[bdery]

About people leaving their jobs... it's that kind of world now. It doesn't necessarily mean DPR is doing something wrong. In my industry, the yearly rate of people leaving their jobs is close to 34%. Companies doing under 30% celebrate their great work environment. Ludicrous numbers...

[Wheatfield]

DPR moved from London to Seattle---moves that few of us on the outside understood. Still don't: why move ops from an incredibly expensive city to another one that was expensive when they made the move, and now is fast pricing the true middle class out of the market.

I expect that move was made for legal reasons. If you read Amazon's terms of service you will find that any legal action taken against Amazon has to be done in King County Washington, effectively protecting Amazon from legal exposure from anyone outside of the area immediately surrounding Seattle. By moving DPR to Seattle they are ensuring that they have limited exposure by one of their subsidiaries, and by extension, the mother corp.

---------- Post added Feb 10th, 2022 at 08:16 AM ----------

I'm very skeptical that Amazon correlates their sales and what they are paying the DPR staff. They are after all fighting unionization at their warehouses tooth and nail. I also doubt that DPR is so valuable to Amazon that they'd be paying top salaries to DPR staff. I rather wonder why Amazon bought DPR in the first place. Seems like a pretty dubious revenue generator compared to the other stuff they are involved in.

When they bought DPR, the camera market was high profit and low maintenance. This is an ideal market opportunity for a company, especially one that is basing their business model on putting local stores out of business.

It gave them internet exposure to a customer base and IIRC from the way the internet works, tracking is possible regarding where a person has come from, though not necessarily where they go when they leave unless they can coax the viewer to click on a link on the company webpage.
It helps them curate targeted advertising to people who jump to one of their websites from an unrelated website.

An example would be the person who is looking at a website devoted to jewelry who jumps to DPR to see what is available for macro lenses. DPR, and by extension Amazon now knows that this person is interested in jewelry and macro photography and can start to curate advertising specific to those interests.
There is a reason why sidebar advertising can seem like creepy stalking.

---------- Post added Feb 10th, 2022 at 08:19 AM ----------

This feudal practice might work for some time if there is ample supply of workers, work is not complicated and compensation is above average. The thing is, the people who tolerate this aren't the people you can build the business on.

Tell that to fast food companies and big box department stores, especially those based in North America. This is precisely their business model, though their PR would have us believe otherwise. These are not above average compensation jobs, they are jobs that people toil at because they can't afford not to, and generally get used up until they burn out and then get discarded, quite often exactly the way described above.

[cxdoo]

Tell that to fast food companies and big box department stores, especially those based in North America. This is precisely their business model, though their PR would have us believe otherwise. These are not above average compensation jobs, they are jobs that people toil at because they can't afford not to, and generally get used up until they burn out and then get discarded, quite often exactly the way described above.

Again, I was addressing DPR People working non-trivial jobs are usually not so easily replaceable unless the job market is dire.

If an executive behaved in the way you described in the company I work for, or I behaved in such a way to my engineering team, the whole thing would fall apart in 3-6 months and god help whoever comes after. Yes, it could be prolonged by money, but only partially and you'd lose top talent anyway.

[Kunzite]

FTR, DPReview published another review - for the Sony A7RIV - while the K-3iii's is still "days away".

[biz-engineer]

A good way to make your best people walk away, in my domain (software development). Unless you're Microsoft, I guess.Nobody wants to work for a psychopath. They might have to, but when they have a choice...

I've got to tell you, they advertise "We are hiring" (which tend to make stock price increase because outside investors think the company has aggressive growth plans) , but in reality 90% of job openings are from people leaving the company. The local reputation is so poor that the company hire from all over the world, paying the cost of relocation packages (relocation isn't very expensive , a few thousand bucks for a container, and that's it). Yet, they manage to have "Best employer of year 20xx". On Glassdoor former employees write "Company to be avoided".

[filmmaster]

I can't remember the last time I saw an actual review there. To be fair I haven't looked deeply but all I've seen is opinion pieces with strong biases.

they dont do reviews.... never had really.

When the sight is just a quick retelling of a cameras factory spec sheet, and meaningless trite "observances" based upon how much advertising money the product will get... its like any physical magazine review..

ie, if the company buys a two page spread, its the greatest thing around. a single page means its "really good". half page means "great, but could be better if your really OCD on things"

[Kunzite]

Finally! Now DPReview can publish their K-3iii review, noting that it's 5 times slower than the newly announced OM-1!
(is that what they were waiting for? A DxOMark moment?)

[cxdoo]

Finally! Now DPReview can publish their K-3iii review, noting that it's 5 times slower than the newly announced OM-1!
(is that what they were waiting for? A DxOMark moment?)

Spec wise looks like a great little camera. The price is brutal, but that's where we are going it seems.
The comments are priceless. If it's not FF MILC it's junk.
K3III is junk because DSLR is dinosaur tech, and OM1 is junk because MFT is not FF.
You read that stuff, first you ask yourself are you crazy, then if you were exposed to psychological warfare. What's wrong with having a rugged little body with a lot of reach?

[Kunzite]

The best news (for m4/3 users) isn't the camera per se, but that OM Digital Solutions appears to be willing to continue; there's the OM-1, and one new lens (plus an updated one).
But that's a bit off topic. The on-topic bit is that we have another camera which will be fully reviewed before the K-3iii

And yeah, I believe they've chosen a sensor a bit too small and nonstandard, back in 2003. But they're much less impacted by that than they were in the past.

[Jonathan Mac]

Carey Rose left DPR a little while back, and now Barney Britton, former Senior Editor, has left, too.

I didn't know that, when did that happen? I liked Barney's contributions to the site, Carey's less so.

Maybe they weren't anti-Pentax enough...

[JohnMc]

How much time/weight does one place upon Infotainment?

[InnAtElmwood]

I doubt that Amazon would hardly blink in trading away DPR, or just closing it, even though it's a great outlet for their advertising (i.e., reviews).

[Lord Lucan]

OM Digital Solutions appears to be willing to continue; there's the OM-1, and one new lens

I expect the development was already well under way before the take-over by OM Digital Solutions.

[JohnMc]

Perhaps not, though many hands.. excuse me, many tear drops can make a puddle, and cause dry eye afterwards making blinking irritating.

[Thwyllo]

I'd be worried about Canon and Sony, they are focusing only on FF mirrorless, it's more risky.

....except they've got market share and RnD budgets that Pentax can only dream about. Just saying.