Posting Pictures & Videos on the Web for Free!
About a month ago I got a great deal on a Sony camcorder (this one to be exact). I got it for quite a bit less than the price at Amazon because it was a closeout display at Target.
I went with Mini DV because the camcorders with hard drives are still out of my price range and I’ve read that the video quality of the Mini DVD’s isn’t as good as the Mini DV.
This is our first camcorder so I can’t compare it to any others but this one is simple to use, it takes great video and the battery lasts a long time. It also has a 20x optical zoom, which I’ve found to be quite sufficient.
After taking some family videos I wanted a simple way to share it with family and friends on the web. Here were my requirements:
- I wanted one place that I could share both pictures and videos
- It had to be easy to use
- It had to be free or at least inexpensive
- It had to have some security so the whole world couldn’t access our family media
- It had to have very little, if any, advertising
- And my friends and family wouldn’t have to sign up for an account
OK, I can hear you saying, “dream on buddy, a place like that doesn’t exist”. For a while I almost believed that too. I signed up for more free sites than I’d like to remember.. I’m not going to go through the pros and cons of every site I checked out. There are other articles on the web that review multiple sites. I would like to tell you about the gem I did find though.
I’ve been signed up and using a free account at www.DropShots.com for a week now and really like it. With a free account I can upload up to 20 videos. They have to be a maximum of 2 minutes in length but I’ve found that to be a good thing. I just upload the highlights and don’t bore people with more. I can also upload up to 500 photos.
DropShots.com is very easy to use, in fact, I’d recommend installing the DropBox on your computer because you can just drag and drop pictures and videos on it and it converts them and uploads them to your site. I’m not sure it can get any easier than that.
DropShots.com also has a simple password protection system. You assign a password and anyone who tries to view your media has to enter the password first. I kind of wish you could assign different passwords or no passwords to different media but that would probably just complicate it and I love the simplicity of the site.
The hardest part to my search was finding a site that didn’t bug people to sign up or show a bunch of annoying advertisements all over the place. This is my favorite part of DropShots.com. They don’t do either!
Although the free DropShots.com account is excellent they do have a Premium membership that costs a whopping $4.95 per month that you can cancel anytime. It gives you unlimited photos and videos (10 minute max length). For $99 you can even get a lifetime membership rather than pay $4.95 every month.
I believe in supporting great websites (that don’t drown you in advertisements!) so I’ll eventually sign up for DropShots.com . For now, I’ll just tell everyone I know what a great service they offer!
Regards,
-Bert
April 1st, 2008 at 7:25 am
Interesting- I had never heard of dropshots- I will have to check it out. But is password security the best way? I guess if you only share with real close family it works, but passwords can just be forwarded around. Pixamo is what I have been using, it meets your criteria, except users must sign up (unless your photos are public/unsecured). Free, easy to use, small Google text ads, I have been happy with it. Good luck!