[Novocain]

Hello. I'm a recent K100D owner and have been lurking here for awhile. This forum has been invaluable for opinions and comments.

I want to see if anyone can give me some reasons as to why I should shell out for a pro Flickr account and make that my primary web photo site instead of the free Picasa web albums, especially I already use its desktop application?

I'm a fairly rudimentary user and don't do much post processing at all. I've dabbled with Adobe Lightroom, but decided to stick with Picasa's all-in-one solution. I use it to download, store and catalog my photos and upload to the web album.

[Oldschool]

I'm a very casual photographer (if I can even call myself a photographer) and I basically use the Picasa solution. It works well for me and allows me to share photos with family and friends very easily. My understanding is that Flickr has much more in the way of social aspects, but that isn't important to me.

[Ash]

I appreciate Flickr as its JPEG resizing algorithms are excellent - sharp images stay sharp viewing them through Flickr, which couldn't be said for most free photo hosting sites.

[windflower]

I appreciate Flickr as its JPEG resizing algorithms are excellent - sharp images stay sharp viewing them through Flickr, which couldn't be said for most free photo hosting sites.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer flickr over free hosting sites.

[nekulturniy]

I like using Windows Live Photos for uploading backup pictures since I can upload at full resolution and they give you a lot of space (25 Gb). The only problem I have with Live Photos is that it seems to be a big hassle to share links with other people. For sharing, I'll use either Flickr or Picasa.

[Marc Sabatella]

I want to see if anyone can give me some reasons as to why I should shell out for a pro Flickr account and make that my primary web photo site instead of the free Picasa web albums, especially I already use its desktop application?

Flickr provides an arguably friendlier / nicer looking browsing environment for the person who wants to view your photos - but only slightly. Really, both are pretty weak compared to Zenfolio or Smugmug, which cost about the same as a Flickr pro account. But Flickr has the advantage of being more familiar to more people.

The other advantage Flickr - whether pro or not - has over the others is the built in "community" - active forums, social networking facilities, etc. On the other hand, those are among the features that can make it seem less "professional" than Smugmug or Zenfolio.

Basically, though, Picasaweb works, and if you're not unhappy with it it, no reason to change. It's probably the best of the completely free options.

[dexmus]

I second the observation that Flickr's jpeg algorithm is superior to Picasa web. There is a noticeable difference.

And regarding price, if your are using free picasa account, you are limited to 1 Gb total storage, where as on Flickr with a free account you get 250MB per month, 3 GB per year free.

You may even want to try the free flickr account first and see if you maximize that limit per month.

cheers