Flickr announces major updates, including HD for all

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Flickr, one of the best ways to share, organize, and distribute your photography and videos, today announced three major updates to their service:

Video for All Members: We want to see what the rest of the community has to share, so we are extending the ability to upload video to all of our members. Free members can upload two videos per month, in addition to the 100MB monthly photo upload limit that's already in place. Video, like photos, is quickly moving beyond a means to simply preserve memories and into a social activity that allows people to communicate and connect. As more devices have the ability to capture both, we're seeing Flickr members capture videos along with photos to share their view of the world.
Flickr in HD: Another trend that we've noticed is the growing appetite for higher-quality video. With the recent introduction of Nikon's D90, Canon's EOS 5D Mark II, Flip Mino HD, and others, it's even easier to shoot videos in HD. Because our focus has always been on allowing our members to showcase their vision in the best way possible, we're also enabling HD video uploading and viewing today. Only Pro members can upload videos in HD, but our entire community will benefit by being able to view high quality videos.
Flickr Clock: All of us at Flickr love creative ways of exploring and visualizing imagery, and Flickr Clock is a new way that we want to celebrate and showcase the amazing video across the Flickrverse. Through Flickr Clock, members will be able to share their vision of what's happening at any given minute around the world. We'll be able to display these videos according to the approximate time that they were taken, so you can see what's happening at different moments in time.

Flickr's General Manager, Kakul Srivastava, says that "We want to see what the rest of the community has to share, so we are extending the ability to upload video to all of our members … Video, like photos, is quickly moving beyond a means to simply preserve memories and into a social activity that allows people to communicate and connect. As more devices have the ability to capture both, we're seeing Flickr members capture videos along with photos to share their view of the world."

#1 SniperX on 03 Mar 2009 - 11:28

As a regular Flickr user, I have to say that these are rather redundant updates for the vast majority of users. When people think Video, they really don't think Flickr, they think YouTube, etc. Flickr seems to be desperate to counter this, but (a) I just don't think it's working, and (b) it seems to be at the cost of updates to the photo section which really is its core business.

As a photo upload site, Flickr is now starting to get left behind. It seems unfathomable to me that we still can't even change the colour of our Photostream, for example. Something which, I believe, the likes of Zenfolio already provide.

(2 replies) #2 Jugalator on 03 Mar 2009 - 11:48

Me and my Nikon D90 likes this.

I already had my galleries on Flickr under a Pro account, so being able to use that service to exploit my camera's full potential is of course nice to see.

#2.1 SniperX on 03 Mar 2009 - 11:54

Jugalator said,

So let's see how many HD videos you actually upload in a year as a result of this much needed liberation.

#2.2 Jugalator on 03 Mar 2009 - 14:22

SniperX said,

Likely a few at least, so it's all good.

I'll surely be more interested in doing this now that I can publish the stuff to the same site that I'm already using, see what I mean here? Besides, you sure sound grumpy, lol.

(5 replies) #3 M. Seth on 03 Mar 2009 - 13:24

Never got the point of flickr. What is it that I can do with flickr that I can't do with picasa or photobucket? At least with picasa I don't have the bandwidth or transfer limits.

#3.1 Marshalus on 03 Mar 2009 - 13:44

flickr isn't about sharing your whole collection, which it seems like those other two are. It's more about showing and exploring your select images. Obviously people use it for their whole collection, but they don't get the traffic others do who show their better stuff.

#3.2 Jugalator on 03 Mar 2009 - 14:26

For me, Flickr is about publishing photos for comments, and involving myself in social communities being interested in photo techniques, cameras, or scenery that I'm interested in shooting. It's working fairly well for my needs thus far.

#3.3 dhan on 03 Mar 2009 - 14:34

You are limited to 1GB (or is it 10) storage. Flickr's performance is much better compared to Picasa. Not to mention the god awful way of loading photos on Picasa. Yuck!

#3.4 M. Seth on 03 Mar 2009 - 16:05

dhan said,

Last time I looked it was ten. Plus all I do is load up picasa3 and upload what I want....pretty easy to me

#3.5 lunamonkey on 03 Mar 2009 - 19:00

Marshalus said,

Obviously people use it for their whole collection, but they don't get the traffic others do who show their better stuff.

True. I have 6000 photos on mine, and maybe 3 comments from strangers. Then I see a crappy picture of a Lol-Cat with 100 comments. Weird :/

(2 replies) #4 M. Seth on 03 Mar 2009 - 14:19

So with flickr if I have 5-10 outstanding pictures I put it there to share but if I have a collection of pictures from my trip to Europe then I put them on picasa?

#4.1 SniperX on 03 Mar 2009 - 14:37

There is nothing to stop you from uploading all of your images to Flickr. I personally use it for those photos which I believe are some of my best, and to gain valuable comments from other photographers. There are so many pro photographers on Flickr, and many of them are only too happy to share their expertise.

This same sort of feedback just doesn't happen on Photobucket, etc.

#4.2 Marshalus on 03 Mar 2009 - 14:54

Agreed with SniperX 1000%

(5 replies) #5 Gabe3 on 03 Mar 2009 - 18:49

if flickr succeeds with the video stuff then thats great but if not they are still the youtube of images.

I got a decent camera, not slr but close a couple months ago so I just started recently using flickr for my best shots, I only upload about 10 every few weeks. I havn't got any comments on anything and I think my shots are worth commenting on. I tried putting tags on a couple photos but didn't do anything for me so I never did it again, I also don't name my images. If I change my ways will i get some traffic or what? I have a free account, btw..

#5.1 SniperX on 03 Mar 2009 - 19:32

I think it helps if you comment on photos from other people too. You can also submit your photos to various Flickr groups. Both will help you get comments from others.

#5.2 Gabe3 on 03 Mar 2009 - 19:39

I do comment sometimes, I'll try to do that more and submit some to groups, didn't even know about that. thanks

#5.3 SniperX on 03 Mar 2009 - 20:10

Gabe3 said,

If you PM me your Flickr username, I'll add you as a friend which may also help you get some exposure.

#5.4 Gabe3 on 03 Mar 2009 - 21:30

sent, thanks.

#5.5 lunamonkey on 05 Mar 2009 - 01:02

Pool spam. Put your pictures in loads of pools. People also comment so that you look on theirs. I guess you could comment on other people's too. I don't think that every comment is a legitimate thumbs up though, some are, but alot aren't.

#6 Premgenius on 03 Mar 2009 - 20:36

cool

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