Best photo storage sites?

[lilacbirman]

I'd like to start storing my photos online but am confused as to which site would be best for me. I don't take photo's very often, mostly on trips or special events, about 300-500 shots a year. My photographer experience is minimal and I only use a Canon Power shot, no SLR.

Which (free) site do you use and why do you like it? Also, can I store video as well?

[pierces]

I'd like to start storing my photos online but am confused as to which site would be best for me. I don't take photo's very often, mostly on trips or special events, about 300-500 shots a year. My photographer experience is minimal and I only use a Canon Power shot, no SLR.

Which (free) site do you use and why do you like it? Also, can I store video as well?

 

Google's Picasa combined with a free Gmail account gets you 1GB of free storage. This will store a lot of reduced-size web display images but is not really meant for archiving full-size images. Most sites are designed to display or share images, but few support storage of many full-size images since a $75 external hard drive is a far faster and cheaper solution.

 

About the most reasonable site to store full-size images is Flickr which costs about $25/yr for unlimited storage.

 

If you just want to back up your images online, Mozy.com offers 2GB of free "trial" storage and unlimited storage for $5/mo. There is no display of images, but you can back up other types of personal documents there as well.

 

I'm sure others will jump in with more suggestions.

 

Dave

[chipmaster]

Shutterfly is another options. They claim to be unlimited and have no charge. THe catch is once you upload to get them back off costs you. I've used them since 2002 and have > 160 GB stored there as my "free" enterprise backup to the backup of the backup. Works out well enough as I haven't purchased a picture or anything else in more than a couple years. They also have turnkey web sharing option where you can build to share your vacation pictures and more.

 

Good luck,

 

I'd like to start storing my photos online but am confused as to which site would be best for me. I don't take photo's very often, mostly on trips or special events, about 300-500 shots a year. My photographer experience is minimal and I only use a Canon Power shot, no SLR.

 

Which (free) site do you use and why do you like it? Also, can I store video as well?

[lilacbirman]

Maybe an external drive might be what I need for now.

 

Thanks!

[chipmaster]

One should always have a backup of your photos and other important documents from your harddrive. Unlike having negatives which barring a fire will always be there, your harddrive WILL fail someday.

 

Maybe an external drive might be what I need for now.

 

Thanks!

[wgraves]

I agree with Dave that Flickr and Mozy are two excellent options. I use both.

 

An external hard drive is a good idea, but if your home takes a lightning strike, the external drive will likely go with the computer. This happened to me a year or so ago. Thankfully, all my data was backed up to Mozy, and all my pictures are backed up to Flickr.

[chipmaster]

A good idea beyond the backup drive is that it being a backup it doesn't need to be on or connect except for during the backup, very easy with the new generation of 1TB USB2.0 drives. A good rule of thumb is to leave it off and disconnected, but even that can't stop data loss disaster if the lighting strike causes the house to burn down, so for those really paranoid two backups one in the house and one NOT in the house is a good idea ;)

 

 

 

I agree with Dave that Flickr and Mozy are two excellent options. I use both.

 

An external hard drive is a good idea, but if your home takes a lightning strike, the external drive will likely go with the computer. This happened to me a year or so ago. Thankfully, all my data was backed up to Mozy, and all my pictures are backed up to Flickr.

[CapKAOS]

Here are some links to reviews of picture storage sites:

 

http://photo-sharing-services-review.toptenreviews.com/

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6245115-1.html

[aikensbest]

I, like you, take about 3 or 4 hundred pics a year to download and save. I am not a great photographer, but see no reason for folks like us to spend money for saving pics. I use Picasa for all my downloaded pics and also put those I want to be sure and save for a long time on a CD.

The only cost i have is to buy CD's. I have done this for the past 7 years (especially for cruise pics) and am very satisfied with the results

[bionicman97]

With flickr, you can start out with a free account first, then upgrade later if needed and not have to migrate your pics to another site.