We recently launched the new DPReview website with a beta logo at the top of the page. The site is in beta for a reason: we’re aware that there are things to fix and improve, and our team is actively working to address outstanding issues. The beta logo reflects our ongoing effort to improve functionality, features and the overall user experience.

To make sure you know where to find the latest updates, report bugs or usability issues, or discuss changes to the site, we’ve set up a dedicated forum section to consolidate this information in one place.

Keep updated on changes

Progress updates: To see the latest updates from our team, visit the dedicated Change log thread. This is where we’ll post updates to let you know what changes, updates or bug fixes we’ve made to the site. We are making updates on a rolling basis based on a combination of prioritization and ease of fix. We expect this process to go on for quite some time.

Report a bug or usability issue: If you encounter a bug or usability issue, please use the Known issues and bug reports thread in our forum to share it with us. We keep the first post in that thread updated with all the reports we’re tracking, so please check there first to see if your issue has already been reported before reporting a new one.

New site discussion: If you have other questions or just want to discuss the new site, please create a post in the Website redesign feedback, questions and help section of the forums.

One more thing: If you haven’t already done so, we encourage you to read our article Gear Patrol founder Eric Yang: Why we rebuilt DPReview after 25 years, which provides additional context for why we’re making this change now.

We’ve already heard a lot of valuable feedback, and will continue to gather it to help shape our development and improvement roadmap. Thank you for your patience, feedback and support as we get things dialed in.

DPReview has an all-new website, our first redesign from the ground up in over 25 years. For the full story, see our announcement article. If you just want a quick answer, you’re in the right place.

If your question isn’t covered here, post it in this forum thread or in the comments below, and we’ll get you an answer. If it’s something others would find useful, we’ll add it here.

General questions

Q: Does the new site signal a change in DPReview’s coverage?
A: Our editorial mandate isn’t changing. We’ll continue to bring you the same authoritative, unbiased coverage of cameras and photography you’ve come to depend on, written by the same people.

Q: Was the old site broken? If not, why change?
A: Not broken, but overdue. The site has been running on the same aging codebase for over 25 years, and maintaining it has become increasingly costly and limiting. Moving DPReview onto a modern platform means we can invest in new features and improvements far more efficiently than we could on legacy infrastructure while keeping DPReview’s editorial identity fully intact. The old system was a ceiling. This removes it.

Q: Does the new site have a ‘light’ mode?
A: No. At this time, the site is exclusively in dark mode.

Account and history

Q: Do I need to do anything to update my account?
A: No, your account will transfer over to the new site automatically.

Q: Will my comments, forum posts and history carry over?
A: Yes, your previous account history, including comments, will follow your account to the new site.

Q: Do I need to log in again or reset my password?
A: No, you should not need to log in again on the new site.

Article comments

Q: What happened to my old comments?
A: Your comments are all being migrated and won’t be lost. Older comments take longer to move over, so they’ll appear in stages: the most recent should return within a few hours of launch, comments from earlier this year within a day, and older comments over the following days.

Q: Why did you change the commenting system?
A: Our previous commenting system was deeply integrated with the old website, and it wasn’t feasible to bring it over to the new one. We know commenting matters to many members of our community, so keeping it meant building a new system on a new foundation. Comments still appear under articles, but they work a bit differently.

Q: Why aren’t comment replies nested anymore?
A: They’re not, and we want to be upfront about it. The old system nested replies one level deep, to indicate which reply belonged to which comment. The new system works differently. Instead, you can quote the comment you’re replying to, so it’s still clear who you’re responding to.

Q: How do I reply to someone now?
A: Click the “Reply” button under their comment to start a reply. If you want to quote the other person for clarity, you can click the “Quote Reply” button and the system will quote the other user above your text.

Ads

Q: How do I get fewer ads?
A: Log into your DPReview account when browsing the site. If you’re not registered, creating a free account and signing up for our newsletter takes a minute and gets you the same benefit.

Q: I’m logged in. Why do I still see ads?
A: This isn’t meant to be an “ad-free” experience. You’ll still see ads, but fewer of them. We still rely on advertising to help fund DPReview, but as a thank-you to our registered users, we’re giving logged-in visitors a cleaner page.

Q: Is there a paid ad-free subscription?
A: Not currently, but it’s something we’re exploring for the future.

Challenges

Q: What happened to Challenges?
A: As we mentioned in April, our old Challenges system was tied closely to the previous site and couldn’t move over as-is. Rather than rebuild it exactly as it was, we’re building a new Challenges system from the ground up that reflects a lot of the feedback you’ve given us over the years. It’s actively in development.

Forums

Q: Does the new website impact the forums?
A: No, the forums are not affected. They run on a separate platform that isn’t part of this migration, so you can keep using them exactly as before. To get there from the new homepage, click “Discussions” in the navigation bar, which links directly to our most popular forums, or select “All Forums” to see the full index.

The Beta label and site speed

Q: Why does it say “Beta” at the top of the site?
A: It’s our way of being upfront that we’ll keep refining things over the coming weeks. That includes addressing known issues and dialing in details as we go. Separately, a small number of features, like Challenges, aren’t live yet and are being rebuilt from the ground up; you can read more about that below.

Q: How long will it stay in beta?
A: We expect the site to stay in beta for several weeks. We’ll drop the label once we’re confident the site has earned it.

Q: Why are some pages loading slowly?
A: In the first days after launch, some pages, especially photo-heavy ones, may load more slowly than usual. The site caches an optimized version of each image and page the first time it’s viewed and serves the fast cached copy thereafter. Right after launch, those caches are still filling in, so the first visit to a given page does more work than subsequent visits, which should load more quickly.

Getting help and bug reporting

Q: I have a question or need help. Where do I go?
A: Please visit the community forums to ask questions and discuss the site redesign. You can also report issues there as well. If you are unable to log in or have other access issues that prevent you from posting in the forums, please email us and include your account username, along with a brief description of the issue, at community@dpreview.com.

Q: How do I report a bug
A: If you discover a bug you’d like to share with us, please report it using this forum thread. Note that we will keep an updated list of reported bugs in the first post of the thread, so take a moment to review that list in case your bug has already been reported.

Back in April, we shared some big news : for the first time since DPReview went live in 1998, we’ve been rebuilding the entire site from the ground up. This isn’t just a cosmetic update or a new coat of paint, but a rebuilding of the entire codebase and migration to a modern web platform we can support for years to come.

After months of work, we’re ready to make the switch. This has been a massive undertaking. Beyond building everything that’s new, we’ve had to migrate more than 25 years of content, product databases, widgets, and more to an entirely new system.

It took a little longer to wrap up than we expected, and that was deliberate: we wanted certain things working properly out of the gate rather than rushed. A good example is our Image Comparison Tool , the widget that lets you compare studio scene images between cameras. We haven’t just rewritten it for the new site; we’ve redesigned it to work well on phones and tablets, too.

Here’s what to expect over the next few days, and how the change might affect your use of the site.

What to expect

The migration begins tomorrow, Friday, July 3. You can keep using the site as usual during this period, with a couple of limitations:

• Comments on articles will be frozen so we can migrate them to the new system.
• Creation of new DPReview accounts (including forum accounts) will be temporarily unavailable.

On Wednesday, July 8, we plan to flip the switch and turn on the new site. From that point, you’ll see the new DPReview website in place of the current one.

The forums will not be directly impacted by the migration. If you’re already a registered forum user, you can carry on as normal.

Once the new site goes live

Launch day is the start, not the finish line. As with any project of this scale, some things will take some additional time to wrap up. We’ll make sure to share a list of work still in progress, along with FAQs covering the new site and how to get support.

We will also set up a dedicated forum thread to log known issues and provide a place to report bugs and ask questions. Some bugs will inevitably slip through, and we appreciate your patience as we track them down and fix them.

In the meantime, we’re re-sharing the FAQ we published a few weeks ago, in case anything comes up before launch. Once the new site is live, we’ll add more FAQs to cover additional questions we know you’ll have.

None of this would have been possible without you. Your feedback over the years – including all comments, direct messages, emails, and the occasional rant – helped shape the new site. We’re looking forward to sharing the results and building the next phase of DPReview alongside you.

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FAQs

Is the current site broken? If not, why change?

Not broken, but overdue. The site has been running on the same aging codebase for over 25 years, and maintaining it has become increasingly costly and limiting. Moving DPReview onto a modern shared platform with our sister site Gear Patrol means we can invest in new features and improvements far more efficiently than we could on legacy infrastructure while keeping DPReview’s editorial identity fully intact. The old system was a ceiling. This removes it.

Will this affect DPReview’s editorial content?

Our editorial mandate isn’t changing. We’ll continue to bring you the same authoritative, unbiased coverage of cameras and photography you’ve come to depend on, written by the same people.

When can I see what the new site looks like?

We hope to share some sneak peeks in the weeks leading up to launch. You’ll be able to see the full site on launch day.

Will the new site be faster?

Yes, the new site will be faster and more reliable for most things. That said, some functions are limited by factors outside our control. Downloading a large sample image, for example, still depends on your connection speed. We can make the site faster, but we can’t speed up the entire internet 🙂

Will the review archive and the camera and lens databases be available at launch?

Yes. We are migrating all our existing content, including articles, reviews and the camera and lens databases.

Will the site still be optimized for desktop users with large monitors?

Absolutely. While mobile is an important part of the new design, we have no intention of short-changing desktop users. We love big, beautiful photos, and if you’re on a large monitor, we want you to get the full benefit of that experience.

Will my saved bookmarks still work?

Yes, existing bookmarks will continue to work.

Why do you need to freeze the Challenges system?

The current Challenges system will not be carried over to the new site – we’re building a new one that will launch after the site goes live. To avoid any challenges starting under the old system that can’t be completed during the transition, we’re freezing new challenge creation on April 25th. Any challenges already underway will complete normally before the switchover.

Will this affect the forums?

The new website will not change how our forums work. There may be minor cosmetic updates to align with the new site design, but the forum experience will remain fundamentally the same.

Will the new site have ads?

Yes. Advertising is one of the ways we fund DPReview’s operations, and that won’t change with the new site.

Will my account and post history be preserved?

Yes. Your account, comments, forum posts, and history will all carry over to the new site.

Will there be further updates after launch?

This is the beginning, not the end. We’ll continue to make improvements after launch, and the new codebase will make it significantly easier to introduce new tools and features going forward.

How can I provide feedback?

You can leave a comment below or reach us at community@dpreview.com . Once the new site is live, we’ll have a dedicated area of our forums where you can ask questions, discuss the changes, and share feedback.