Websites come and go. Some we don’t miss at all, and others we lament the microsecond we see the “Forbidden” page, access denied. Sometimes people pass away, sometimes they loose interest, there are many reasons. Perhaps the most oft missed ones are those that hold together some sort of comprehensive knowledge database of sorts, compiling info that isn’t readily available anywhere. lens-db.com was one such site. It contained information and pictures on thousands of lenses, and more recently cameras.
The original site was geo-blocked in April (I only just noticed as I have been too busy with other things). Now I had noticed over the past couple of years that some attempt had been made by the owner to sell the site. The problem was that no context was really provided. Now it turns out that the site in located in Russia (which few people knew), and due to international sanctions it became impossible to continue running the site, because he couldn’t receive payments from outside of Russia. I’m sure if an explanation had been provided, somebody would have offered a better solution than shutting down the site.
Note: The owner of lens-db, Evgenii Artemov, has provided a comment below, which better describes his predicament. Please take the time to read it.
It’s a pity because I imagine if it were located elsewhere, many people would have signed up for a [reasonably priced] yearly subscription. Now an attempt is being made to resurrect the concept of the site in the guise of the community driven website thelensdb.com. It has a lot of basic data, but currently lacks the pictures and info from catalogues/brochures, and honestly will take a lot of effort to replace. Ideally people will contribute information on cameras and lenses overtime, including catalog/brochure scans and the photographs. Of course there is nothing inherently proprietary about historic data, so I imagine over time it could be rebuilt. Will it succeed? I have strong doubts, because such community driven databases have a legacy of not being successful. With one source, it is easier to maintain a consistency in the data, something not possible with multiple sources, and people editing things.
P.S. What data there was on archive.org is now also gone, for one reason or another… becuase a search there on WaybackMachine finds 0 links to saved pages. I imagine the owner requested the data be removed. Pity.
Crafting Pixels 
My name is Evgenii Artemov, and I own lens-db.com. I’ve never had any financial problems that would make it impossible to maintain the site. I still maintain it. The problem was and remains Western sanctions and, as a result, my inability, as a Russian citizen, to monetize the site. It’s also worth noting that for the entire time the site has been in existence (since 2017, in English), I haven’t received a single cent from Western users. Now, after the so called “shutdown”, I’ve read a lot of false information, insults and exclamations of “how dare he shut down the site” on Reddit, which has further convinced me that I made the right decision.
You say that “somebody would have offered a better solution than shutting down the site”. Better for whom? For you? Clearly not for me: I have no desire to give away the database and photos for free just to preserve them for you. I spent years building the database. Do I owe anything to Western users? Definitely not. And you won’t be able to pay me anyway because of the sanctions. Deadlock.
The reason for blocking access to Western users is absolutely not political or ideological in nature. After all, the site was accessible to Western audiences even after 2022, when Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine began, and the support for Ukraine from the US and Europe began. I am neutral toward Western users in general. This is a purely practical matter: I’m tired of the constant scraping of my site and the exploitation of my content, primarily by certain European nerds. Besides thelensdb, there is another site (I won’t name it to avoid advertising it).
As for thelensdb, its fate is not difficult to predict: it will never become popular or trustworthy. Firstly, they scraped an old version of my site from archive.org, so it contains a lot of outdated and incorrect information. Secondly, I’m not saying this out of thin air, but because I’m looking at the fate of allphotolenses.com. It was originally created as a site where content was supposed to be user-generated, but ultimately it was stillborn and never gained popularity. It’s been dead for years. The same will happen to thelensdb sooner or later.
But you deserve it with your constant scraping. My only pity is for the ordinary photography enthusiasts (mostly American ones) who have suffered unfairly due to the closure of my site. Is it their fault? Of course not. I would like them to have access to my site. But you yourselves made that impossible.
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Hi Evgenii,
Thank you for the comment, it provides members of the photographic
community a good explanation. I wrote the post in an effort to try
and provide some sort of information, and if I had had access to
your contact information, I would have contacted you. Unfortunately
the information at hand was all available. People tend to turn to
Reddit to answer questions. To be fair though, I doubt many people
understood where the site was hosted or your predicament, and many
people would likely pay for access if they could.
I was not intending to offend you by suggesting there might have been
other solutions, but the community of vintage lens and camera users are
not awful people, and there might have been some latitude for a solution
that would have benefited both you and provided access to the community.
As to the scraping, I’m sorry that has happened, but I’m sure most users
of the site were oblivious to the fact that it was happening.
Thank you for the effort you put into the website, as ordinary photographic
enthusiasts, we did appreciate it.
cheers,
Michael
P.S. You are likely right about thelensdb, it was created in a reactionary
manner due to the loss, but community driven databases are notorious for
not succeeding, primarily because of a lack of consistency in data input,
and anyone with enough time to devote to it.
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