MicrostockGroup

Who/what is "ce"?

stockcharts show active contributors, and 85k is simply registered ones.

In reality the number of people submitting to istock on more or less regular basis doesn't exceed a few thousand.

According to 'The Chart' the number of contributors that have uploaded 10 or more images in the last 30 days is about 3600.

Of those the number that have uploaded 100 or more images in the last 30 days is only 165. Of course there will be some serious contributors who are currently taking a break or working on other projects but it's another indicator of how many 'full timers' there are likely to be.

Kelly said in a recent announcement that they have over 100,000 new registrations per month.  Obviously the vast majority of those are buyers, and there's probably relatively few who actually spend money. So the 85,000 could not include buyers.

I wonder why some non-photographer people buy DSLRs cameras. They really think all they have to do is pressing the shutter button and the camera will do the rest  

Having a DSLR camera doesn't make someone a photographer!  So, we only have more people taking snap shots with DSRLs cameras.  

Status symbol?  I am amazed how many "soccer moms" have better cameras than me when I there working.  LOL, they never have better lenses though

My rich-ish friend has a DLSR and man she abuses that thing.  Always shattering a lens or a filtre.  I gave her one of those sticky dot things that you stick on the lens cap that has an elastic to attach it the lens because at least once a month she was asking me to pick her up a lens cap next time I was collecting my prints.  She finally bought a new P&S and is a lot happier using it for the most part!

The reason that soccer mums and dads have DSLRs is that its next to impossible to shoot soccer or other kids sports with a point and shoot, no matter how good the point and shoot is. They don't focus fast enough. Or low light available light shots like kids concerts. I bought my DSLR and 70-200L to shoot swimming carnivals in outdoor pools and school sports days, and the 50mm and 85 1.8 to shoot dance.  Once I had the gear then I started shooting for stock.

If I was interested in recognisable status symbols I wouldn't be buying camera gear, as my average rivals on sports day wouldn't know a 1DmkIV from a point a shoot (in fact I've had more comments about why don't I get a modern small digital camera from other parents than admiring glances, when they see my DSLR!). They would however be impressed by a BMW or an expensive SUV.  Until this year my camera bag contents were worth more than my car!

And the biggest reason why people need a higher end camera like a DSLR... Shutter Lag! You can shoot any sports when you push the button and the camera takes a second or two or three to focus and them maybe get a shot. It's gone.

Back on topic, the IS site shows 6480673 total files, contributor charts shows 5.828.591 which is 90% of all the files listed as online by IS.

What that says is that the IS charts site is fairly accurate for a representative view of IS contributors. The charts show 29386 contributors, so adding 10% to that, I'd can estimate the number 32,324 active artists. But... 21657 (see the 67% below) have under 100 images online.

Here's the breakdown I had before starting the survey last month:

4% over 1000 files
5% 500-1000 files
6% 300-500 files
17% 100-300 files
67% 100 or less files on IS

Blue bars are MSG members who answered the survey here.



Hope that explains it better? Roughly 10,667 contributors with over 100 files on IS. Some of those may be inactive and some with under 100 could be active, but in round numbers, very round, 10,000 active contributors.



Good point! 7481 contributors added one file or more last month. Which in my limited available information tells me that the number of active uploaders is around 8200 people.

Pick a number between 8200 and 10,000 that's the answer.