognize you. Over the past decade you’ve gone from being a respected but midrange third-party lens maker (and a quietly prolific OEM manufacturer) to becoming a force to be reckoned with in the high-end optics market. You’re making some of the finest lenses available, while still undercutting the ‘big’ brands, often by a considerable margin. How do you do that?
We love what you’ve become, but sometimes love is about being honest. Here are some ideas for 2019 and beyond.
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Oh, Sony, we can’t keep up! At your current rate of product announcements, you’ll have released at least one new RX100-series compact, a GM lens or two and an a7 IV by the time we’ve finished writing this sentence. That’s fine, but in 2019 we’d like to see you taking a bit of a break, making some time to reflect, and maybe reprioritizing a little.
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Tamron, you dark horse. You’ve been quietly adding some really impressive lenses to your lineup over the past year, including the first ever zoom lens designed natively for a full-frame mirrorless system. Not as prolific as Sigma, or as niche as the likes of Laowa or Zeiss, you’re a good, solid, photographer-friendly company that we think deserves to succeed in 2019. And here’s how we think you should do that.
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When it came time to select my 2018 gear of the year, my first inclination was to think about cameras and lenses. After all, we’ve seen some great ones in 2018, and that would have been an easy path to follow. No doubt, I could have picked something both technically impressive and fun to use.
However, when I really thought about what product had the most impact on the quality of my work this year, both at DPReview as well as for my own projects, it wasn’t a camera at all. Rather, it was the DJI Ronin-S camera gimbal – a tool that allowed me to significantly improve the quality of my video work using the cameras and lenses that I already had.
Anyone who has shot much video knows that camera movement can be as important as composition.
Anyone who has shot much video knows that camera movement can be as important as composition, and while most cameras now include some form of image stabilization, camera-based stabilization systems can only do so much. Gimbals provide more latitude to create movement, but usually add some complexity to your shooting workflow. With the Ronin-S, I feel like I’ve found the Goldilocks combination: a great gimbal that fits so seamlessly into my workflow that I barely notice.
I was impressed with the Ronin-S almost from the moment it arrived in our office. After a few weeks of testing I was confident enough to choose it for a larger project: a documentary film I was shooting in the Peruvian Amazon.
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Filming with the DJI Ronin-S in Iquitos, Peru. Photo by Matt Fraser |
Like any filmmaker, I wanted to get the best results possible, but I also had some pretty strict requirements. Since I had keep my kit compact and easy to carry, I decided to shoot on a pair of Panasonic GH5s. I needed a gimbal that would work well with these cameras, could be easily reconfigured for different camera setups in the field, and which could quickly adapt to different shooting conditions on the fly.
The subject of my film was The Great Amazon River Raft Race, a 180km race down the Amazon river on rafts made from balsa logs. Over the course of this multi-day event I had to keep cameras rolling in conditions that included crowded street markets, unstable boats, and and all the rain that comes with Amazon thunderstorms.
The wide variety of shooting conditions certainly put the Ronin-S to the test, and it came through with flying colors.
I immediately came to appreciate just how quickly I could set up a camera in the field. With a bit of practice, I could balance a camera and lens combination in about a minute, which the Ronin’s auto-tune feature would then fine tune in just a few seconds.
The strong motors in the Ronin-S also made it possible to use zoom lenses without adjusting balance or recalibrating the system. As a result, I was able to use a single zoom lens for most of my primary filming – something particularly helpful in a location where it seems like everything around you is actively trying to contaminate a camera sensor. The ability to quickly switch among different gimbal settings at the touch of a button also saved me on more than a few occasions when the story took unexpected turns.
However, the feature I probably appreciated the most on the Ronin-S was remote camera operation, including remote follow focus with focus peaking.
As an aside, it’s worth noting that the Ronin-S can provide various levels of remote camera control, and the level of functionality differs a lot by camera model and lens. Fortunately, DJI has done an excellent job integrating it with the GH5 I chose for this project.
I’ve been asked a number of times why I didn’t use autofocus. While it’s true that the video AF on many cameras is impressively good today, it still doesn’t provide the level of control or predictability I want when filming. In contrast, I found the remote follow focus on the Ronin-S to be very precise, predictable, and easy to use.
Ironically, the one thing I was actually worried about turned out to be a non-starter. With limited access to power, I had concerns about how long the Ronin’s battery would last, but it never let me down. After a full day of shooting, my arm was borderline useless while the Ronin-S had hours of power left in reserve. So much for the superiority of man over machine.
The final area where I have to give the Ronin-S high marks is what I’ll call “Dale’s jungle survivability index.” I’ve worked in the Amazon before, and electronic equipment just doesn’t do well there. It’s hot and humid, and can be very wet, dirty and muddy. It’s damn near impossible to properly clean or dry equipment in the field, especially when you’re out for multiple days at a time. I’ve had equipment failures on previous trips, but the Ronin-S took everything I could throw at it and never blinked. It’s a solid piece of equipment.
I’ve had equipment failures on previous trips, but the Ronin-S took everything I could throw at it and never blinked. It’s a solid piece of equipment.
Sure, I have a few minor complaints, such as having to leave the entire system assembled just to charge the battery or the fact that the rubber seal over the battery’s on/off button keeps falling off, but those aren’t showstoppers.
Ultimately, what makes the Ronin-S my 2018 gear of the year isn’t the fact that it’s a camera gimbal – after all, those have been around for years – but the fact that it’s so flexible, configurable, and easy to operate. My footage looks better as a result of using it, and I won’t hesitate to use it again for future projects.
It’s time to ring in the New Year, and we invite you to join us at the Full Frame Mirrorless camera party, where we’ll meet old friends and maybe some new ones as well. Happy New Year from DPReview TV!
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Taiwanese company LIFE+GUARD has announced a new skin for Sony a7 III and a7R III cameras that makes it look as though the camera body is made of LEGO blocks.
LIFE+GUARD is known for making interesting skins for Sony gear, as seen with this wild rainbow leopard print skin, but the LEGO block skin might take the cake for the most unique.
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The LEGO skin certainly isn’t for everyone, but aside from possibility of deterring would-be thrives from stealing an expensive camera, the skin may very well prove useful for children and family photographers, as cleverly noted by SonyAlphaRumors.
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For those interested in the skin, LIFE+GUARD is taking orders via email for $ 50 a skin. An online shop is said to be coming in early 2019.
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The Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 is one of those rare cameras that seems to be more than the sum of its parts. It’s not a market leader in any specific area, it’s not particularly inexpensive, and I’ve used and reviewed cameras that offer objectively better results than the GX9 is capable of. And yet, there’s something about its combination of features, build, form factor, image quality and controls that make it a camera I really enjoy using and want to carry around with me wherever.
Maybe most importantly, I think this is the first Panasonic camera I’ve truly felt this way about.
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| Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 200 | 1/1250 sec | F2.8 | Lumix G Vario 35-100mm F2.8 |
That’s a phrase that isn’t exactly positive in the dating world, but bear with me – we’re talking about cameras, after all. There are subtleties and intangibles – ‘personalities’ – cameras have about them that can impact how they make a photographer feel. And while Panasonic has made some mighty fine cameras over the past few years, I’ve never really felt that emotional pull to pick them up and go out shooting just for fun.
Back when the Panasonic GX85 came out, I thought that was the one. That was the Panasonic camera that I’d want to pick up and take with me, even if I’m just going out for a bite to eat. But there were some issues with that camera – one issue specifically – that really turned me off, but Panasonic has addressed them in the GX9, and then some.
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| Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 200 | 1/500 sec | F5 | Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 |
First of all, my hat is off to the folks at Panasonic for their work on the JPEG engine. When I started at DPReview, I hadn’t been fond of Panasonic colors, particularly the skin tones, and while the noise reduction did a so-so job of reducing noise, it did a tremendous job at smearing away detail. This was the single biggest issue I had with the GX85, honestly.
I’m happy to say that’s no longer the case. Even just previewing images on the rear of the camera, I can see that the color out of the standard picture profile is rich, warm and doesn’t render my friends as green-skinned zombies. Plus, the shadowy regions of my images no longer look like mush.
This all means I’m likely to transfer images to my phone without needing to process Raws (though the GX9 can do that in-camera), and then post straight away to social media or send them to a friend. And the less processing I need to do, the more images I’m going to take.
Beyond that, I’m really happy to see the return of the addictive tilting viewfinder, though it’s a tad small. The controls aren’t quite as customizable as some competitors’, but the highly customizable touchscreen makes up for this somewhat. And personally, I prefer the tilting screen mechanism on the GX9 to fully articulating screens on other models. And when the screen is tilted out, the eye sensor disables so you don’t accidentally trip it when shooting from the waist. Why this still isn’t standard practice, I have no idea.
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| Obligatory angry cat photo. Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 1600 | 1/60 sec | F1.7 | Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 |
I know, I know. I was the lead reviewer for the GX9, and after all this gushing, I still only gave it a silver. But remember at the top, how I said it wasn’t a market leader in any particular way, and wasn’t particularly inexpensive? Then, consider that cheaper competition can often give you better outright image quality.
And even though the awards are weighted more toward subjective rather than objective criteria – that was all just too much for me to ignore. Bam, silver award.
But there are a few other considerations I’d like to see addressed in the GX9’s successor. First of all, enough with the field sequential electronic viewfinder. Second, this camera launched at $ 999 with a kit lens – for that price, I expect a dedicated battery charger in the box, particularly with battery life this limited (though USB charging is handy for topping up on the go).
Lastly, if you’re one of those folks that love Panasonic for their video chops, the GX9 is not the camera for you. It’s not really geared for hardcore videophiles, but even for casual shooters, it’s disappointing to see the newer model step backward in video capability with a 1.2x crop compared to the GX85.
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| Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 200 | 1/80 sec | F2.8 | Lumix G 20mm F1.7 II |
In the end, the GX9 is very capable camera. It’s not necessarily the sort of camera I’d be eyeing for high-end, paid professional gigs – though I’m sure the GX9 could handle them in a pinch – but it is the sort of camera that I enjoy for personal, casual photography. It’s also something I would absolutely recommend as a second body for more established shooters wanting a smaller package.
More to the point, I also think the GX9 is a good sign for Panasonic going forward. They tried splitting the GX lineup in two with the high-end GX8 and midrange GX85, but then decided that wasn’t working, and quickly iterated to come up with a fantastic middle-ground in the GX9. I personally appreciate that level of responsiveness, and in my opinion, the GX9 really is the best of both worlds for those cameras. Well, almost.
For the last time – let’s ditch the field sequential viewfinder.
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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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At some point in elementary school my sister was required to study San Francisco, which – if you’ve only ever lived in the Midwest – is a far-off, exotic city. She took an interest in the place, and over the dinner table she’d rattle off facts about the city, like how many hills there are (seven) and how many mosquitos there are (none). In contrast to our part of the country, an extremely flat, mosquito-riddled hellscape, San Fransisco seemed like almost a mythical place.
Jumping ahead a few years, my sister was on the verge of turning thirty, and we decided to celebrate with a trip to the destination of her choice. Naturally, San Francisco was at the top of the list. At last, she’d finally get to experience the seven mosquito-free hills for herself.
In four days we covered most of the standard stuff – the bridge, the prison, the endless souvenir gift shop that is the Fisherman’s Wharf. We drank Irish coffees at the cafe that claims to have invented them (but probably didn’t), ate avocado toast at the place that claims to have invented it (and probably did), and took a lot of selfies in front of iconic things.
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| Our technique on this kind of shot needs work, but you get the idea. |
During the course of the trip, we documented our adventure the way most older millennials do: on our phones. When we returned to our respective homes, she requested that I add my photos to a shared Google Photos album so she could show our mother over dinner. I already backup my iPhone photos to the Google Photos app, so that was easy enough to do.
I also wanted to show the Alcatraz photos to my boyfriend (disused prisons are his thing) but flipping through them on my phone clearly wasn’t going to do them justice. Then I remembered the Chromecast plugged into the back of our TV, and within a few minutes I had a good old fashioned “How I Spent my Summer Vacation at a Former Federal Penitentiary” slideshow going.
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To commemorate the whole trip, it occurred to me that a photo book might make a nice birthday present for my kid sister. And at this point, the whole thing starts to sound like a commercial for Google Photos: I selected images, added a title and text, paid for and shipped the whole thing from my phone while commuting to work on the bus. I didn’t even need to get out my wallet, because Google remembers my credit card number.
Here’s the thing: having the device I use to capture the images integrated into an ecosystem designed for sharing actually is really useful. My photos from that trip didn’t die on a hard drive – they came to life. And sure, my iPhone SE takes some pretty lousy photos in low light. But you know what? They’re fine. Nobody I showed them to complained about detail retention. And I wasn’t looking to blow them up and put them on my wall, I just wanted to remember a trip that was about hanging out with my sister.
There’s still room for improvement – the Assistant feature continues to be a mixed bag of sometimes nice, sometimes ridiculous AI-generated albums, videos and “stylized” photos. At least it does a good job of auto-suggesting items to archive, like screengrabs and pictures of packaged dinner re-heating instructions. But really, it’s fine because it’s not a core feature – anything useful the Assistant does is basically a bonus.
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| An automatically generated “stylized” photo courtesy of Google Photos Assistant. Just… no. |
I think what impresses me most is that I didn’t at any point decide “Alright, I’m going to go all in on the Google ecosystem.” It just happened organically. I didn’t think I was the kind of person who would want to play a summer vacation slideshow on her TV – until I was. When the technology is seamless and available at your fingertips, it turns out you’re more likely to use it. And if that means more people doing more to share their photos, then that’s enough for me to call Google Photos my gear of the year.
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A recently published patent from Canon details a set of optical formulas for what appears to be an RF 90mm F2.8L IS Macro lens.
Japanese Patent Application Number 2018-205435, first detailed by Northlight Images, is fairly standard as far as patents go, but there is one interesting element worth noting.
The image stabilization elements inside the lens — labelled L12 — are located within the first optical group towards the front of the lens. More often the image stabilization component is towards the center of the lens, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here.
This could be for a number of reasons, but the patent text specifically mentions that in order to get the most accurate image stabilization, larger optical components and accompanying motors are needed. As such, the larger front area of the lens makes more sense than the middle of the lens where the optics are more confined, especially with the aperture mechanism located there (represented by ‘SP’ in the illustrations).
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It’s also worth noting that the focusing component of the lens is towards the rear of the lens. The patent text says this too is due to the larger focusing motor(s) needed, but it could also have an added benefit of creating a more balanced lens with the heavy image stabilization component towards the front of the lens. As Canon showed the world with its RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM lens, the RF mount makes it possible to put larger elements and more electronics towards the rear of the lens due to the larger mount size.
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The Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 is one of those rare cameras that seems to be more than the sum of its parts. It’s not a market leader in any specific area, it’s not particularly inexpensive, and I’ve used and reviewed cameras that offer objectively better results than the GX9 is capable of. And yet, there’s something about its combination of features, build, form factor, image quality and controls that make it a camera I really enjoy using and want to carry around with me wherever.
Maybe most importantly, I think this is the first Panasonic camera I’ve truly felt this way about.
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| Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 200 | 1/1250 sec | F2.8 | Lumix G Vario 35-100mm F2.8 |
That’s a phrase that isn’t exactly positive in the dating world, but bear with me – we’re talking about cameras, after all. There are subtleties and intangibles – ‘personalities’ – cameras have about them that can impact how they make a photographer feel. And while Panasonic has made some mighty fine cameras over the past few years, I’ve never really felt that emotional pull to pick them up and go out shooting just for fun.
Back when the Panasonic GX85 came out, I thought that was the one. That was the Panasonic camera that I’d want to pick up and take with me, even if I’m just going out for a bite to eat. But there were some issues with that camera – one issue specifically – that really turned me off, but Panasonic has addressed them in the GX9, and then some.
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| Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 200 | 1/500 sec | F5 | Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 |
First of all, my hat is off to the folks at Panasonic for their work on the JPEG engine. When I started at DPReview, I hadn’t been fond of Panasonic colors, particularly the skin tones, and while the noise reduction did a so-so job of reducing noise, it did a tremendous job at smearing away detail. This was the single biggest issue I had with the GX85, honestly.
I’m happy to say that’s no longer the case. Even just previewing images on the rear of the camera, I can see that the color out of the standard picture profile is rich, warm and doesn’t render my friends as green-skinned zombies. Plus, the shadowy regions of my images no longer look like mush.
This all means I’m likely to transfer images to my phone without needing to process Raws (though the GX9 can do that in-camera), and then post straight away to social media or send them to a friend. And the less processing I need to do, the more images I’m going to take.
Beyond that, I’m really happy to see the return of the addictive tilting viewfinder, though it’s a tad small. The controls aren’t quite as customizable as some competitors’, but the highly customizable touchscreen makes up for this somewhat. And personally, I prefer the tilting screen mechanism on the GX9 to fully articulating screens on other models. And when the screen is tilted out, the eye sensor disables so you don’t accidentally trip it when shooting from the waist. Why this still isn’t standard practice, I have no idea.
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| Obligatory angry cat photo. Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 1600 | 1/60 sec | F1.7 | Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 |
I know, I know. I was the lead reviewer for the GX9, and after all this gushing, I still only gave it a silver. But remember at the top, how I said it wasn’t a market leader in any particular way, and wasn’t particularly inexpensive? Then, consider that cheaper competition can often give you better outright image quality.
And even though the awards are weighted more toward subjective rather than objective criteria – that was all just too much for me to ignore. Bam, silver award.
But there are a few other considerations I’d like to see addressed in the GX9’s successor. First of all, enough with the field sequential electronic viewfinder. Second, this camera launched at $ 999 with a kit lens – for that price, I expect a dedicated battery charger in the box, particularly with battery life this limited (though USB charging is handy for topping up on the go).
Lastly, if you’re one of those folks that love Panasonic for their video chops, the GX9 is not the camera for you. It’s not really geared for hardcore videophiles, but even for casual shooters, it’s disappointing to see the newer model step backward in video capability with a 1.2x crop compared to the GX85.
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| Out-of-camera JPEG. ISO 200 | 1/80 sec | F2.8 | Lumix G 20mm F1.7 II |
In the end, the GX9 is very capable camera. It’s not necessarily the sort of camera I’d be eyeing for high-end, paid professional gigs – though I’m sure the GX9 could handle them in a pinch – but it is the sort of camera that I enjoy for personal, casual photography. It’s also something I would absolutely recommend as a second body for more established shooters wanting a smaller package.
More to the point, I also think the GX9 is a good sign for Panasonic going forward. They tried splitting the GX lineup in two with the high-end GX8 and midrange GX85, but then decided that wasn’t working, and quickly iterated to come up with a fantastic middle-ground in the GX9. I personally appreciate that level of responsiveness, and in my opinion, the GX9 really is the best of both worlds for those cameras. Well, almost.
For the last time – let’s ditch the field sequential viewfinder.
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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Simon Joinson was DPReview’s second general manager, after founder Phil Askey. During Simon’s years with the site, DPReview underwent enormous changes, not least the relocation of almost the entire team in 2010 from London to Seattle, thousands of miles away on the west coast of America.
I don’t remember specifically. It kind of crept onto my radar gradually, because to be honest, back in the late 90’s / early 2000s, few of us in the publishing world were that focused on the internet as a potential competitor. I do remember that the first time I saw it it was still on the askey.net domain, so it must’ve been early. In the very early days there were other sites that popped up more regularly – Steve’s Digicams, DCResource – but by the 2002, 2003 timeframe, DPReview was an unavoidable
What set DPReview apart, in the industry?
You have to remember that 20-ish years ago the difference between the traditional print media and what was starting to be called the ‘new media’ was stark. On the internet content was always free, but it was generally seen as something of a digital ‘wild west’, where anyone with a computer and a modem could publish their opinions and you couldn’t move for unqualified ‘experts’. Websites simply lacked the credibility and trust of camera magazines, which in some cases were household names that had been published for decades.
Most print magazines reviewed cameras using a template that was, give-or-take, about 80% subjective
DPR was different. There were consistent, repeatable tests and metrics and, critically, there was no ‘take my word for it’ with Phil – he presented all his results on the page for you to download and look at yourself. In the early days he was pretty cautious about offering much ‘opinion’ at all (beyond the final rating), preferring to let the data speak for itself. By comparison, most print magazines (including mine) reviewed cameras using a template that was, give-or-take, about 80% subjective. It’s impossible to overstate the impact Phil’s approach to reviewing and objective testing had on the photographic publishing world.
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| Simon using an early sample of Canon’s PowerShot Pro1, back in 2004. Simon had yet to officially join DPReview, and was credited by Phil in his Pro1 hands-on as ‘editor of the excellent UK magazine Total Digital Photography’. |
Phil and I had been pretty close friends since we sat together on a 12 hour flight to Tokyo for the 2002 World Cup final – part of a Fujifilm press trip that included meeting senior executives and touring a digital camera factory. We’d often talked about working together, and in 2004, with Phil was struggling to keep up with the increasing rate of new camera launches on his own, we signed a contract with DPReview to produce compact camera reviews and news stories. I already had a team of writers, photographers testers and designers working for my for my company, and so, initially, at least, DPReview was just another client. It didn’t take long, however, for it to totally consume my life.
Phil and I didn’t work in the same place – he worked from home on one side of London and I worked out of my offices in Covent Garden. And we worked incredibly long hours and almost every weekend, but it was incredibly rewarding. I still miss those days when it was just the two of us doing almost everything. We even used to take our wives (the DPReview widows) on weekend city breaks together. Thinking about it now, the fact we took about a dozen cameras and spend most of the time talking work probably made it less enjoyable for the ladies, but they were kind enough not to complain.
I slowly got used to having hundreds of anonymous people publicly accusing me of dishonesty / incompetence / corruption whenever I posted anything – it was a big change from the occasional angry handwritten letter we’d receive about magazine content we’d already forgotten about. But hey, at least it meant people were reading.
Phil had poured his heart and soul into DPReview for over five years, and he wasn’t about to start messing about with a winning formula
I pushed for a ton of changes, but there was never any doubt in the early days who was boss, so I wasn’t very successful (it was three years before I was even trusted to review a DSLR!). Phil had poured his heart and soul into DPReview for over five years, and he wasn’t about to start messing about with what was obviously a winning formula.
I think my biggest contribution back then was to implement, to some degree, a few standard practices from the world of publishing – for example using an Editor and Sub Editor to tidy things up before posting. Looking back I’m glad Phil wouldn’t let me change much – I knew a lot less about the internet than I thought I did, and I had plenty of time to develop my understanding – and my ideas for the site – over the years we worked together.
DPReview gets a redesign
(May 2010)
I wasn’t involved in the deal at all – DPReview was still Phil’s site, and he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone he was even talking to Amazon. I guess by the time I heard about the negotiations they were almost over, and the deal was only a few months from closing. Long story short, I got an offer compelling enough to resign as Managing Director of my own company and take a job with Amazon.
On the one hand it changed everything – we started looking for a dedicated office / studio space, started hiring, had real jobs with a real boss. But in many other ways nothing changed – Amazon made it clear from day one that this was our site, and we should just carry on doing exactly what we were before it changed hands.
As soon as the acquisition was public and we’d found our new offices we started hiring developers and editors, including some (looking at you Richard Butler!) who are still part of the DPReview team. Phil was focused mostly on running the business and being the interface with Amazon, and on managing the engineering / dev side of our work. I managed the editorial side. By the end of 2008 we had a team of 10 people, meaning Phil and I finally got to spend our weekends away from work…
We gathered the staff and told them Phil was leaving and we were relocating the entire business to Seattle. Then we went to the pub.
The catalyst for the move was Phil’s decision to leave the business in late 2009, but in the end the decision was mine. It was clear that moving to the mothership in Seattle would be the best thing for DPR at a time when the global financial downturn and growing weakness in the compact camera market (thanks iPhone!) we’d get more support, more staff and more visibility if we relocated. And to be honest, working as a remote team with its own premises had lots of perks, but it wasn’t all fun and games; it also brought with it a ton of admin overhead, lots of travel and endless late night conference calls between London and Seattle.
We gathered the staff one morning in April 2010 and told them Phil was leaving and we were proposing relocating the entire business to Seattle. Then we went to the pub for the rest of the day.
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| A new office in a new country called for a new studio scene. One of Simon’s lasting contributions to DPReview was our patented studio scene comparison ‘widget’. |
As you can imagine the news about Phil and the move created a certain amount of worry. We offered the entire team a full relocation package and initiated a month-long consultation period, at the end of which we asked everyone if they wanted to come with us on our new adventure. All but two of the team accepted, and – after a surreal six months or so of preparing to emigrate – most of them moved to Seattle in the late fall of 2010. I was the last to relocate because we had our second child on the way. For about four months I managed the business from 5000 miles away, with an 8 hour time difference.
Inevitably all this had some short-term negative consequences for the site – we couldn’t produce any reviews whilst our equipment made its way across the ocean and our new studio was being fitted out – not to mention the fact that several of the team had to take time off to organize moving their entire lives to another continent. And yeah, we kinda lost lens reviews for a while after the move (our lens reviewer didn’t relocate with us).
DPReview relocates to America
(November 2010)
Honestly it worked really well for me – I prefer to work late and I had a newborn baby in the house, so I tended to start work mid afternoon to maximize my overlap with the rest of the team (there were a couple of people still in the UK, but most were already in the US).
When I took the reins at DPReview in 2010 camera sales had already been in decline for a couple of years, and I knew I couldn’t just sit there watching the site slowly pulled under by falling demand in the camera market. I wanted to bring more photography and more diverse voices to the site, to revamp our reviews and expand our coverage of accessories and techniques, and to raise the bar in general, editorially. I was also desperate to change the UX and visual design of the site (and offer users an alternative to the black background). DPR was already the place for camera reviews, and I dreamed of a time when it would also be the primary destination for all things photographic, adding photographic art, commentary, education and analysis to our world-class reviews and product launch content. I got some of the way there in the next 8 years…
I hope DPReview goes from strength to strength and I expect to be still visiting daily after another 20 years! I’m also super excited to see some of the things I was working on before I left finally making their way onto the site, and to see where the new leadership takes DPR in the future.
I’m incredibly proud of the work I did during the almost 14 years at DPReview, and there’s very little on the site today that I wasn’t directly involved with. Highlights for me include the side-by-side studio comparison feature, the (white background) site redesign and the painful but necessary forums revamp, which introduced scores of new features and fixed the crumbling infrastructure, significantly improving performance and reliability, and which almost none of our users liked.
I’m also very proud of the PIX2015 photography expo, which with hindsight was a stupidly ambitious project for a handful of people with no experience in live events to take on… But honestly the thing that makes me proudest is the amazing talented people I got to work with. Many became friends, and many went on to even bigger and better things after DPReview. But many stayed around, and it’s been a delight watching them grow into the best damned camera review team in the world.
I’m working for Lab126 (the Amazon subsidiary that designs and builds devices) in California. I still work on cameras, and I’m able to feed my curiosity and love of invention, working on products I can’t talk about that may, or may, not see the light of day in years to come. It’s challenging and demanding and very fast-paced, and I love it.