Photobucket or other free sharing sites.

[RaymondC]

<p>Hi, I am trialling Photobucket now, are there any restrictions?</p>

<p>I had Flickr as a free member before but some of my older photographs started dissapearing, I don't have 200 pictures from what I can count, but online somewhere it does say 200 pictures are only accessible for free members and once you become a paying member they are visible again. </p>

<p>I am looking:<br>

Something that is free.<br>

Just a small amount of data like 500MB or even 100MB.<br>

Each picture is 1024x768.<br>

Preferably EXIF details.<br>

Able to direct link the pictures to a internet page. <br>

Most importantly something that will not just dissapear due to some restriction.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

[leighb]

<blockquote>

<p>I had Flickr as a free member before but some of my older photographs started dissapearing</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Flickr does that.</p>

<p>Just look at the various image fora on the 'net and see how many threads have little white Flickr squares saying the photo is no longer available.</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<blockquote>

<p><em>"are there any restrictions?"</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I have used a free Photobucket account for a few years.</p>

<p>There is a size (dimension) limitation. I'm not sure what the upper limit is, but it is larger than 1024x768, so that file size or smaller will not be a problem. You can upload oversized images, but they will be re-sized to smaller dimensions and compressed. Images under the dimension limits are not re-sized but they are compressed.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if there is a "number of images" limit or a total MB storage limit*** but there is definitely a bandwidth limit. So if a lot of people view a lot of your photos, then you may hit the bandwidth limit, after which other users will not be able to see your photos.</p>

<p>EXIF data is retained. It's not displayed in the Photobucket album, slide show, or individual photo views, but you can access it via an external application. You can direct link / hot link to the actual image file, provided you have not exceeded the monthly bandwidth limit.</p>

<p>I have never had anything old "disappear", but then I don't store very many photos at Photobucket.</p>

<p>*** edit - There is a storage limit, but the terms of service don't appear to spell out just exactly what that limit is.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>It's tough to beat Flickr for what you've specified. Either ante up the subscription fee or live with the 200 or less limit. I get a Flickr pro account bundled with my ISP, which is a pretty good deal. But even with that I don't really have much need for uploading more than 200 photos. Mostly I use it to host photos of high enough resolution for family and friends to view and download for printing.</p>

<p>Check into Picasa web album. Haven't tried it myself but I've noticed several photo.net members use it and seem satisfied.</p>

<p>Photobucket is a good dump site for lolcats and meme or novelty pix if you need an image host for decorating your blog or for amusing other folks on whatever site you enjoy <a href="http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/thumb/f/f2/Trollface_More_HD.png/400px-Trollface_More_HD.png">trolling</a>. (And by <em>you</em> I mean the <a href="http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/8/8b/AnonymousBecause.jpg">collective you</a>.) Otherwise it's a pain in the neck. The interface is sluggish unless you have a very fast computer and ISP. Also, Photobucket's policies are rather arbitrary - some images may be deleted without explanation or reference to any specific guideline that was supposedly violated. And when users move their images around between folders in the same account the links break, leaving lots of fun "image not found" warning squares scattered around the web. It's "good" in the sense that it's free and not too painful to use if you have a fast computer and ISP.</p>

<p>There are other good freebie image dumps like ImageCave that are more efficient than Fauxteauxbouquet but none of 'em is intended for hosting "serious" photography. They're mostly for novelty images and snapshots for decorating personal blogs and other sites. And most image hosting sites expect that images will be fairly small, around 800x600 or smaller and not too large in file size. These sites also have certain restrictions and images may be deleted or disappear without warning.</p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<p>Found the following under the "Help" link:</p>

<p>Free accounts include:</p>

<ul>

<li >Up to 500 MB of storage space for images and video clips</li>

<li >Up to 10 GB of monthly traffic. </li>

<li >No file size limit for images with a display size up to 1024 x 768 pixels (typically a 17” monitor size) because these images are resized to meet the Photobucket constraints. There is no pixel limit, if a file size limit is chosen. </li>

</ul>

[RaymondC]

<p>Thanks, I may look at Picasa. Picasa at least has more members etc .. more a community (not as much as Flickr). Photobucket doesn't have as a good user interface / layout.</p>

<p>I have 82, 46 and 53 from the max of three Flickr albums yet I am still losing pictures constantly.</p>

<p>I pop my best 10-20 pictures from each trip I do overseas or a national trip. So they add up.</p>

<p>Maybe if it is not just 200 images, maybe the older images gets deleted as well? Shelf life perhaps?</p>

[goldbergbarry]

<p>To me, the Flickr price of $25 a year is a bargain. I respect that not everyone can afford this but if could, Flickr is hard to beat. Plus since Flickr is part of Yahoo, you can be comfortable that your photos are safe there.</p>

<p>I also use Zenfolio but I know that it costs even more than Flickr.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>Actually, I like Photobucket because I can share a quick slide show without fuss or muss. I can also transfer files from work and home-no more emailing myself files. I can transfer large media assets, of any type, with big file sizes (to a limit as mentioned above). Yes, you need a fast pipeline but, if you do, it's quite useful.</p>

[RaymondC]

<p>I have a pipe that can sustain 12Mbps. </p>

<p>I don't like the Picasa software - library mode/view. I have photographs in folders, instead it collates them into year (using the first photograph). So 90% of it might be 2010 but the first is 2005. It puts all the photographs under 2005 group. It's bit of a hassle to locate ones files. </p>

<p>I gather yes, Flickr is pretty good, plus you have all those discussion forums as well.<br>

I will still have a Flickr for my temporary stuff ..</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>My apologies, I was thinking of Dropbox, not Photobucket. Senior moment.</p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>Ray - If you are talking about Picasa on your computer, there is a a folder view that mimics the folders on your computer. You can go to "view"; "folder view" and click on "tree view". That will provide a display that looks like windows explorer, with your folders displayed as you are used to, I think. I had the same reaction as you did initially, until I found that it was a simple setting issue.</p>

<p>We use Picasa for on-line sharing heavily. You can make on-line folders private or public, update them regularly and sort them in any number of ways. The slideshow feature seems to work pretty well. It's pretty cheap - I pay a minimal amount for extra storage each year and have not even come close to hitting my limit for that, and I upload my photos at full jpeg size.</p>

[RaymondC]

<p>Thanks David, yep it's so easy.</p>

<p>I am going to trial out Picasa first, the user interface for users looks pretty good. I just don't like the Photobucket's user interface how they only let you view a few albums and if you select all albums it becomes a pop-up list. </p>

<p>Thanks again :)</p>

[hernan_enriquez]

<p>yuo set up Picasa the way you want to! My new pictures go on top. Web Albums is free, so is photobucket, use them for backup. If you want photo sharing as part of a great community join Pbase.com!</p>

[sarah_baker2]

<p>How about shutterfly? has anyone have thoughts about it? as in my own personal experience, I like photobucket a lot when keeping and organizing my photos online.</p>

[grizzsden]

<p>Imageshack.us free account 5 megabyte/image with linking options..also offers increase to 10/img at $8.00/mo. great for sixe images you stated.</p>