Very low prices, something like 8 cents for XSmall or some such, so I'd guess partner program, even though I think I pulled everything out of the partner programs well before I deactivated images.  In any case, those were supposed to have a 90 day removal timeframe and the sales were far beyond that.  I've got screenshots around somewhere, but I'm not feeling all that motivated to find them   If anyone else has seen something similar, message me and we can compare notes.

I've been banned from forums and sitemail since the RC debacle.

This whole recent situation sucks for everyone, such a pity.  I guess they now just want content, not contributors.

BTW, for anyone leaving but not closing their accounts, iStock was still licensing some of my images more than a year after I had deactivated them from the site, just something to keep an eye on.

So if this company won, and you suddenly had thousands of images that you could no longer sell due to their content, what would happen if you released all rights and transferred them to the public domain?  Anyone in the world could then use the photos at their own risk, and I'm betting that the glass company would be extremely unhappy about it, but there would be absolutely nothing they could do aside from track down each person who later decided to use it.

Its basically the nuclear option.  If they deny you the ability to license the images, you can make their perceived problems so much worse.  I wonder if they have taken that into consideration.

I think this should still work (for images only, not video):   http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html

Just make sure you copy all the text from the lines for this year from the 123RF royalties page, then go back to 2011 and copy the lines for November and December.

Looks like I will drop to 40%.

Quote from: CD123 on August 28, 2012, 07:05

Quote from: stan on August 27, 2012, 22:35
How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.

Look at the calc. tables they supply and check your DL stats YTD (quantities) for every dl type. Use the table to calc. your credits per type as per their table. Add all together and establish your Level from the level table.

http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html

I don't really need more MP, what I need is a lower price on the 5D Mk III

Quote from: KB on March 03, 2012, 16:17
I think it's all about being able to sell the add-ons. It's true of an intervalometer, a GPS, and wireless flash control. A movable LCD panel, though, can't be added on. And IIRC they do have that on one of their lower end dSLRs, so I'm disappointed they didn't consider it worthy for this. Maybe it adds too much weight, but there are times when it certainly would be useful for me.

Could be a weather sealing issue of some kind.  The Olympus E series have a smaller screen, but it can be pulled out and rotated completely around.  It is actually extremely useful for composing low and high angle shots, etc.

Quote from: Perry on March 03, 2012, 09:54
We have propably a different  workflow. I usually first check images for artistic qualities at a size that fits on my screen (DPP: Quick Check -> Fit to Window). After I have made my ratings I check the highest rated images if they are technically (Sharpness) sound.
If I would first check the sharpness of each image it would take forever if there are hundreds of raw images. Much easier to choose the ten best and mark them with a rating and after that hope they are sharp. If they are not, I'll check ones with four stars.

I'm using Bridge and ACR, I select all the images from the shoot in Bridge, then open them all at once in ACR.  I run through them, marking blinks, ugly expressions, etc as one star (or five if I find something fantasitc), and hit done.   Then I select No Ratings in Bridge, open all in ACR again, select all and right click in the image to set it at 100% (which sets them all at 100%).  Then I just run through them again real quick, navigating around the image a bit if I'm not sure on focus, and mark anything iffy a two star.  It takes maybe 20 or 30 minutes or so to do a quick pass on 200 or so images. 

Quote from: Perry on March 02, 2012, 22:08
I'm a pro, and some times on a comissioned shoot I have some spare time to look at the images. It would be nice to "tag" the images with a rating so I can easily find them on DPP.

Meh, you are going to look at them all at 100% anyways to check focus on subjects, right?  I just don't think you can tell enough from the camera's screen to decide, and if you are going to review them all anyways, you are wasting time.

Regarding the megapixel comments, I'm perfectly ok with the number of pixels, but if you are going to run the same pixel density, I expect vast improvement in light sensitivity and dynamic range, which this doesn't really appear to have based on the sample images.  Look at the shot of the tiger at the end, looks awful and flat.



Edit:

Just found the samples over at DPReview, this is ISO 6400:  http://masters.galleries.dpreview.com.s3.amazonaws.com/1779794.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=14Y3MT0G2J4Y72K3ZXR2&Expires=1330733134&Signature=DtppWGChUgqH4NLhM1K3YKvq6Lk%3d

That's not bad, and reduces well, so maybe they did make some good strides on the image quality side of things.  I'd like to see some RAW files though.

Here is the DPReview sample gallery: 

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/albums/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii-low-light-iso-samples

I think the thing that bugs me is that they added things like picture styles, HDR, and other kiddie cam crap (OMG a RATE button) to a camera that was previously a more professional tool.  Its like they are shifting markets for the 5D, and not in a good direction.  How likely is it that someone who wants to be able to rate their images in camera will shell out $4299 for a 5D III with lens?

So, does anyone have good info on Nikkor FX lenses compared to Canon lenses?

That is partly due to the strong negative response to IS' changes from designer/contributors and all their designer buddies.

I suspect we will see vastly improved video capabilities.  Most of us are looking at this from a still image perspective, but the 5D MkII is incredibly popular with cinema and video folk.  A much improved AF processing system on a new 5D might be part of that.  Also, the way you typically increase the number of pixels is to reduce the size of the circuitry around the pixel wells so you can fit more in.  The other option is to shrink the circuitry and make the wells much bigger, which gives you much better high ISO performance.  This is also handy for video, because in a dark scene, the noise from digital cameras still doesn't look as nice as the old grain you would get from film.  Bigger wells, higher ISO, better low light video results. 

Quote from: stockmarketer on February 22, 2012, 19:52
I just thought it was worth pointing out that if someone simply plugged in their past year's worth of numbers to figure out where they'll end up at the end of 2012 for the new 123RF structure won't give you an accurate result if you've been seeing growth lately.  Just something to keep in mind.

A valid point, since this coming year will be so unpredictable.  Alex has encouraged us to massively update our portfolios in an effort to retain our royalty rates, which means each contributor is likely to be seeing less exposure even as overall site traffic increases.   No real clear way to guess or predict this since we are now dealing with so many unknowns.

Quote from: stockmarketer on February 22, 2012, 19:27
You should still compare your Jan 2012 vs Jan 2011 number to figure out the percent difference and apply that to each month in 2011 to figure out what your 2012 totals should be.

Pay me to update the calculator and I'll make it give you a non-committal prediction of the future    Or you could just revisit it next January and have a better idea of what your royalties will be.

Quote from: stockmarketer on February 22, 2012, 19:12
But one thing to keep in mind is that if you have seen growth in the past 12 months, you should apply that rate of growth to the numbers this tool generates to figure out what percentage you will see at 123RF next year.

No guarantees growth will be sustained, aren't they telling us in fact that they can't sustain their growth with the measly 50% they are currently getting?  Isn't that why this whole change has to happen in the first place?

BTW, if the sales continue picking up, I would probably only drop to the 40% level if anyone is curious.

Quote from: cthoman on February 22, 2012, 18:39
I was assuming that XXLMH sales were EPS sales, since I have a bunch of those sales. Anybody else?

Hmm, not sure, maybe they stick them in the same column?  If you go to the individual downloads page for a month (where it shows the actual images downloaded), the columns titles are different and it lists XXL JPG instead (when you hover over the heading it says 'Mega High').

I threw together a quick little Javascript based credit calculator for people who are not sure where they would land.  Just go into your earnings page, highlight the past full year of data (so currently, Jan 2012 through Feb 2011), copy and paste it into the box (make sure to get the whole line), then hit the calculate button.

I don't have a sales column for EPS in my current earnings page, so this will be broken for people with illustration sales.  The columns I currently have are below, if anyone else has something different, let me know and I can tweak it:

Month/Year Sub S M L XL XXLTF XXLMH PEL EEL CEL MS 100MB 200MB 300MB

http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html

Some food for thought, this is from the description of how the changes will work from 123RF's captcha page before the earnings page:

Quote
The mechanics of deriving a Contributor's Commission are as follows:

1. At the end of every month, a Contributor's total credits from all downloads in the previous 12 months shall be summed according to this table:

This means that contributors will really feel the cost of any site outages during high traffic months (fall/spring).  If there is a site problem that causes loss of downloads, you may not have enough to average out your slow months properly, resulting in your commissions dropping.  This is especially troubling for borderline people that are almost to the next tier or barely over.

Quote
2. The summed credit amount shall determine the Contributor's Level.
3. The Contributor's level will determine the commissions for each download in the preceding month.

You won't know your commission level for the month you are in until the month ends.  That means no more daily sales figures, the only thing they can report on is the number of downloads of what type.  The actual monetary value of those credits won't be determined until month end.  This is going to really mess with budgeting on both the contributors side and the agency's side (and I'm not quite certain that this would be legal).



Edit: One possibility I just realized is that they might be using the word 'preceding' where they actually mean 'proceeding'.  That would make more sense, but such a basic failing of English in an official document would be almost as scary as the idea of determining the month's commission level at the end of the month.

Oh, they will, have no doubt about that.  The designers who contacted me after the whole IS debacle were very concerned about  the impact to contributors.   There is a reason people buy fair trade coffee.

I think everyone knows where I stand on this sort of thing

I will give 123RF kudos for keeping the 35% payout level reasonably attainable for many people.  However on everything else, it sounds like they are following a certain someone's playbook to the letter; they will not budge on this issue.

If this plan is still in place at the end of the year I will be removing my portfolio completely.  This one sided behavior from our agents cannot be rewarded.  The fact that the RC concept has spread should be a big warning sign to all those who kept their portfolios with IS after their fiasco.  Due to 123RF's lower contribution to our total incomes, the decision here should be relatively straightforward.

My SS average for the last 6 months, with very few photos added to my portfolio, is 69.3c per license.

Interestingly, StockFresh seems to be getting the biggest bump from the downtime so far as my ports go. 

Quote from: fotografer on May 13, 2011, 09:03
Why don't you write to support and ask them if they will do it for you?  You have nothing to lose by  asking.

I did back in January, and got a canned response along the lines of "its invite only..."