[callmeed]

SmugMug's cheapest plan is $40/year, which is $3.33 a month

S3's most expensive tier is $0.15gb/mo

So, not counting bandwidth, a user would have to store roughly 22GB of images to eat up that cost.

Being conservative, a high-res JPEG out of camera (12mp) is probably 3mb on average. So, we're talking about over 7,000 images.

[staunch]

Even if they lost a little money on every person who maxes out their account they'd make plenty of excess on the vast majority of people who barely use their account. The same way ISPs rely on oversubscribing their connections.

[brk]

FYI, most people using high-res DLSR's are storing data in .raw format, instead of a lossy (jpeg) format.

My 12.8MP Canon EOS5D produces .RAW files of around 13MB each. I don't store in .jpg, but generally post-process a jpg thumbnail and mid-size image to make browsing my photo catalog easier (or for emailing samples).

Edits to pics are always saved as a sub-rev, so it's not uncommon for all the files associated with an image to add up to 20-40MB. This is fairly standard for anyone who shoots for $$ (full time, or for a hobby as I do).

Anyway, kind of off topic, but your 3mb number is too low :)

[callmeed]

I'm fully aware of the raw file aspect (I shoot professionally with various gear, including a 5D). I didn't consider it in my calculations for two reasons:

- SmugMug doesn't include it RAW file storage as part of the their accouts. You have to pay extra for it: http://www.smugmug.com/help/smugvault

- Most pro photogs are using services like SM after first editing their raw files locally (in Aperture, Lightroom, etc.) and then exporting high-res JPEGs.

[ojbyrne]

I have a 5d and use flickr, where I typically upload jpegs at full res and the highest quality settings. It's not uncommon for me to run into flickr's 10 meg limit. I'd say the average jpeg size that I upload there is more like 7 mb.

[callmeed]

I personally haven't seen a lot of 7+mb JPEGs from a 5D but I'm sure it's possible. When I output images from a wedding at level 10, they generally range from 2 to 5mb. My editorial work usually gets exported as tiffs, so those are huge.

I'd consider saving your JPEGs at level 10 in Photoshop (max is 12). It's unlikely you'd ever need or notice the difference. In fact, my print lab specifically requests this.

[ojbyrne]

I do always use 12, in fact I generally crop first before reducing the quality. I probably don't notice the difference, but since flickr rescales to make several copies I always felt that uploading at the highest quality was a good idea.

[ojbyrne]

My 5D Mk II just shipped. Right around the time I posted this comment. I feel serendipitous.