Unsuitable Camera

[Donne]

I was surprised to get the message "Sorry, but this camera doesn't produce images of high enough quality for our requirements. For more info, see our FAQs." when I submitted my first three images to Alamy.  The unsuitable camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10.  It has a sharp Leica DC Vario Summilux !:1.4-2.8 / 8.8-26.4 ASPH lens.  The camera has a 20.1 megapixel 1-inch type sensor and the Leica 24-72 mm equivalent lens.  The images I submitted were unadjusted 5472 x 3648 pixels in size.  Is there a way to contact Alamy and ask them to consider adding the Lumix DMC-LX10 to their list of acceptable cameras?

 

Thanks in advance to anybody that can help.  I have approximately 250,000 images on file from 40 years working as a well published professional photographer under the name D. Donne Bryant and more recently Donnebryant.

[Alamy]

Hi, 

 

We no longer have an unsuitable camera list as it took up too much time & resources to keep it up to date in the growing market. We don’t review cameras, but we’ve set our Technical Requirements to cameras with a minimum of 6MP as anything below this won’t be good enough quality. That doesn’t mean everything above this will be good enough quality.

 

The technical requirements in our submission guidelines have 4 parts, make sure your images meet all 4 requirements before you submit.

 

Thanks,

Chantelle

[MDM]

On 14/01/2024 at 19:38, Donne said:

The unsuitable camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10.  It has a sharp Leica DC Vario Summilux !:1.4-2.8 / 8.8-26.4 ASPH lens.  The camera has a 20.1 megapixel 1-inch type sensor and the Leica 24-72 mm equivalent lens.  The images I submitted were unadjusted 5472 x 3648 pixels in size.  

 

Thanks in advance to anybody that can help.  I have approximately 250,000 images on file from 40 years working as a well published professional photographer under the name D. Donne Bryant and more recently Donnebryant.

 

From what I read on DPReview, that camera is pretty much equivalent to a Sony RX100 of the same vintage so it should be able to produce images of sufficent quality to pass Alamy QC. Loads of contributors use RX-100s and there is no problem. As Chantelle says, they don't specify unsuitable cameras any more despite the message you got but they do require you to include the EXIF data for the initial submission so I am guessing that they do still apply some form of check on the type of camera used for the initial submission. 

 

After that there is no requirement to include EXIF data so the technical quality of an image should be judged on the image itself at that point. In effect, after the initial submission and acceptance, there is nothing stopping  a contributor submitting images from any device that can produce images that satisfy Alamy's criteria and that could include various compact cameras and even recent iPhones which are capable of shooting raw and producing images of excellent quality.

 

I am not advocating you do that necessarily, but if you have a lot of images shot on that camera, you may be able to submit them in the future if they satisfy Alamy's criteria once you have passed initial QC. One thing you can do with your existing images is to downsize them in post to 3000x2000 pixels approx which gives an image sufficiently large to pass (>17 MB) and has a significant sharpening effect. 

 

As you have been a pro photographer for a long time with a large number of images, you obviously know how to take a photo so your best bet is to submit some images that are sharp and relatively low in noise. Content is irrelevant - it can be a stone wall, a landscape anything that shows you can upload a sharp picture as that is all they are really checking. You presumably have other camera(s) that you would use for professional activities so take a few pics specially for this purpose or use photos taken on such cameras. Just keep it simple for the first submission. 

Edited January 17 by MDM

[M.Chapman]

 

On 14/01/2024 at 19:38, Donne said:

I was surprised to get the message "Sorry, but this camera doesn't produce images of high enough quality for our requirements".

 

On 16/01/2024 at 08:13, Alamy said:

We no longer have an unsuitable camera list as it took up too much time & resources to keep it up to date in the growing market.

Is it just me or do these two statements seem somewhat contradictory? Maybe there's not a list, but the initial submission QC seems to be applying a check of some sort?? Maybe 1" or smaller sensors are deemed unsuitable unless it's a Sony RX100 series?

 

Mark

 

 

[MDM]

36 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

 

 

Is it just me or do these two statements seem somewhat contradictory? Maybe there's not a list, but the initial submission QC seems to be applying a check of some sort?? Maybe 1" or smaller sensors are deemed unsuitable unless it's a Sony RX100 series?

 

Mark

 

 

 

It's not just you That's essentially what I said in my post above and that is presumably why they require the first submission to include EXIF data. In fact there is no other logical reason that I can think of why they would want EXIF data except to check the camera used. 

Edited January 18 by MDM

[spacecadet]

So perhaps they don't have an unsuitable camera list............but nonetheless there are unsuitable cameras.