Kodak Gallery Review  

Kodak Gallery Review- Facts, Company Profile, Service Description, Benefits, Drawbacks, Customer Comments and Personal Review  

Facts & Company Profile 

Kodak Gallery ® is a free online digital photo developing service. It was formerly known as Ofoto ®. The company began in 1999 in Berkeley, California. In June 2001, the company became a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak ® and changed its name to its current name on March 2005. The company is currently based out of Emeryville, California and promotes its services through the website, kodakgallery.com.

Kodak Gallery ® has also been fairly active in developing partnerships with various companies and individuals. This list includes companies like Photobucket ®, Target ® and the Apple App Store ® and individuals like Children’s author Eric Carle and has recently done a Mom-a-Thon where over 1 million free photo cards were given away on Mother’s day.

***We recommend you consider one of these alternatives instead by clicking on one of the following links: SmugMug Review or Clark Color Review.***

Service Description 

Kodak Gallery ® offers its free online digital photo sharing service to customers along with options to buy photo prints and photo gifts online. The photo sharing offers a free plan which requires a minimum print purchase every year or a paid service called Gallery Premier ®. This plan costs $24.99 a year or $2.49 a month. It comes complete with three main features: 

1. Password protection to help keep your pictures private. 

2. Unlimited high resolution photo downloads. 

3. Your own web address where others can view and buy your photos. 

Print pricing for their service depends on the plan you have. The free plan or the Gallery Premier ® gives their standard pricing. However, their Gallery Premier with Print Plan ® allows you to pay a subscription fee on a yearly basis of $49.99 and cheaper print pricing compared to its regular plan. For example, 4x6 prints can be had for 10 cents rather than 15 cents. This plan also enjoys the other benefits of the Gallery Premier Plan ®. 

Photo gift options are comparable to what you would find with other competitors. These gifts range from photo books, ties, magnets, etc. Basically, you will find a list of over 100 different photo gift ideas. These are also similarly priced compared to middle of the line price competitors.

The customer service offers three options: email, live chat, and phone service. Their current hours of operation are 6:00am to 6:00pm PST.  

Benefits 

• Currently, offers 20 free prints for new members. 
• The company does accept video file uploads of up to 15 megabytes per file and at a max of 150 megabytes of video files per each account.
• Hypertext linking appears to be allowed in most instances.
• Photos can be uploaded from camera phones and digital cameras.

Drawbacks 

• Must be 18 years of age or older to register for their online sharing service. 
• Offers free online photo sharing, but must make an online purchase every year of at least $4.99 or $19.99 depending on whether you have more less than 2 GB uploaded. If no purchase made, photos may be deleted. 
• Cheaper print pricing requires buying a special subscription plan and these newly adjust prices are not even lower and only similar to the low cost providers in this field. 
• Some negative reviews and anger over difficulty uploading camera phone photos and introduction of subscription service.  

Customer Comments 

Here, are some snippets of comments made by customers of this company’s service: 

“We used them…Pleased with quality…Given specials they offered we felt we had value for the money.” Actual User Fodors Forum 

“I can not tell you how poor the quality and subsequent customer support was…I would not recommend making ANY purcahses from Kodak Gallery…Returns are made very difficult…my experience with Kodak Gallery is they are a joke!” Actual User Fodors Forum 

“I have tried several times to upload some pictures from my phone to Kodak Gallery….All other uploads seems to be working…” Actual User Shozu Forum 

“I have about 8 books…love them. However, I'm getting a little bored with their layouts…” Actual User Windsorpeak Forum 

Personal Review 

Kodak Gallery ® has an easy sign up service that allows you to upload pictures through multiple means including its own Kodak EasyShare ® system. Uploading pictures is very similar to the other free online sharing companies and has essentially the same tools. The company also has the benefit of being backed by a well known photo company, accept video clips, and three different methods to reach customer service.  

Unfortunately, it has a couple of concerns as well. The need to purchase a subscription plan to enjoy basic features like password protection is disturbing. In addition, a special subscription plan is need to get the better costs for their prints. These are problematic because other competitors offer these services for free.     

In the end, I feel a bit underwhelmed by their company. Considering it is being supported by such a large well known company, you would think they would offer more to their customers. Instead, they appear to be a run of the mill service in this niche. If you would like to learn more about this company, click on the following link: www.kodakgallery.com. 

***However, we recommend you consider one of these alternatives instead by clicking on one of the following links: SmugMug Review or Clark Color Review.***