All images got "Copyright" watermark which is similar to what Reflexstock is using.

This is big news anyone else have any light on this?

it's going to be a few months frome what they say until they get it dialed in for photo submissions.

Great, I always wondered why they didn't! Although I don't do video, it seems to me like a very respectable, clean, no-nonsense site

Well, after an interesting discussion with Pond5... They screwed up with their entry into the Image and Vector market.

They will be importing millions of images from 123rf and Dreamstime to "seed" their collection before they allow any artists to begin uploading.  123rf and Dreamstime will control the pricing of those images.  So already the images listed on the site are priced pretty low.  Any hope of getting more for your images are pretty much gone as Pond5 has allowed their competitors to control their market.  And once they start getting direct contributions, they will not end their partnership... so those partners will always be in control of Pond5's market.  I'm not sure I understand such a poor business decision on Pond5's part, other than they make money regardless so it doesn't really matter to them where the images come from.

The pricing on the site at the moment actually allows you to buy the largest images CHEAPER than if you buy them directly on 123rf or Dreamstime.  I'm not sure why those sites decided to price the largest files at $5, but if that sticks then I'll be able to buy X-Large images from the Dreamstime collection on Pond5 cheaper than if I buy them on Pond5.

Additionally, images purchased from Pond5 use their unlimited (ie, extended) license.  So while 123rf and Dreamstime have restrictions on what you can do with images purchased based on which license you buy from them, Pond5 has no such restrictions.  So an image that's $250 for an extended license on Dreamstime is $5 on Pond5 for the same reproduction rights as the DT extended license.

This is going to be interesting...

^^^I have some on Pond5 for $10.  Hopefully we can replace the images they have from the 3rd party sites with our own.  With their 50% commission, $5 isn't bad and we should be able to raise prices if we want to.

The problem is that if they import millions of images to seed their collection, you can't raise your prices by much and remain competitive with the rest of the collection.  And they haven't acknowledged yet if you can exclude your collection from those being imported.  You may very well end up competing with your own images.