Amazon ставит на цифровое фото: покупка Dpreview.com
Крупнейший интернет-магазин Amazon.com купил в понедельник британскую компанию обзоров по цифровой фотографии DPreview.com  за неназванную сумму,  сообщил The Register . Сайт, основанный в 1998 году Филом Аски (Phil Askey), предлагает  независимые обзоры цифровых фотокамер и аксессуаров , предлагает  путеводители для покупателей, базу данных сравнения цен, новости отрасли  и форумы для общения. По словам исполнительного директора Amazon , DPreview.com – самый  авторитетный  источник в отрасли, и в Amazon его очень любят читать. Сайт продолжит работать отдельно, его штаб останется в Лондоне .

Amazon ставит на цифровое фото: покупка Dpreview.com

In the age of AI images, some photographers are embracing the quirky flaws of vintage digital cameras. |
Spanish director Isabel Coixet films with a digicam on the red carpet ahead of the premiere of the film "The International" on the opening night of the 59th Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin in 2009. Credit: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images
Spanish director Isabel Coixet films with a digicam on the red carpet ahead of the premiere of the film "The International" on the opening night of the 59th Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin in 2009. Credit: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images
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Today’s young adults grew up in a time when their childhoods were documented with smartphone cameras instead of dedicated digital or film cameras. It’s not surprising that, perhaps as a reaction to the ubiquity of the phone, some young creative photographers are leaving their handsets in their pockets in favor of compact point-and-shoot digital cameras—the very type that camera manufacturers are actively discontinuing. Much of the buzz among this creative class has centered around premium, chic models like the Fujifilm X100 and Ricoh GR , or for the self-anointed “digicam girlies” on TikTok, zoom point-and-shoots like the Canon PowerShot G7 and Sony RX100 models, which can be great for selfies. But other shutterbugs are reaching back into the past 20 years or more to add a vintage “Y2K aesthetic” to their work. The MySpace look is strong with a lot of photographers shooting with authentic early-2000s “digicams,” aiming their cameras—flashes a-blazing—at their friends and capturing washed-out, low-resolution, grainy photos that look a whole lot like 2003. "It's so wild to me cause I'm an elder millennial," says Ali O'Keefe, who runs the photography channel Two Months One Camera on YouTube. "My childhood is captured on film … but for [young people], theirs were probably all captured on, like, Canon SD1000s,” she says, referencing a popular mid-aughts point-and-shoot. It’s not just the retro sensibility they’re after, but also a bit of cool cred. Everyone from Ayo Edibiri to Kendall Jenner is helping fuel digicam fever by publicly taking snaps with a vintage pocket camera. The rise of the vintage digicam marks at least the second major nostalgia boom in the photography space. More than 15 years ago, a film resurgence brought thousands of cameras from the 1970s and '80s out of closets and into handbags and backpacks. Companies like Impossible Project and Film Ferrania started up production of Polaroid-compatible and 35-mm film, respectively, firing up manufacturing equipment that otherwise would have been headed to the scrap heap. Traditional film companies like Kodak and Ilford have seen sales skyrocket. Unfortunately, the price of film stock also increased significantly, with film processing also getting more costly. (Getting a roll developed and digitally scanned now typically costs between $15 and $20.) For those seeking to experiment with their photography, there's an appeal to using a cheap, old digital model they can shoot with until it stops working. The results are often imperfect, but since the camera is digital, a photographer can mess around and get instant gratification. And for everyone in the vintage digital movement, the fact that the images from these old digicams are worse than those from a smartphone is a feature, not a bug. What’s a digicam? One of the biggest points of contention among enthusiasts is the definition of “digicam.” For some, any old digital camera falls under the banner, while other photographers have limited the term’s scope to a specific vintage or type. Sofia Lee , photographer and co-founder of the online community digicam.love , has narrowed her definition over time. "There's a separation between what I define as a tool that I will be using in my artistic practice versus what the community at large would consider to be culturally acceptable, like at a meetup," Lee stated. "I started off looking at any digital camera I could get my hands on. But increasingly I'm focused more on the early 2000s. And actually, I actually keep getting earlier and earlier … I would say from 2000 to 2003 or 2004 maybe." Lee has found that she's best served by funky old point-and-shoot cameras, and doesn't use old digital single-lens reflex cameras, which can deliver higher quality images comparable to today's equipment. Lee says DSLR images are “too clean, too crisp, too nice” for her work. “When I'm picking a camera, I'm looking for a certain kind of noise, a certain kind of character to them that can't be reproduced through filters or editing, or some other process,” Lee says. Her all-time favorite model is a forgotten camera from 2001, the Kyocera Finecam S3. A contemporary review gave the model a failing grade, citing its reliance on the then-uncommon SD memory card format, along with its propensity to turn out soft photos lacking in detail. "It’s easier to say what isn’t a digicam, like DSLRs or cameras with interchangeable lenses,” says Zuzanna Neupauer, a digicam user and member of digicam.love. But the definition gets even narrower from there. “I personally won’t use any new models, and I restrict myself to digicams made before 2010," Neupauer says. Not everyone is as partisan. Popular creators Ali O'Keefe and James Warner both cover interchangeable lens cameras from the 2000s extensively on their YouTube channels, focusing on vintage digital equipment, relishing in devices with quirky designs or those that represent evolutionary dead-ends. Everything from Sigma's boxy cameras with exotic sensors to Olympus' weird, early DSLRs based on a short-lived lens system get attention in their videos. It's clear that although many vintage enthusiasts prefer the simple, compact nature of a point-and-shoot camera, the overall digicam trend has increased interest in digital imaging’s many forms. Digital archeology
The digital photography revolution that occurred around the turn of the century saw a Cambrian explosion of different types and designs of cameras. Sony experimented with swiveling two-handers that could be science fiction zap guns, and had cameras that wrote JPEGs to floppy disks and CDs . Minolta created modular cameras that could be decoupled , the optics tethered to the LCD body with a cord, like photographic nunchaku. “There are a lot of brands that are much less well known,” says Lee. “And in the early 2000s in particular, it was really like the Wild West.”
Today’s enthusiasts spelunking into the digital past are encountering challenges related to the passage of time, with some brands no longer offering firmware updates, drivers, or PDF copies of manuals for these old models. In many cases, product news and reviews sites are the only reminder that some cameras ever existed. But many of those sites have fallen off the internet entirely. “Steve's Digicams went offline,” says O’Keefe in reference to the popular camera news website that went offline after the founder, Steve Sanders, died in 2017. “It was tragic because it had so much information.”
“Our interests naturally align with archaeology,” says Sofia Lee. “A lot of us were around when the cameras were made. But there were a number of events in the history of digicams where an entire line of cameras just massively died off. That's something that we are constantly confronted with.”
Hocus focus
YouTubers like Warner and O'Keefe helped raise interest in cameras with Charged-Coupled Device technology, an older type of imaging sensor that fell out of use around 2010. CCD-based cameras have developed a cult following, and certain models have retained their value surprisingly well for their age. Fans liken the results of CCD captures to shooting film without the associated hassle or cost. While the digicam faithful have shown that older cameras can yield pleasing results, there's no guaranteed "CCD magic" sprinkled on those photos. "[I] think I've maybe unfortunately been one of the ones to make it sound like CCD sensors in and of themselves are making the colors different," says Warner, who makes classic digital camera videos on his channel Snappiness . "CCDs differ from [newer] CMOS sensors in the layout of their electronics but at heart they're both made up of photosensitive squares of silicon behind a series of color filters from which color information about the scene can be derived," says Richard Butler, managing editor at DPReview. (Disclosure: I worked at DPReview as a part-time editor in 2022 and 2023.) DPReview , in its 25th year, is a valuable library of information about old digital cameras, and an asset to vintage digital obsessives. “I find it hard to think of CCD images as filmlike, but it's fair to say that the images of cameras from that time may have had a distinct aesthetic,” Butler says. “As soon as you have an aesthetic with which an era was captured, there's a nostalgia about that look. It's fair to say that early digital cameras inadvertently defined the appearance of contemporary photos.”
There's one area where old CCD sensors can show a difference: They don’t capture as much light and dark information as other types of sensors, and therefore the resulting images can have less detail in the shadows and highlights. A careful photographer can get contrasty, vibrant images with a different, yet still digital, vibe. Digicam photographer Jermo Swaab says he prefers "contrasty scenes and crushed blacks … I yearn for images that look like a memory or retro-futuristic dream." Modern photographs, by default, are super sharp, artificially vibrant, with high dynamic range that makes the image pop off the screen. In order to get the most out of a tiny sensor and lens, smartphones put shots through a computationally intense pipeline of automated editing, quickly combining multiple captures to extract every fine detail possible, and eradicate pesky noise. Digital cameras shoot a single image at a time by default. Especially with older, lower resolution digital cameras, this can give images a noisier, dreamier appearance that digicam fans love. "If you take a picture with your smartphone, it's automatically HDR. And we're just used to that today but that’s not at all how cameras have worked in the past," Warner says. Ali O'Keefe agrees, saying that "especially as we lean more and more into AI where everything is super polished to the point of hyperreal, digicams are crappy, and the artifacts and the noise and the lens imperfections give you something that is not replicable." Lee also is chasing unique, noisy photos from compact cameras with small sensors: "I actually always shoot at max ISO, which is the opposite of how I think people shot their cameras back in the day. I'm curious about finding the undesirable aspects of it and [getting] aesthetic inspiration from the undesirable aspects of a camera." Her favorite Kyocera camera is known for its high-quality build and noisy pics. She describes it as ”all metal, like a briefcase,” of the sort that Arnold Schwarzenegger carries in Total Recall. “These cameras are considered legendary in the experimental scene,” she says of the Kyocera. “The unique thing about the Finecam S3 is that it produces a diagonal noise pattern." A time to buy, a time to sell
The gold rush for vintage digital gear has, unsurprisingly, led to rising prices on the resale market. What was once a niche for oddballs and collectors has become a potential goldmine, driven by all that social media hype. “The joke is that when someone makes a video about a camera, the price jumps,” says Warner. “I've actually tracked that using eBay's TerraPeak sale monitoring tool where you can see the history of up to two years of sales for a certain search query. There's definitely strong correlation to a [YouTube] video's release and the price of that item going up on eBay in certain situations.”
“It is kind of amazing how hard it is to find things now,” laments says O’Keefe. “I used to be able to buy [Panasonic] LX3s , one of my favorite point and shoots of all time, a dime a dozen. Now they're like 200 bucks if you can find a working one.”
O'Keefe says she frequently interacts with social media users who went online looking for their dream camera only to have gotten scammed. “A person who messaged me this morning was just devastated,” she says. “Scams are rampant now because they’ve picked up on this market being sort of a zeitgeist thing.” She recommends sticking with sellers on platforms that have clear protections in place for dealing with scams and fraud, like eBay. “I have never had an issue getting refunded when the item didn't work." Even when dealing with a trustworthy seller, vintage digital camera collecting is not for the faint of heart. “If I'm interested in a camera, I make sure that the batteries are still made because some are no longer in production,” says O’Keefe. She warns that even if a used camera comes with its original batteries, those cells will most likely not hold a charge. When there are no new batteries to be had, Sofia Lee and her cohort have resuscitated vintage cameras using modern tech: "With our Kyoceras, one of the biggest issues is the batteries are no longer in production and they all die really quickly. What we ended up doing is using 5V DC cables that connect them to USB, then we shoot them tethered to a power bank. So if you see someone shooting with a Kyocera, they're almost always holding the power bank and a digicam in their other hand." And then there's the question of where to store all those JPEGs. "A lot of people don't think about memory card format, so that can get tricky," cautions Warner. Many vintage cameras use the CompactFlash format, and those are still widely supported. But just as many digicams use deprecated storage formats like Olympus's xD or Sony's MemoryStick. ”They don't make those cards anymore,” Warner says. “Some of them have adapters you can use but some [cameras] don't work with the adapters." Even if the batteries and memory cards get sorted out, Sofia Lee underscores that every piece of vintage equipment has an expiration date. "There is this looming threat, when it comes to digicams—this is a finite resource." Like with any other vintage tech, over time, capacitors go bad , gears break, sensors corrode , and, in some circumstances, rubber grips devulcanize back into a sticky goo. Lee’s beloved Kyoceras are one such victim of the ravages of time. "I've had 15 copies pass through my hands. Around 11 of them were dead on arrival, and three died within a year. That means I have one left right now. It's basically a special occasions-only camera, because I just never know when it's going to die." These photographers have learned that it's sometimes better to move on from a potential ticking time bomb, especially if the device is still in demand. O'Keefe points to the Epson R-D1 as an example. This digital rangefinder from printer-maker Epson, with gauges on the top made by Epson's watchmaking arm Seiko, was originally sold as a Leica alternative, but now it fetches Leica-like premium prices. "I actually sold mine a year and a half ago,” she says. “I loved it, it was beautiful. But there's a point for me, where I can see that this thing is certainly going to die, probably in the next five years. So I did sell that one, but it is such an awesome experience to shoot. Cause what other digital camera has a lever that actually winds the shutter?" #NoBadCameras
For a group of people with a recent influx of newbies, the digicam community seems to be adjusting well. Sofia Lee says the growing popularity of digicams is an opportunity to meet new collaborators in a field where it used to be hard to connect with like-minded folks. "I love that there are more people interested in this, because when I was first getting into it I was considered totally crazy," she says. Despite the definition of digicam morphing to include a wider array of cameras, Lee seems to be accepting of all comers. "I'm rather permissive in allowing people to explore what they consider is right," says Lee. While not every camera is "right" for every photographer, many of them agree on one thing: Resurrecting used equipment is a win for the planet, and a way to resist the constant upgrade churn of consumer technology. "It's interesting to look at what is considered obsolete," Lee says. "From a carbon standpoint, the biggest footprint is at the moment of manufacture, which means that every piece of technology has this unfulfilled potential." O'Keefe agrees: "I love it from an environmental perspective. Do we really need to drive waste [by releasing] a new camera every few months?" For James Warner, part of the appeal is using lower-cost equipment that more people can afford. And with that lower cost of entry comes easier access to the larger creator community. “With some clubs you're not invited if you don't have the nice stuff,” he says. “But they feel welcome and like they can participate in photography on a budget." O’Keefe has even coined the hashtag #NoBadCameras. She believes all digicams have unique characteristics, and that if a curious photographer just takes the time to get to know the device, it can deliver good results. “Don't be precious about it,” she says. “Just pick something up, shoot it, and have fun.”
This story originally appeared on wired.com .

Vintage digicams aren’t just a fad. They’re an artistic statement.

Press Release• Aug 9, 2024 09:00 EDT
SEATTLE, August 9, 2024 (Newswire.com)        - DPReview , the ultimate authority for all things photography, videography and creative technology, and MPB , the world’s largest online platform to buy, sell, and trade used photography and videography equipment, are pleased to announce a strategic partnership in celebration of DPReview’s 25th anniversary. For the past quarter-century, DPReview’s rigorous testing and in-depth reviews have set the industry standard for comprehensive and reliable product journalism, and its canon of in-depth content is a cherished resource to a deeply passionate community of photographers and creators. “DPReview's influence and essence are all thanks to the photography and creative community over these past 25 years. And we couldn’t be more excited about the decades to come,” says Eric Yang, Founder and CEO of Gear Patrol, DPReview’s parent company. “This partnership with MPB is a landmark moment in DPR's history and the beginning of what we hope to be a new enthusiast-first era in photography product journalism." "This anniversary holds special significance as DPReview was at risk of closure last year,” reflects DPReview Editor-in-Chief Dale Baskin. “Thanks to the passionate support of the photography community, DPReview will continue to serve the readers including hosting more than 25 years of invaluable historical information from the dawn of the digital photography era. We are delighted that MPB is supporting DPReview to celebrate this important milestone." To celebrate, DPR’s editorial team has launched special, ongoing coverage complete with  retrospectives ,  audience participation pieces , and exclusive behind-the-scenes content . All of the 25th Anniversary content is housed on an  interactive hub designed to enhance user experience and discovery, a first-of-its-kind for DPR. As the presenting sponsor of this special editorial package, MPB is supporting the kind of quality product journalism DPR hopes to continue for another 25 years and beyond. “We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone with DPReview,” says Tammy Oler, VP of Marketing for MPB. “We know how essential DPReview’s trustworthy and consistent product journalism has been since the earliest days of digital photography. As the platform that brings that same level of trust and consistency to the used camera market, MPB is excited to partner with DPReview to ensure that everyone with an interest in photography and videography can find the gear they need to develop their talent.”
MPB’s support of DPR’s 25th anniversary coverage is more than a simple sponsorship; the brand will open its inventory of used equipment to DPR’s editors for exclusive retrospective testing and more. Additionally, DPR has bolstered its popular side-by-side comparison tool to enable to more seamlessly trade in or buy a used camera via MPB. Source: DPReview

DPReview.com Reflects on 25 Years of Photography Journalism With Special Editorial Package, Presented by MPB

(Image credit: Future)
When Sony announced the A9 III in November, its new kind of sensor with a 'global shutter' and industry-leading performance hit the headlines. This full-frame mirrorless camera for pro wildlife and sports photography promises distortion-free 120fps burst shooting at full quality in raw and JPEG with continuous 759-point autofocus, as well as super-fast flash sync speeds. The mind boggled. Sony was again pushing the boundaries in what was the biggest camera hardware innovation of 2023, in what could be one of the best professional cameras ever that's destined for life in the press pits at the world's biggest sporting events. Yet as the dust settled and the camera's specification was scrutinized, a burning question arose – what about image quality? I attended the product launch back in November and had a brief A9 III hands-on with a pre-production version, shooting a number of action scenes of professional athletes on the track doing hurdles and long jump, plus a sweaty indoor training facility for boxers. My first impressions were highly positive, but it wasn't nearly enough time to know for sure how the flagship camera fairs for real. Ahead of TechRadar's own in-depth testing, DPReview just published its first studio test findings from a full-production A9 III. Spoiler alert – it does appear there's an image quality trade-off in getting the A9 III's unprecedented speed. Sorry Sony, DPReview disagrees
A 60fps sequence of an Olympic athlete jumping over a hurdle on a race track, taken at ISO 5000 with a pre production version of the Sony A9 III (Image credit: Future)
The new kind of sensor – for a mirrorless camera at least – reads all the sensor's pixels simultaneously and eliminates the 'rolling shutter' distortion in photos and video that you can get with the electronic sensors used to enable top performance in most other cameras. Whether you're shooting fast subjects or tracking high-speed action, there's no unsightly distortion in your photos and videos. On paper, the A9 III is a dream camera for pro sports and wildlife photographers. However, its sensor has a more complex design and a reduced capacity for light that can have an adverse impact on image quality, namely dynamic range and ISO performance. These are drawbacks that Sony says it has addressed, but DPReview's A9 III findings appear to say otherwise. The A9 III has a base ISO of 250, whereas its predecessor, the A9 II's, is ISO 100, hence the older A9 II's maximum dynamic range is better, as well as rivals like the Nikon Z9. However, people aren't buying the A9 III to shoot highly detailed landscape photos at low ISOs, they're in it for speed, and for speed you need high ISOs. A high-speed, disotrtion-free sequence taken with a pre production Sony A9 III (Image credit: Future)
DPReview's comparison tests are favorable for the A9 III at its base ISO 250, holding its own against the A9 II and Nikon Z9 in like-for-like images. However, it's when you increase ISO – for example to ISO 6400 necessary for shooting in low light or for the extra fast shutter speeds the A9 III has, up to 1/80,000 sec – that noise becomes more evident in the A9 III than full-frame rivals. DPReview says that the difference is around 1EV, akin to the typical difference between full-frame and APS-C cameras. Put simply, there's more noise (grain) in the A9 III images at ISO 6400 and higher that affects detail and dynamic range than a camera like the Z9. Describing the high ISO performance of the full-frame A9 III as 'APS-C-like' is a bit of a kick in the shin, and puts a dampener on the new flagship especially for those inevitably shooting under arena floodlights as main events run into the night. Will the A9 III reign supreme? (Image credit: Future)
We can't totally read into the numbers that will be published about the A9 III. With a base ISO 250, its dynamic range won't compare favorably to rivals that shoot at ISO 100. And if you're shooting in the sweet spot of the A9 III which looks to be somewhere between ISO 250 - 3200, it'll largely compare well. I suspect there's a quorum of pro photographers that shoot a lot in low light who will want to see more of the A9 III before committing to it as their tool for when it matters the most – under the giddy lights of the biggest global sporting events like the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. We need to remember what's most important though; the absolute best image quality, or the peace of mind knowing you won't get any ugly distortion in your photos and videos of high speed action (and in a camera that also has unique features, like flash sync at any shutter speed). A small compromise on image quality that can be improved by the sophisticated noise reduction tools in the best AI photo editors , seems like a sacrifice worth making to gain the unmatched speed of the A9 III. We'll be sure to share our own in-depth tests once we have completed them, so do look out for those. You might also like

The Sony A9 III’s lightning-fast global shutter comes with an image quality trade-off

Welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Thank you for subscribing to Startups Weekly. This week, I’m taking my parents to Yosemite to explore the snowy peaks and to see if my car can handle snow. In lieu of a regular Startups Weekly, I figured I’d dive in and give you a reminder of some of the biggest startup stories from 2024 — both on ProWellTech and our subscription sibling ProWellTech+. Here are some of the biggest themes that have echoed throughout the startup ecosystem in 2023. Crime and punishment
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / ProWellTech
Some of the biggest startup stories on ProWellTech in 2023 were related to the deeds and misdeeds of those in the ecosystem. By far one of our most-read stories this year was the murder of Bob Leebest known as the creator of Cash App and former CTO of Square. He was tragically killed in a stabbing incident in San Francisco, in the otherwise usually quiet Financial District. Rolling Stone picked up the story from there, digging into who Bob Lee and his alleged murderer were. The other big story was the trial of Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes. She is now serving a prison sentence of 11 years and 3 months after being indicted for wire fraud in a scheme to defraud investors. Theranos, once valued at $10 billion, promised revolutionary blood testing technology but was exposed in 2015 for its nonfunctional technology, which posed health risks to patients. The subsequent unraveling of Theranos led to numerous lawsuits and government investigations. The case serves as a stark reminder of the consequences of fraudulent practices and that the “fake it till you make it” approach that can be prevalent among startups doesn’t always work out. The other big “hmm, maybe you shouldn’t have done that” serial story of the year was the Sam Bankman-Fried trialwhich extended over five weeks. It turned out to be a spectacle of evasion and memory lapses. The former CEO of FTX faced the jury for several days, delivering a testimony that was remarkable mostly for its lack of substance. When cross-examined by prosecutors about his past decisions and actions, Bankman-Fried’s responses were predominantly “Yup” (372 times), “Not sure” (117 times), and “I don’t remember” (73 times). He was found guilty on all seven charges of fraud and money laundering, and will be sentenced in March 2024. Around the same time, there will likely be a second trial, with a bunch of additional charges. More from the courts and legal systems:
It’s not just the startups . . . : Former VC Mike Rothenberg, known for hosting extravagant parties, was convicted on 21 counts last month, including for bank fraud, false statements, money laundering, and wire fraud. The conviction brings his journey from a promising entrepreneur, launching a VC firm in 2013, to being a convicted fraudster to a close. He was originally charged with fraud by the SEC in 2018, which resulted him having to pay $31 million. Sentencing in the fraud case is scheduled for March. I’m trying to reach you about your extended warranty: The FCC imposed a record $300 million fine on a robocaller operation for scamming people with fake auto warranty sales. This operation made at least 5 billion calls. The Swiss army knife for hackers: Flipper Zero, a multi-tool hacking device, is on track to achieve $80 million in sales this year, a significant increase from its $25 million sales last year. Started in 2020, the device can manipulate various systems like garage openers and RFID card systems. The fun and quirky
Image Credits: Brian Heater
The world of startups wasn’t just murders, fraud and shenanigans — some of our most-read stories this year were a lot more lighthearted, thank goodness. One of the highlights was Apple’s 31 new emojis — including a shaking face for when you’re “shook” and a pink heart because, obviously, we need more heart colors. There are even two pushing hands that could mean “stop” or “high five” — because interpreting vague hand gestures is what we all needed more of. Want to spam your friends with a moose or a jellyfish? Apple had your back this year. My other favorites in the more-or-less-quirky-news category:
[very recognizable drum riff]: MindGeek, the owner of adult entertainment sites such as Pornhub, Brazzers, and RedTube, was acquired by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Strap this computer to your face: Apple’s new mixed-reality (XR) device made a significant impact with its high-quality hardware and features. It boasts 24 million pixels across two panels and advanced optics. It has brand-new chips to ensure smooth performance without judder or frame drops, with accurate eye tracking and gesture control. Panzer tried it out, and I argued that the device would be a game-changer for startups operating in the space. We’re getting a little bored of Elon’s antics: At some point, ProWellTech editor Darrell decided he had enough, and penned this piece — concluding that enough is enough. The year of AI
Image Credits: Darrell Etherington with files from Getty under license
There can be little doubt that, above all, for better and for worse, 2023 was the year of AI. OpenAI was on everybody’s lips. The company made GPT-4 universally available, which got everyone hella excited. It also gave ChatGPT the ability to browse the broader internet, which unlocked a world of functionality and excitement. The darker side of AI got its time in the limelight as well. The advancement of AI porn generators, such as Unstable Diffusion, has raised significant ethical and societal concerns. These generators, which have improved in creating more realistic and diverse images, are posing some new risks — and continues to make the internet more toxic, especially for women (the majority of deepfake pornography targets women and is often used as a tool for harassment). We were also successful in tricking Lensa into generating NSFW content by putting crudely photoshopped photos into its source material. In short: maybe deepfakes-for-all is worse than we thought. Another big AI drama story of the year was Sam Altman getting fired as OpenAI’s CEO. We put together a whole timeline, because, goodness, that was quite the saga. From the desk of “didn’t see that coming”
Image Credits: Nikolas Liepins/Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
If there’s one thing startups love doing, it’s throwing curveballs. This year was no exception, and here are a handful of the most surprising ones:
A banking collapse: Everything was fine one moment, then suddenly one of the biggest startup banks — Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB among friends — took a nosedive. We put together a timeline of what happened, along with a wall of coverage and analysis. Venture debt was one of the big question marks post-collapse. The DPReview saga: DPReview, a renowned digital camera review site, was shut down by Amazon after 25 years of operation, before Gear Patrol bought the property and revived it. That submarine story: OceanGate trying to dip down to the Titanic and imploding in the process was everywhere for a hot moment. A whistleblower was fired in January 2018 after presenting a scathing quality-control report on the vessel to OceanGate’s senior management, including founder and CEO Stockton Rush — who later died onboard the submarine. We originally covered the company back in 2017 when it first revealed the plans to go 3D-scan the Titanic. Is it a bird? Is it a balloon? : Pathfinder 1 is an electric airship that’s giving the Goodyear blimp a run for its money. At 124.5 meters long, it’s like the Hindenburg had a tech-savvy baby with a drone. With 12 electric motors and a penchant for helium (significantly safer than its high-explosive, Hindenburg-exploding hydrogen counterpart), it’s set to conquer the skies at a whopping 75 mph . . . eventually. Round after round after round of layoffs: Woof. The biggest hits from TC+
ProWellTech+ is ProWellTech’s subscription service, offering in-depth analysis, exclusive articles, and comprehensive reports on the technology industry, startups, and venture capital. If you’re not a subscriber — well, you should absolutely subscribe. My popular Pitch Deck Teardown series is up to more than 75 sample pitch decks, complete with analysis for what’s working and what ain’t. And, of course, there’s oodles of additional amazing content too. Here’s a handful of stories you may have missed:
From cloud to on-premise: After a decade of cloud transformations, sophisticated enterprises are now developing hybrid strategies to support critical data science initiatives, moving away from exclusive reliance on cloud computing and bringing workloads back to on-premises systems. The evolution of layoffs: Back in July, we looked at how the era of tech layoffs was evolving, noting that while it was not over, it was losing some of its intensity and was developing into its own unique trend. Stage appropriate over perfection: Startups should focus on creating minimum viable products that are laser-focused on answering specific questions, rather than trying to scale too quickly, wasting resources in the process. Hey, OpenAI, generate a marketing strategy: In this case study, we showed how using OpenAI for generating marketing strategies led to significant improvements in SEO ranking on Google, resulting in a substantial increase in site traffic, domain rating, and backlinks in less than a year. Build on someone else’s tech and get burned: An update on OpenAI’s ChatGPT allowed for PDF uploads. That was a spanner in the work for startups, especially those built around a feature gap in ChatGPT. It underscored the vulnerability of such businesses to changes in underlying technologies. Growth is hard: The former CEO of PlanGrid reflected on key mistakes they made while leading the company to $100 million in annual recurring revenue, offering insights to help other founders avoid similar pitfalls. Setting the stage for a battery gold rush: Volkswagen’s breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology could significantly impact the automotive industry, especially as it grapples with increased costs due to inflation and supply chain issues. F you, pay me: If an investor tells you not to take a salary after you’ve raised VC funding, tell them to go do something anatomically strenuous. The best laid plans of mice and men: We examine the evolution of fintech over the past decade, looking on several hyped fintech ideas that ultimately failed to transform the financial services industry as intended. To remote or not to remote: We looked at the shift in remote work startups, where initial enthusiasm for dedicated remote work tools has waned, as companies have adapted to a hybrid work model rather than a purely remote one, leading to challenges for startups focused solely on remote work solutions. Here’s why your pitch deck sucks: In the year of AI, I built a tool that analyzes startup pitch decks (because of course I did — why wouldn’t I build a tool that puts me out of business) and found a ton of interesting data about what startup founders get wrong when they create pitch decks. Oh, and because I just know you are crazy curious: The featured image of this post was taken with an iPhone 14 Pro Max. I created the bauble using the Circular Name Ornament creator from Cuttle Labs, along with a Glowforge Aura. After I reviewed the entry-level laser cutter from Glowforge in July, I decided that I just had to have one. Because, well, what kind of nerd would I be if I didn’t set shit on fire on a semi-regular basis. Happy New Year — see y’all in 2024! Related

Startups Yearly: The biggest startup stories from 2023

Acquired - II

DPReview provides information on photography gear. The company provides reviews and content on digital cameras, lenses, and other accessories. It provides coverage of digital photography gear. It was founded in 1998 and is based in Seattle, Washington. In June 2023, DPReview was acquired by Gear Patrol. The terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

Date	Round	Investors	Valuation Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model.	Revenue	Sources
6/21/2023	Acquired - II	Gear Patrol	$XXM	0 FY undefined	4
3/21/2023	Dead	Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10
5/14/2007	Acquired	Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10

Date	6/21/2023	3/21/2023	5/14/2007
Round	Acquired - II	Dead	Acquired
Amount
Investors	Gear Patrol	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Valuation	$XXM	$XXM	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined
Sources	4	10	10

First funding	Last Funding	Investor	Rounds	Board Seats	Type	Location
6/21/2023	6/21/2023	Gear Patrol	1 Acquired - II			New York
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Amazon	Subscribe to see more		Corporation	Washington

First funding	6/21/2023	00/00/0000
Last Funding	6/21/2023	00/00/0000
Investor	Gear Patrol	Amazon
Rounds	1 Acquired - II	Subscribe to see more
Board Seats
Type		Corporation
Location	New York	Washington

How VCs Use CB Insights

Professional Services

Platform Overview

DPReview

Investors Count

Funding, Valuation & Revenue

DPReview Investors