New online photo archive services will only grow as broadband connectivity spreads, say analysts.Digital storage provider BitShelter LLC this week launched PhotoShelter, its online image archive service and marketplace. The announcement comes in the week preceding PhotoPlus Expo 2005 in New York.
"We're positioned at archive first and we believe that sets the foundation for the future," said Photoshelter CEO Allen Murabayashi.
"People who shoot a tremendous amount of data know they can store all of that data with us. We're not capped with file limits. We have people with 500 meg PhotoShop files with multiple layers utilizing our system."
Photoshelter's announcement is an indication that demand is growing for online digital photo storage products, said Gary Pageau, an industry analyst with Photo Marketing Association International.
"With the continued spread of broadband internet connections, professional photographers will take more and more advantage of what online storage offers," said Andy Goetze, author of the popular blog StockPhotoTalk. "Nobody knows how long your CDs, DVDs and drives might live."
Another key factor favoring digital storage lies in the cost of maintaining one's own digital library.
"It takes a lot of time and money to maintain and manage a library with thousands of media files and keep it up-to-date every time a new job is finished," said Goetze.
PhotoShelter's archiving system can store data from over 400 image formats including RAW.
PhotoShelter also gives photographers the capability to sell their work online and offers password-protected lightboxes, search tools for individual photographer archives and offers a "Virtual Agency" product enabling photogs to link archives.
PhotoShelter offers storage options for as low as 10GB per month at $5.00. There are no contracts to sign and no sign-up fee. The price for 1TB of storage is $400 monthly.
