Panthermedia, the most successful German stockagency I know of went international today. Panthermedia is quite a good earner for me this and last month and this month definately in the top 5. But sometimes they have slow months.
This agency is now available in English.
It is an agency with midstockpricing.
 Royalty is 50% but for non exclusive images it will be 30% in the future .  Those who want to try it out here is my referral link: http://www.panthermedia.net/?aff=3733
For those who do not like referral links and want to sign up non the less go to this website: www.panthermedia.net.

Some portions of the contributor's area are still in German, too.  But I'm glad to finally see the change.  I've been wanting to contribute to them for quite a while now.

how is the upload system?

and I signed up to test things out a little... you now have a referred member

-and look for them in the poll's next month (or now if you haven't voted already for this month)

Be careful, perhaps you're just wasting your time: PM has changed its royalties policy. Beginning from March '08 contributors who offer the work also at "cheaper" sites (*please see below) do get only 30% instead of 50%, and their pictures are pushed to the back of the search results.

*By PM's definition a "cheaper agency" is an agency which is selling a DIN A4@300dpi file for less then 49,90 EUR. This virtually includes all of the big microstocks and most of the (German) midstocks. Though PM offers smaller file sizes for a cheaper price than the midstock competition PM insists on its self-made DIN A4 criteria.

And just today PM has activated a thesaurus software which automatically adds keywords by derivations of the existing ones, thus generating pretty anoying keywords like e.g. "sexual intercourse" for nearly every picture of a nude body female or male - your models will certainly like that!

IMO at the moment PM is treating its contributors with disrespect and arrogance. I'm in the process of withdrawing from there.

I have to agree with Lathspell. It is not about exclusive images, but about images which you sell on cheaper sites or similar images like the same subject from a different angel. For those the photographers will receive just 30% and they will be shown further back in the search engine.

I am not very often at panthermedia or read the forums there, but its kind of a different culture there. (all Germans!).

Yeah it seems many photographers do not like panthermedias last moves, they do not seem to listen very much to their photographers. I will stay there , they are currently a good income for me and we will see how it develops after the 30% rule will be introduced.

Yes, I just read about the new software they just introduced which adds keywords and it does seem to not to work very well and does things as lathspell mentioned. Currently the photographers are pretty upset about it and are waiting for a word of the staff. I will let you know about the development of this, since the discussion is all in German.

Upload:
There is the possibility to use FTP for upload, however 10 of your images first have to be rated "editorial tip" or "recommended" from the Reviewers. But it is not very hard to get editorial tips or a recommended rating from the reviewers, I get them very often. Also if you get these ratings, your images will show up higher in the search engine. If you have models in your images, they want you to check some boxes, like how many models, age, and emotions. otherwise no need for description. The bad news: It seems they do not us ITPC reading. They did at one time, right now at least it is not working for me.


What you get: 50% or 30% from these prices:

Standard license:

 Screen-Thumb
 200 x 150 Pixel
 17 x 13 mm
 4,90 EUR

  Screen-Medium 600 x 400 Pixel 50 x 34 mm 9,90 EUR

  Screen-High 1024 x 768 Pixel
 87 x 65 mm
 14,90 EUR

 
  DIN-A6 1748 x 1240 Pixel
 148 x 105 mm
 29,90 EUR

 
  DIN-A5
 2480 x 1748 Pixel
 210 x 148 mm
 39,90 EUR

 
  DIN-A4
 3508 x 2480 Pixel
 292 x 210 mm
 49,90 EUR

 
  DIN-A3 4960 x 3508  Pixel 420 x 292 mm 79,90 EUR

Merchandise license (similar to extended license):

Merchandising DIN-A6 1748 x 1240 Pixel
 148 x 105 mm
 89,90 EUR

 
  Merchandising DIN-A5
 2480 x 1748 Pixel
 210 x 148 mm
 119,90 EUR
 
 
  Merchandising DIN-A4
 3508 x 2480 Pixel
 292 x 210 mm
 149,90 EUR
 
 
  Merchandising DIN-A3 4960 x 3508  Pixel 420 x 292 mm 239,90 EUR


Subscription:

Not that I know of

Min. Payout:

I haven't found anything, lathspell might be right, it was lower for me some time ago.

About my penguins can't be found:

You probably searched in the photocommunity, take a look at the bottom of the site and click on stockagency. Then try your search again.

Rating systems:

By reviewers will affect the placement in the search engine, by contributer will not affect anything and only possible if you select your images to be shown in the photocommunity too.

What does PC and SA mean?

PC means Photocommunity and SA means Stockagency. Some people just upload their image to the Photocommunity and some just to the Stockagency and some to both. You can choose. But somehow the search engine does not work in the Photocommunity, so if you want to search for images in the stockagency you have to go to the bottom of the page and click on Stockagency and search again.

BTW, they sell editorial images as well, but I do not know if they sell them successful

Payout:

If you request a payout, they will send the money within the first two weeks of the next month, but the sales which you will have until the payout will be included in it. They will notify you by e-mail if you have a sale. But very often you are notified about the sale and the amount is shown in your account a month later. I think that has something to do how the buyer pays. I still received e-mails of sales from December like 3 days ago.

Payout options:

Paypal
Wire transfer
Firstgate Click&Buy as far as I know

How well is Panthermedia doing:

In December my earnings were about similar to Stockxpert and better than Dramstime and Fotolia. With about 120 images online.

Reviews:

They officially say it takes 2-3 days, but actually it takes longer, the last time it took like a week. They are not very strict, like some micros have higher quality standards, but seem to be strict with property release.

Referal program:

10% for two years if you refer a photographer
(Thanx for signing up

I hope the information helps in your descision.

There ia an update about the issue with their new software and the inappropriate keywords this software generates, panthermedia said they will look into it and will delete inappropriate keywords and the photographers also will get the possibility to change keywords on their file manually. However it might take a few days.

their keyword system is pretty much inefficient, especially with  only 255 characters allowed and words in their basic form, so all my holding, smiling and other 'ings are now useless and i don't feel like doing my keywords again.
Besides uploading images from browser seems to be really tedious and sometimes after showing loading bar for some time it takes me to my images without latest image being uploading. Trying it on two different browsers, Opera and Mozilla.
So far have 8 images uploaded in 2 hours.

Hi everyone,

i just tried: its possibel to enter an postcode from UK to register at panthermedia... ;-)

  ! Thanx 

they charge for space and charge a set up fee?

Hi,

i read in another community, that starting from tomorrwo, panthermedia is oppening an ftp account for everyone (without 10 images in the editiors choise). Grat becaus now ITCP works form the first image on....

I uploaded a few photos by ftp, but then what? I can't find the photos. Where do I find my photos to edit?

Clivia, I had the same problem yesterday and my images did not show up in the imageprewiev. I thought it was just me who had problems...