Behind the scenes: DPReview moves to a new studio: Digital Photography Review – digitalcameras.ie

The DPReview video manufacturing studio within the technique of being disassembled. These wires hanging from the ceiling are a part of the DMX gentle management system that enables us to regulate our Arri lights from an iPad.

In case you’ve adopted the trajectory of DPReview over the previous few months, you recognize that 2023 has been a wild journey.

First, Amazon determined to shut the positioning. Then, we operated in a surreal limbo world for a time, publishing previous our introduced closure date as if nothing had occurred. (Sure, that was bizarre for us too.) Lastly, on June twentieth, Amazon introduced the positioning’s sale to Gear Patrol.

Not solely did DPReview discover a technique to dwell on, however we could not have been extra excited to hitch an organization that so intently aligns with our values and mission.

So, right here we’re.

But it surely’s not fairly that straightforward. As we continued to publish over the summer time, many issues had been happening behind the scenes; one of the vital impacts of the sale was that we wanted to maneuver out of our longtime places of work and studios in an Amazon constructing. We had been excited to discover a new residence to name our personal, however I am undecided we realized simply how a lot work it will be.

Our new house has a extra chilled-out vibe, with 100-year-old brick partitions. The realm you see right here will seemingly be our new video manufacturing studio.

Our new house is situated in a century-old constructing in a vibrant, historic space of Seattle and is rather a lot totally different than our earlier residence. The place our outdated studio felt a bit… company, our new one is extra informal, with brick partitions, a variety of character, and the occasional scent of eating places wafting up from the road beneath. We’re nonetheless understanding one of the simplest ways to arrange the house, however we predict it will likely be a variety of enjoyable, and we look ahead to having you be part of us right here nearly.

Anybody who has ever moved (and is not that every one of us, actually?) is aware of the method can get difficult shortly, and transferring an operation like DPReview turned out to be extremely advanced.

After placing cameras and lenses into retail containers in our testing studio, they moved to our video studio (above), the place they had been sorted for return to producers or boxed as much as transfer.

To begin, we needed to stock tons of of cameras, lenses and different picture gear in opposition to our gear database to confirm that every thing was accounted for, then pack all of it, together with equipment like batteries and straps, into retail containers. Many of those had been returned to producers as a part of our commonplace mortgage agreements, with the rest packed fastidiously for transferring.

Subsequent, we needed to bodily disassemble and pack all of the gear in our studios, together with lights, backdrops, stands, testing gear, product pictures gear, and even the furnishings for transferring. This required cautious work: Arri and Kino lights do not come low-cost, and we wished to get to the opposite finish with every thing intact.

That is our testing studio after all of the gear was moved out. These marks on the left wall are the place the studio scene used to dwell. We spent a variety of time on this room over time, and I am going to admit it was slightly unhappy to show off the lights for the final time.

Lastly, we needed to unmount our studio take a look at scene from the wall and safe it for the transfer throughout city. However nothing is simple: understanding the take a look at scene is likely to be out of fee for just a few weeks, we needed to shoot each obtainable digicam ready to be reviewed earlier than taking it down.

Because of an excellent staff of movers, the method went easily. We even hand-carried just a few significantly fragile objects throughout city to make sure they arrived undamaged. Notably, DPReview’s outdated take a look at scene made the journey within the again seat of my Subaru, and I used to be cautious to not hit any potholes.

With new merchandise coming into our workplace each week, Richard and Brendan scrambled to arrange our product pictures room shortly.

Over the subsequent a number of weeks, we’ll arrange the studio in levels primarily based on a prioritized record of content material we have to create for you. (Jeez, I hope we are able to discover every thing…) The truth is, Richard and Brendan have already arrange our new product pictures room so we are able to take photographs of all the most recent gear coming by way of our places of work.

That is only the start, and we look ahead to sharing the journey with you as we go. Keep tuned for extra updates!