Stewardship of GetDPI: A New Chapter

[4season]

But you cannot fight the changing times - how are you going to change that forums as medium are declining, how do you change that Rodenstock is potentially exiting in the medium term and how do you change that P1 has not shown an IQ5?

How do you change that young people don't dive into the intricacies of the Arca R system if they can just get a Fuji GFX and a Fuji tilt?

You said it yourself: You can't fight some stuff. Perhaps the Phase One and Rodenstock era of DMF effectively ended some time ago. Manufacturers don't like to officially announce the end of a product line, preferring instead to either go silent, or offer positive-sounding words about the future without making specific promises.

How many young people ever bought into a full Arca R system? Seems mighty pricey and specialized for architecture. Meanwhile, architectural firms rely on rendering, because it allows them to do walkthroughs, or gauge how sunlight interacts with their creations.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

A few years ago I wanted to order a new Arca R, must habe been 2023 / 24. They said its not in stock and they'll make parts in a few months ... I think Arca R is extremely niche

 

[darr]

I’m not sure I understand the pessimism around medium format—digital or film. Photographers have always gravitated toward tools that reward intention, patience, and craft.

The Large Format Photography Forum has been around a long time and is still active, with new people regularly asking about cameras, film, and processing—so “niche” clearly doesn’t mean “dead.” And even on GetDPI right now, there’s a current thread where a newly registered member is asking for help putting together an 8×10 camera setup.

It’s also worth remembering that many interested photographers may never register or post, but they do read and learn from the information made available here. That quiet readership still matters.

Thoughtful thread cleanup for archiving or search performance might be sensible housekeeping, but it doesn’t mean the gear—or the interest in working with it—is going away. Medium format digital and film will likely continue exactly as large format has: not mainstream, but deeply valued by those who choose it.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Niche doesn't mean dead - I feel it is just a little family, that's fine if someone comes in and wants to start!

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

I fully agree with Godfrey !

It is said that the best publicity for anything is the "mouth to ear" publicity.
So, when us members communicate with fellow photographers, or show photos on social media, couldn't we make some publicity for GetDPI by systematically signing the message with a link to this forum ?
Maybe our fellow photographers might notice the link, click on it, like what she/he sees and join us ?

 

[mristuccia]

I apologize for being late to this thread, as I’ve been on vacation for the past three weeks and missed it.

First and foremost, I’m genuinely delighted that this GetDPI platform still exists, and I want to express my deepest gratitude to CI for keeping the forum alive. It’s an incredible community of remarkable individuals who have generously dedicated their valuable time to sharing their expertise and providing assistance to newcomers.

I’m relatively new here and don’t know the entire history, but it's clear to me that there’s an important legacy to preserve and leverage.

So, being an IT guy in addition to being a photographer, I have an intriguing proposal to enhance the searchability of this impressive knowledge base. Instead of improving the conventional search capabilities, I'd suggest using a private dedicated large language model (LLM) to ingest all the forum threads. Then, we can create a chat area where anyone can ask the AI any questions about the topics that have already been discussed. The AI can synthesize valuable answers and even provide links to the original threads where the answers were derived.

This is just a crazy idea that came to mind just now, out of the blue, costs in terms of resources and time need to be evaluated of course. However, I’m eager to give it a try. Perhaps I could work on a POC in my local workstation to verify its practical feasibility.

Apart from this, I enjoy the forum as it is, and I sincerely hope to contribute as much as others have contributed to my growth.

 

[cunim]

I apologize for being late to this thread, as I’ve been on vacation for the past three weeks and missed it.

First and foremost, I’m genuinely delighted that this GetDPI platform still exists, and I want to express my deepest gratitude to CI for keeping the forum alive. It’s an incredible community of remarkable individuals who have generously dedicated their valuable time to sharing their expertise and providing assistance to newcomers.

I’m relatively new here and don’t know the entire history, but it's clear to me that there’s an important legacy to preserve and leverage.

So, being an IT guy in addition to being a photographer, I have an intriguing proposal to enhance the searchability of this impressive knowledge base. Instead of improving the conventional search capabilities, I'd suggest using a private dedicated large language model (LLM) to ingest all the forum threads. Then, we can create a chat area where anyone can ask the AI any questions about the topics that have already been discussed. The AI can synthesize valuable answers and even provide links to the original threads where the answers were derived.

This is just a crazy idea that came to mind just now, out of the blue, costs in terms of resources and time need to be evaluated of course. However, I’m eager to give it a try. Perhaps I could work on a POC in my local workstation to verify its practical feasibility.

Apart from this, I enjoy the forum as it is, and I sincerely hope to contribute as much as others have contributed to my growth.

Marco, this sounds very interesting. If you are willing to put in the work, I would love to see the result.

 

[f8orbust]

I'd mostly concur with what other folks have said so far. And to all that I'd add:

1. The B&S section was (at one time) the biggest driver of casual ('walk in') traffic to the site (which for any advertiser, as well as the OP, is clearly important), but where once you posted your ad and that was it, today a FS add is often the starting point for some form of heated opinion piece, usually about price. It's annoying as a seller to deal with, and I'd certainly think twice before selling any high value items there.

How to fix it? Quite simple - I'd like to see the ability of the OP to lock their B&S listing so that all communication has to be via PM. This happens on other forums (e.g. Photrio), and the forum software has (as far as I'm aware) the functionality - it just needs switching on. And of course, if anyone has any concerns about the integrity of a particular listing, they could always start a separate thread or contact a moderator. And given the change of ownership, I have confidence now that a moderator would act.

2. Always good to see spammers and commercial vendors masquerading as genuine users kicked off sharpish.

3. GetDPI's USP always used to be it's weighted focus towards medium format - which made (and still makes) sense as there are a ton of other places out there if you want to chat about anything else - and so to that end I don't see any problem with involvement from manufacturer's of specialist products like Alpa, Arca, Cambo etc. I mean, where else are you going to read about this stuff? I always like to see the latest thing to come off the drawing board from these companies, even if I'm never going to own it myself, and I find the gear they make so much more interesting than the latest whizz-bang-high-megapixel-guaranteed-to-depreciate-quicker-than-last-year's-smartphone-whatever to appear on the market.

4. Charge for B&S? Bad idea. Been tried before and fell flat on its face. There's just not the traffic here to make that model work. On the plus side, if I was looking for a bit of kit from Alpa, A/S, Cambo etc., one of the first places I'd look or place a 'WTB' add, would be GetDPI - so there is traffic, but it's quite specialist.

Anyway, good luck with the venture - I've always liked CIs enthusiasm and contribution to this space and their willingness to offer genuine help rather than simply say 'reach out to your dealer' in reply to someone's query. I sincerely hope that with the advent of (relatively) low cost digital backs from H/B + a vibrant used market, there's still an incredible amount of life left in the old MFD dog yet.

 

[Godfrey]

With all due respect, Marco, I have very little desire to ask an AI anything and certainly don't want one getting between me and looking at the forum threads. I come here to talk to photographers, not computers.

G

 

[mristuccia]

With all due respect, Marco, I have very little desire to ask an AI anything and certainly don't want one getting between me and looking at the forum threads. I come here to talk to photographers, not computers.

G

Hey Godfrey,

I see your point, and I fully agree.

This would simply enhance or replace the forum search functionality for existing threads.

It has nothing to do with the normal interactive live experience we have when chatting and creating new threads.

It’s probably not worth it anyway, as revisiting old questions often sparks fresh perspectives and innovative solutions.

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

I'm glad to see the prompt reaction of the new stewartship to the multiple spam messages that appeared in my timeline this morning (GMT+1)
Well done !!!

CU,
Rafael