[HarryLally]

Klaus,



I see that dpreview has announced today that it is linking its review database to your reviews (just lenses or cameras too?) here at PZ. Seems an odd thing to do for a commercial site to direct traffic your way. Are you paying them for this? Or could it be a prelude to a bid for dpr to buy out PZ?



Michael

[mst]

[quote name='HarryLally' timestamp='1303914224' post='7932']

(just lenses or cameras too?)

[/quote]



Just lenses, it seems.



[quote name='HarryLally' timestamp='1303914224' post='7932']

Seems an odd thing to do for a commercial site to direct traffic your way.

[/quote]



Not necessarily. They add value to their product database and this way intend to make it a more attractive place to go to for information. It seems they focus on camera tests again and at least for lenses this is the easiest way to add reviews. In addition, they link to user reviews and user sample images, which no doubt makes this a rather complete product database.



They contacted Klaus about this a few months ago already. When they launched their product database without links to other sites, we already presumed they had dropped the idea again.



[quote name='HarryLally' timestamp='1303914224' post='7932']

Are you paying them for this?

[/quote]



No.



It was their idea to add external links and it is of course their decision whom they link to.



[quote name='HarryLally' timestamp='1303914224' post='7932']

Or could it be a prelude to a bid for dpr to buy out PZ?

[/quote]



Not to my knowledge. Klaus? <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



-- Markus

[Klaus]

Simon contacted me a while ago about this.

I didn't know when they were going to release it nor is there some sort of formal agreement.



And yes, they're doing this for free. I will not complain of course.

They belong to amazon as you may remember and amazon is also earning money via the ads on our site so to some degree it is a win-win anyway.



Whether it has an effect ? I'm expecting a little more traffic but it will not be a magnitude more. Today's traffic data does not suggest this at least.

[joachim]

[quote name='HarryLally' timestamp='1303914224' post='7932']

Klaus,



I see that dpreview has announced today that it is linking its review database to your reviews (just lenses or cameras too?) here at PZ. Seems an odd thing to do for a commercial site to direct traffic your way. Are you paying them for this? Or could it be a prelude to a bid for dpr to buy out PZ?



Michael

[/quote]



Ah, didn't notice so far. Just noticed some time ago, that their lens reviews weren't progressing any more and seemed to have run out of steam. So this implies I shouldn't expect anything from them any more in the lens department. A bit sad, I liked to have a look at their reviews as well. Typically their findings agreed with what Klaus and the "gang" had worked out.



Joachim

[HarryLally]

[quote name='joachim' timestamp='1303922972' post='7938']

Ah, didn't notice so far. Just noticed some time ago, that their lens reviews weren't progressing any more and seemed to have run out of steam. So this implies I shouldn't expect anything from them any more in the lens department. A bit sad, I liked to have a look at their reviews as well. Typically their findings agreed with what Klaus and the "gang" had worked out.



Joachim

[/quote]



I always found their testing widget ridiculously over-complicated. It must have been very time-consuming (and inefficient use of time) to provide so much detail which doesn't actually tell you any more about a lens than the PZ tests. Quite apart from lacking the sort of insights and authority you get from Klaus and Markus here based on their long experience of testing and field use. I much prefer the 'at-a-glance' simplicity of the PZ test results and indeed I have bought all my 7 lenses on the basis of PZ tests plus reference to user feedback on Fred Miranda. I have not been disappointed with any of them.



Michael

[Guest]

Well, without wanting to take out the honeypot deliberately, PZ remains my #1 trusted source for lens review as well, just because it is really based on in field usage combined with measurements. But the dp-reviews had a very nice feature: measurements in 1/3 aperture steps. This was very practical for large aperture lenses to find the personal compromise between resolving power and light gathering ability, or at least to fine-tune the aperture setting. Granted, that didn't do much for giving an overall view about the quality of a lens.



Christian