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ith Irista, Canon

has developed

a cloud storage

service with

photographers in mind. It

concentrates purely on image

files (including DNG and Raw

files from most cameras) rather

than documents, providing

a place to store, organise

and share photos online.

Irista looks far better than the

utilitarian offerings of most

cloud storage providers and

boasts 15Gb of free storage,

competitive rates (£8.25/month

for 500Gb if paid annually) and

no limit on file sizes.

The best way to upload

images is from the desktop

client, but you can also use

the web, Lightroom and social

networks. In fact, Facebook

and Flickr are fully integrated

with Irista, so you can upload

images directly from each

network and publish new ones

back again. Uploaded images

are grouped into months,

so specific images can be

found easily. Alternatively,

A

mazon Cloud Drive

offers a broad range

of storage levels,

starting from 5Gb for

free and progressing to low-

level limits of 20Gb, 50Gb and

100Gb. Anything above that and

it’s probably worth signing up

for Amazon Prime at a cost of

£79/year. In return you’ll receive

unlimited storage for photos, free

one-day delivery on Amazon

goods and exclusive access to

movies, TV shows and Kindle

books on Prime Instant Video.

It’s a great deal but if you’re

shooting massive files you’ll need

to compress your images, as the

size limit for any file is 2Gb.

There’s a downloadable

desktop client that works on

iOS, Android, PC and Mac

systems, which enables you

to upload multiple files at a

time. Alternatively, the Cloud

Drive website is attractively

economical. Files can be

dragged into the uploading

window and photos are

arranged in a neat timeline.

Unfortunately, when it comes

CANON IRISTA AMAZON CLOUD DRIVE

TECH SPECS

TECH SPECS

LIKES

LIKES

DISLIKES

DISLIKES

BEST FOR...SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BEST FOR...UNLIMITED PHOTO STORAGE

Free storage: 15Gb

Cost:

200Gb for £4.49/month or £45/year

500Gb for £9.99/month

Contact: irista.com

Free storage: 5Gb

Cost:

20Gb for £6/year, 50Gb for £16/year

100Gb for £32/year, 200Gb for £64/

year, 500Gb for £160/year

1Tb for £320/year

Contact: amazon.co.uk

No limit to file size

Generous free storage of 15Gb

Stylish site with good

filter options

Fully integrated with Facebook

and Flickr

Excellent value if you sign up

with Amazon Prime

Displays Nikon, Canon and

Sony Raw files

Unlimited storage option

Video is not currently accepted

2Gb file size limit

Limited sorting options for photos

Irista is stylishly designed. Photos are sorted by date on Amazon Cloud Drive.

The excellent preview window shows the Exif data of the photo. Even Raw fi les are displayed as thumbnails in the fi le list.

to sorting images you’re limited

to the date taken or date

uploaded, so you’ll need to set

up folders to make things easier.

Amazon Cloud Drive accepts

any file type and displays Nikon,

Canon and Sony Raw files. It’s

simple to share images by

email or link, while selecting

images for downloading is just

as straightforward.

you can use filters such as

tags, camera, lens and social

networks to sort your pictures.

Albums can be created

quickly, although you will need

to click on every image you

want to include. Another great

feature is the display of Exif

data when previewing single

images. Canon also seems

keen to get feedback from

users so it can improve an

already impressive service.

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