Kodak Gallery (Ofoto) is an online photo sharing site where anyone can upload pictures for free just like Flickr.
The service is especially popular among Kodak digital camera users since these cameras ship with Kodak Easyshare software that can directly upload photos from the camera to you online Kodak Gallery.
Now if you have been using the Kodak Gallery service to store all your precious digital photos, here’s some not-so-good news:
Kodak will delete all your pictures unless you buy something from them.
Kodak has just revised their Terms of Service and the new policy states that Kodak Gallery members must make an annual purchase else their photos will be deleted from the photo gallery. Here’s the requirement:
1. If your online photos use less than 2 GB storage, you must make annual purchases of at least $4.99 from Kodak.
2. For everyone else, the minimum purchase requirement is $19.99 and this is annual.
How to Download Photos from Kodak Gallery
It’s good to have a business model but forcing people to pay for your service is a bad practice. Kodak Gallery is a closed service and so there are no tools or APIs that will help you move photos from Kodak to other free services like Flickr or Picasa Web Albums.
There’s however an inexpensive workaround. You can opt for a premier gallery that costs around $2.5 per month but offers you an option to download full-resolution photos from all your picture albums. Once you have a copy of all your images on the hard drive, cancel your Kodak subscription and upload them to Flickr.
The other more expensive alternative is the Kodak CD – they will burn all your uploaded photos on a CD and each photo will be saved in the original resolution. Hat tip Sharath Bhat.
Related Resources:
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/pictures/kodak-gallery-photos-will-be-deleted/8076/
Tags: feature, flickr, picasa, windows live photo gallery, Photo Sharing
Reader Comments
I think this is not a new terms of service, last year(mid 2008) they had mailed me about the change and I purchased some prints from them.
Written by Nirmal on 03.30.09
It’s strange because the Kodak email that was forwarded to me is very recent. Even the Kodak homepage highlights this storage policy change very prominently.
Written by Amit on 03.30.09
I guess snapfish would be cheaper. or is it the same. Atleast for India, the snapfish buying per year requirement is very negligible. Windows Live would be a great option since it has always been free.
I personally would prefer flickr since it is so slick. There limit of 200 photos showing up could be overcome by creating a new yahoo account for every year or every month or for every occasion depending on how many pics you plan to put.
Just my two cents.
Written by India Biz Spot on 03.30.09
I just checked my old mails and found that I got this same mail in June last year and asked me to make the purchase by July 31st 2008. I think the change which they have made now is the limit to storage size (2GB or above 2GB). I too got the new mail on changes.
I logged into my Kodak account and found a message that you are already in compliance to our new policy.
Written by Nirmal on 03.30.09
Perhaps Kodak need to let retailers know the deal as sales staff are pushing this free photo storage service.
Written by jd on 03.30.09
Worst way to make money & best way to earn a bad publicity!
Written by Sid Trehan on 03.31.09
This type of strategy will affect Kodak user strength for sure, now people are having lot many options to upload their images.
Written by Sanjeev on 03.31.09
I got an email from Kodak earlier this month. I have a few galleries that have sitting on it for a few years and have never purchase any photos from Kodak.
I don’t think that is a good business model to make money this way.
Written by Davin Peterson on 03.31.09
I got an email about this not too long ago as well. I think it’s stupid, I bought the Motozine camera phone T-mobile, and the Kodak Gallery is built in and you can send photos straight to the web… it’s great if you don’t want to hook up your camera, or my phone in this case. It should be free to anyone that has a Kodak camera, I most certainly would use Flickr if I could instead of KG. They should at least let you download the original file if you don’t buy any of their stuff.
Written by JW on 03.31.09
Can anyone help me finding out the download all photos link once opt for a premier gallery
Written by dotcompals on 03.31.09
I read you can only download one photo at a time using Premier Gallery, and cannot download whole folders. If you subscribe to Premier Gallery for $25/yr (or $2.50 /mo) item 28. of terms says you are not obligated to item 18. which says you need to make a purchase. (however , of course, you are spending $25 / year)
Written by Mark on 04.16.09