When there’s a lot of buzz on social media early in the week, the what-a-week meme based on a comic from the Tintin series inevitably pops up. In the most common version, Tim tells the captain that it’s only Wednesday – because the sea dog is complaining about a rough week.
Off for DPReview
This time it was already time in the photo world on Tuesday evening for “What a week“. The DPReview website announced that it would no longer be updated from April 10th and that the archive would only be available for an unknown amount of time after that. We have already explained in detail why this is a bitter loss, so it is It’s now time for some background in this column.Anyone who photographs ambitiously or professionally needs to know the media business.
Amazon took over DPReview in 2007 and, judging by the content, largely left the editors alone. Apparently, the monster company, with all its resources, couldn’t make money with the excellent content and the first-class team. In the 16 years under Amazon, the landscape of online media has changed radically, and niche topics in particular that require a great deal of human resources can no longer be financed solely through advertising. Paywalls, direct support from Patreon, a wide range of own products such as merchandise items are some of the ways to stay alive.
Big corporations can’t do media
But there was hardly anything to be seen of all this until the very end at DPReview. However, what an editorial team has under control has been tried out successfully: you would have to invest a lot just for a YouTube channel with 410,000 subscribers today. And it’s no wonder that for the time being only YouTube hosts Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake remain visible from DPReview, who are switching to Petapixel in the same capacity. It seems Amazon didn’t even bother trying to find a buyer for the entire property, confirming another truism: non-industry corporations can’t manage media companies.
What looks like “just a website” from the outside is a million-dollar company when it comes to DPReview’s standards and the way it is published. And, from my own experience: Building such a team with the expertise and the network takes one to two years and cost several million euros even 20 years ago – more today. Perhaps Amazon’s surprising announcement was just an extremely cheap attempt to find a buyer for the leftovers without much effort.
New Fujis appear very briefly
Apparently, the new cameras from Fujifilm are further away than expected, and it is also good to see why serious journalism is needed, especially in the photo business. At the beginning of the week, a picture from a supposed Fuji presentation appeared on Fujista’s Spanish website. Four new cameras can be seen on it, three of them probably digital models plus an Instax for instant film, only: The link is now working into the voidthe rumor was picked up, among other things by Fujiaddict and then many other media. The cameras have sometimes even been described as “disruptive”.
The wish was probably the father of the thought, because Fujifilm had officially announced a larger event for April. And who, in turn, wants to know Fujirumours, is now cancelled. It should come from a very reliable source. Anyone who has counted is already coming across three online media that are passing the rumor balls to each other. It’s a good thing that none of them came up with the idea of linking this to Panasonic’s OPF sensor, which was once again presented. It’s been in development for almost 10 years, still not even seen in a prototype, but: The film inside, which is supposed to enable groundbreaking optical performance, comes from Fujifilm.
So the next whisper would actually be quite simple: the sensor isn’t finished, so Fuji can’t introduce “disruptive” cameras with it either. But if you look beyond these brands and see where the mid-size sensor market is growing, the explanation should be much simpler: in surveillance and industrial cameras, the music plays for the suppliers. And here Canon announced a new sensor in January, and Panasonic’s OPF component should also be suitable for this.
Full frame alpha for vlogging
Sony does not operate a disruption, but typical evolution with its vlogging cameras. The segment is growing steadily, driven by social networks. And instead of cheaper cameras without interchangeable optics, Sony now wants to add to the compact ones with E-mount. The ZV-E1 was on Instagram announced by Sony Taiwan, the presentation should take place on March 29th. And another rumor site, this time Mirrorlessrumours, want to know the specs full-frame sensor still seems realistic, but combining the 12-megapixel sensor of the Alpha 7S III with the autofocus of the resolution flagship Alpha 7 RV makes no sense. Especially since the sensor and autofocus have to work closely together in mirrorless cameras.
Adobe is doing AI, but doing it right
We can’t avoid AI this week either, but this time it’s not about dystopian artificial images based on alien material. Adobe Firefly is intended as a creative tool for professionals, but it is still in beta. It is all the more remarkable that the images created in this way can be provided with the authenticity marks of the CAI and can also be exempted from further training by other learning machines. Of course, this is only available for paying subscribers, but: Thinking about the fundamental problems of Generative AI right from the start is exemplary. And after the uproar over the suspected misuse of third-party material from the Adobe Cloud as training data, we want Adobe to believe for now that only public domain images were used for Firefly.
(huh)
