Amazon Prime cost: How to get your money's worth. The Amazon original series ‘Transparent' Photo via Amazon. TRY AMAZON PRIME. Correction 10:34am CT, May 13, 2020. Amazon Prime Photos. If you pay for Amazon Prime, you automatically have access to unlimited storage of full-resolution photos, plus 5GB of video storage. This can be a huge benefit to photographers of all stripes who want a secure place to store their pictures without worrying about intrusive advertising and data analytics.
- Amazon Prime Photos Tutorial
- Amazon Prime Photo Books
- Amazon Prime Photos Cost Without
- Amazon Prime Photos Print Cost
I collect a lot of travel photos. In fact, I've taken over 60,000 photos in the last 3 years! I have a solid system for backing up my travel photos already, and I wanted to expand on how useful Amazon Prime Photos can be for you!
Amazon Prime Photos is available on your existing Amazon Prime membership. It provides web, desktop and mobile access to all of your photos. With your Prime membership, you get unlimited photo storage and 5GB of video storage. If you don't have Amazon Prime, sign up for free.
Get your free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime
When you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you'll get Prime Photos automatically. With Prime Photos, you'll be able to kick-start your photo backup system!
Try Amazon PrimeHow does Amazon Prime Photos work?
There are three main plans that you can choose from.
Free with Prime. Like I mentioned above, you'll be able to store all of your photos, for free!
100GB of storage for $11.99/year. This wouldn't work for me. My photo catalog is pushing a few TB and I would fill up 100GB in a weekend.
1TB of storage for $59.99/year. I would consider this as an option if I didn't already have a 1TB-Dropbox plan. This will be good for most people, as you can store a good number of photos with this plan.
When you subscribe to Prime photos (through Amazon Prime), you're able to access your files through a mobile app, a web app and a desktop app. Aside from being able to back up your photos, you can also use Amazon Photos to search for common things within your photos like food, dogs or trees. It can recognize people, too!
Backing up your photos with Amazon Prime Photos
Amazon Prime Photos Tutorial
Aside from the storage plans, let's go a little deeper on how you can use Amazon Prime photos today. But first, let's briefly talk about backing up your photos in general. Photo backups are an important part of your workflow if you want to keep your photos safe. I (and most of the internet) will recommend backing up your photos in at least two additional places.
It's a good idea to have a copy of your photo library on your local hard drive, to have a backup on an external hard drive and to have a backup somewhere in the cloud.
Now that we've covered backing up your photos, let's review how to back up your photos using Amazon Prime Photos.
Amazon Photos Web app
From the web client, you can go to Add > Upload Photos in the top navigation bar.
From there, you'll find your Amazon Drive folders where you can add your photos. Personally, I like to categorize all of my photos by year.
Amazon Photos Desktop app
As an alternative to the web client, you can use the desktop app as well. I do all of my photo work on a Mac, so I can speak to the Mac app.
An older version of this app wasn't very good and limited uploads to four at a time. Uploading RAW files took forever (it almost took a month when I first started uploading!) because it could only process four large files at once. The updated app is decent and now supports eight concurrent uploads! After a shoot, I'll queue up an upload. I find that keeping my uploads small, it's manageable for the app to handle.
You can set up the app to schedule backups or do a one-time backup. I prefer doing a one-time backup because I constantly move files around, as my local hard drive fills up quickly.
Amazon Photos Mobile app
While the mobile app exists on iPhone and Android, I don't use it. I use Amazon Prime Photos as a backup and not as a place to view my photos.
Benefits of using Amazon Photos
I've had a hard drive fail before and I'm glad that I had my photo files backed up. Without that backup, I would have lost a few years' worth of work. When you use Prime Photos, you can ensure that your photos are safe! As an added benefit, you're able to browse photos on your phone and computer and share with friends and family. You're also able to order prints.
I can see a use case where you take a few family photos and you want to share them at a family gathering. You can open the folder where you have the files and pass your phone to whoever wants to see the photos!
In addition to the features of the platform, it's free! Well, kind of. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you get Amazon Prime Photos for free. There's no additional cost to you. You can upgrade your plan if you want to increase your video storage.
Limitations of using Amazon Photos
When new image formats come out, sometimes Amazon doesn't recognize them as 'images.' Because of this, it eats away at your low 5GB-storage cap of other files. I had this happen to me when I was testing a new camera that had a brand new RAW file type. This isn't an issue for most people and you can see the supported image formats to confirm that your images are supported. If they aren't supported, you can convert those unsupported RAW files to DNG files.
I've found the uploader to be buggy at times, and I found that the upload speeds aren't as good with some other image backup services. Amazon is always improving its software, so this might not be the case for much longer.
Can you print photos with Amazon Prime Photos?
Yes! In fact, Amazon makes it easy to print your photos. They have a large selection of different products, like canvas prints, metal prints, photo books, calendars and so much more. Amazon Prime members get free shipping.
How to get Amazon Prime Photos
If you don't have Amazon Prime, then sign up! Amazon Prime has a lot of good benefits like fast shipping for products and access to other video and music services.
If you already have Amazon Prime, then you're good to go. Visit the sign in page to start uploading. If you don't want Amazon Prime, you can still sign up for Amazon Photos based on the price points above.
I hope you were able to learn something about photo backups and more information about one of the many excellent resources out there for keeping your photos safe.
Last updated on January 12th, 2021
Prime has been a big hit for Amazon.
The membership service -- which gives users access to free two-day shipping, music, movies and other perks -- has over 100 million subscribers. On Thursday, the tech giant announced it's hiking the annual price of Prime to $119 from $99.
Although the service launched in 2005, Amazon(AMZN) didn't aggressively start stepping up its offerings until years later.
Here are some of the major features Amazon has added over the years.
February 2005: Amazon Prime is born. Members pay $79 per year for free two-day shipping in the US on eligible purchases.
February 2011: Prime members are given access to over 5,000 movies and TV shows without ads for free.
Amazon Prime Photo Books
March 2014: The annual Prime membership fee is raised to $99 from $79.
April 2014: Amazon announces Prime Pantry. Members can order non-perishable items, such as dish soap and paper towels, in one box for a flat fee of $5.99. The price is now $7.99.
June 2014: Prime Music is announced. Members have free access to commercial-free streaming of over two million songs and more than 1,000 playlists and stations.
September 2014: Amazon Studios' comedy series Transparent debuts. In 2015, the show won two Golden Globe awards -- the first major award for Amazon Studios.
November 2014: Amazon adds Prime Photos, which gives members free unlimited photo storage on the Prime Photos app.
December 2014: Prime Now launches in New York City with free two-hour delivery and one-hour delivery for $7.99. The service has since expanded to 32 metro areas, including Atlanta, Houston and Chicago.
May 2015: Prime members can now get free same-day and one-day delivery on qualifying orders over $35. As of 2018, the service is available in over 8,000 cities and towns.
July 2015: Amazon Prime Day was created to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary. The online shopping event featured deals only for Prime Members and drew comparisons to Black Friday.
July 2016: The company hosts a second Prime Day. Subscriber orders jumped more than 60% globally compared to the first Prime Day.
October 2016: Amazon introduces Prime Reading, which offers unlimited access to a rotating selection of over 1,000 books, Audible narrations and magazines.
December 2016: Amazon adds a Prime membership option for $10.99 per month for those who don't want to commit to a full year.
January 2017: Amazon partners with Chase on the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. It's only available to Prime members, and gets cardholders 5% back on all Amazon.com purchases.
June 2017: Amazon launches Prime Wardrobe, which lets Prime members try on clothing and accessories before buying them.
July 2017: The tech giant reports record sales for its third annual Prime Day, topping its numbers for previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping periods.
Free with Prime. Like I mentioned above, you'll be able to store all of your photos, for free!
100GB of storage for $11.99/year. This wouldn't work for me. My photo catalog is pushing a few TB and I would fill up 100GB in a weekend.
1TB of storage for $59.99/year. I would consider this as an option if I didn't already have a 1TB-Dropbox plan. This will be good for most people, as you can store a good number of photos with this plan.
When you subscribe to Prime photos (through Amazon Prime), you're able to access your files through a mobile app, a web app and a desktop app. Aside from being able to back up your photos, you can also use Amazon Photos to search for common things within your photos like food, dogs or trees. It can recognize people, too!
Backing up your photos with Amazon Prime Photos
Amazon Prime Photos Tutorial
Aside from the storage plans, let's go a little deeper on how you can use Amazon Prime photos today. But first, let's briefly talk about backing up your photos in general. Photo backups are an important part of your workflow if you want to keep your photos safe. I (and most of the internet) will recommend backing up your photos in at least two additional places.
It's a good idea to have a copy of your photo library on your local hard drive, to have a backup on an external hard drive and to have a backup somewhere in the cloud.
Now that we've covered backing up your photos, let's review how to back up your photos using Amazon Prime Photos.
Amazon Photos Web app
From the web client, you can go to Add > Upload Photos in the top navigation bar.
From there, you'll find your Amazon Drive folders where you can add your photos. Personally, I like to categorize all of my photos by year.
Amazon Photos Desktop app
As an alternative to the web client, you can use the desktop app as well. I do all of my photo work on a Mac, so I can speak to the Mac app.
An older version of this app wasn't very good and limited uploads to four at a time. Uploading RAW files took forever (it almost took a month when I first started uploading!) because it could only process four large files at once. The updated app is decent and now supports eight concurrent uploads! After a shoot, I'll queue up an upload. I find that keeping my uploads small, it's manageable for the app to handle.
You can set up the app to schedule backups or do a one-time backup. I prefer doing a one-time backup because I constantly move files around, as my local hard drive fills up quickly.
Amazon Photos Mobile app
While the mobile app exists on iPhone and Android, I don't use it. I use Amazon Prime Photos as a backup and not as a place to view my photos.
Benefits of using Amazon Photos
I've had a hard drive fail before and I'm glad that I had my photo files backed up. Without that backup, I would have lost a few years' worth of work. When you use Prime Photos, you can ensure that your photos are safe! As an added benefit, you're able to browse photos on your phone and computer and share with friends and family. You're also able to order prints.
I can see a use case where you take a few family photos and you want to share them at a family gathering. You can open the folder where you have the files and pass your phone to whoever wants to see the photos!
In addition to the features of the platform, it's free! Well, kind of. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you get Amazon Prime Photos for free. There's no additional cost to you. You can upgrade your plan if you want to increase your video storage.
Limitations of using Amazon Photos
When new image formats come out, sometimes Amazon doesn't recognize them as 'images.' Because of this, it eats away at your low 5GB-storage cap of other files. I had this happen to me when I was testing a new camera that had a brand new RAW file type. This isn't an issue for most people and you can see the supported image formats to confirm that your images are supported. If they aren't supported, you can convert those unsupported RAW files to DNG files.
I've found the uploader to be buggy at times, and I found that the upload speeds aren't as good with some other image backup services. Amazon is always improving its software, so this might not be the case for much longer.
Can you print photos with Amazon Prime Photos?
Yes! In fact, Amazon makes it easy to print your photos. They have a large selection of different products, like canvas prints, metal prints, photo books, calendars and so much more. Amazon Prime members get free shipping.
How to get Amazon Prime Photos
If you don't have Amazon Prime, then sign up! Amazon Prime has a lot of good benefits like fast shipping for products and access to other video and music services.
If you already have Amazon Prime, then you're good to go. Visit the sign in page to start uploading. If you don't want Amazon Prime, you can still sign up for Amazon Photos based on the price points above.
I hope you were able to learn something about photo backups and more information about one of the many excellent resources out there for keeping your photos safe.
Last updated on January 12th, 2021
Prime has been a big hit for Amazon.
The membership service -- which gives users access to free two-day shipping, music, movies and other perks -- has over 100 million subscribers. On Thursday, the tech giant announced it's hiking the annual price of Prime to $119 from $99.
Although the service launched in 2005, Amazon(AMZN) didn't aggressively start stepping up its offerings until years later.
Here are some of the major features Amazon has added over the years.
February 2005: Amazon Prime is born. Members pay $79 per year for free two-day shipping in the US on eligible purchases.
February 2011: Prime members are given access to over 5,000 movies and TV shows without ads for free.
Amazon Prime Photo Books
March 2014: The annual Prime membership fee is raised to $99 from $79.
April 2014: Amazon announces Prime Pantry. Members can order non-perishable items, such as dish soap and paper towels, in one box for a flat fee of $5.99. The price is now $7.99.
June 2014: Prime Music is announced. Members have free access to commercial-free streaming of over two million songs and more than 1,000 playlists and stations.
September 2014: Amazon Studios' comedy series Transparent debuts. In 2015, the show won two Golden Globe awards -- the first major award for Amazon Studios.
November 2014: Amazon adds Prime Photos, which gives members free unlimited photo storage on the Prime Photos app.
December 2014: Prime Now launches in New York City with free two-hour delivery and one-hour delivery for $7.99. The service has since expanded to 32 metro areas, including Atlanta, Houston and Chicago.
May 2015: Prime members can now get free same-day and one-day delivery on qualifying orders over $35. As of 2018, the service is available in over 8,000 cities and towns.
July 2015: Amazon Prime Day was created to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary. The online shopping event featured deals only for Prime Members and drew comparisons to Black Friday.
July 2016: The company hosts a second Prime Day. Subscriber orders jumped more than 60% globally compared to the first Prime Day.
October 2016: Amazon introduces Prime Reading, which offers unlimited access to a rotating selection of over 1,000 books, Audible narrations and magazines.
December 2016: Amazon adds a Prime membership option for $10.99 per month for those who don't want to commit to a full year.
January 2017: Amazon partners with Chase on the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. It's only available to Prime members, and gets cardholders 5% back on all Amazon.com purchases.
June 2017: Amazon launches Prime Wardrobe, which lets Prime members try on clothing and accessories before buying them.
July 2017: The tech giant reports record sales for its third annual Prime Day, topping its numbers for previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping periods.
October 2017: The company unveils Amazon Key, a service for Prime members that lets delivery drivers into homes to drop off packages. Users have to buy a kit ($249.99) with an Amazon security camera and a compatible smart lock.
January 2018: Amazon announces the monthly fee for a Prime subscription is increasing to $12.99 from $10.99.
Amazon Prime Photos Cost Without
February 2018: Prime members in select cities can get free two-hour delivery from Whole Foods, which the company acquired in 2017.
April 2018: Amazon launches a new service in 37 US cities that delivers packages to the trunks of cars for free if you're a Prime member.
Amazon Prime Photos Print Cost
Amazon also raises the Prime membership fee to $119 from $99 per year.
