Saving images: Flickr vs. Picasa, which one do you prefer?

[Wilynn]

I worry about my hard drive crashing and losing all of my images. (For the sake of discussion, lets forget about backing up images on a DVD.)

I could be wrong (and set me straight if I am) but I tend to think that Picasa and Flickr are the two best places to save, back up and store your images. They are probrably the two best image hosts least likely to declare bankruptcy or close down their web site.

It'll probrably be hard to find someone who has a lot of experience with both image hosts, but if you are that rare person who has used both extensively, which one do you prefer and why?

 

[nieschu]

I used to have yahoo pictures and they moved mine to flickr. I love it!! my friend has picasa and it (sorry) sucks...its hard for people to comment and she says she has problems uploading the pictures. flickr is awesome, its so easy once you download the uploader. I can only tell you good things about it and I have about 7000 pictures stored there!

 

[Mystwalker]

I also use flickr.com

The one thing I have not tried is to get my pictures back

flickr's interface could use some help, but it's free and unlimited for me so no complaints

 

[RKW3]

Flickr.

 

[Wilynn]

I used to have yahoo pictures and they moved mine to flickr. I love it!! my friend has picasa and it (sorry) sucks...its hard for people to comment and she says she has problems uploading the pictures. flickr is awesome, its so easy once you download the uploader. I can only tell you good things about it and I have about 7000 pictures stored there!

Hi nieschu, I looked at some of your pictures and something struck me as being a little odd. Unlike other Flickr images posted by other people, I don't see the "all sizes" link anywhere above your images. How come? The all sizes link allows the viewer to see the image in various sizes, from thumbnail size on up to full screen size.

 

[rlcphotos]

I prefer Picasa over Flikir, but really like Photobucket the best, there is so much more one can do there

 

[ksm]

Hi nieschu, I looked at some of your pictures and something struck me as being a little odd. Unlike other Flickr images posted by other people, I don't see the "all sizes" link anywhere above your images. How come? The all sizes link allows the viewer to see the image in various sizes, from thumbnail size on up to full screen size.

Not sure about Nieschu but I have "all sizes" disabled on flickr also. I know it robs the viewer from a bit of a better view but I feel safer that if someone comes up with a way to download a photo from the site (via the source page or any other way) at least hopefully he/she will only get a lower resolution photograph.

 

[Rand0m411]

I use flickr and photobucket. They seem to work out well.

 

[KhronoS]

Flickr here too
... and Deviant Art

 

[Iron Flatline]

Flickr, the Uploadr ftw.

 

[caveman]

Flickr is great but can you upload full size? For some reason mine upload at 800px but that might have been due to some settings I made initially.

 

[Iron Flatline]

It's a settings thing.

 

[Village Idiot]

I wouldn't use Flickr as an archive though. I mean, you can't really store a 3500x2400 image file on your flickr account or a RAW file, so you're going to be storing images with quality that's reduced compared to the original.

 

[andrew99]

None of those sites are ideal for backups. There's no guarantee they are not shrinking or doing other things to your images, or they might delete your account or lose your files. Also there is no easy way to batch download your photos. Just get one of those external USB hard drives for around $100.

 

[JerryPH]

It's a settings thing.

But is limited to 10MB maximum file sizes. I have a few JPGs that are above that, and they were cut to just under 10MB.

Funny that this 10MB limit is not applied to the video users of flickr... lol.

I just installed an 18TB (raid 5+1 fiber-optic) SAN in my home network and use that. For my sister, I just picked up a 2TB WorldBook external drive and set it up as a 1TB 2 disk mirrored setup with firewire. It works very well! Pres the front button and it takes about 30 seconds to register and become available... do your backups, press the button and the system safely empties the cache and shuts down, increasing MTBF of the unit to virtually multiple decades. I still advocate that she put backups on DVD as well.

I just have issues trusting someone else to take care of backups of things that I consider irreplaceable for me... does it show?