I am a fairly frequent user of Flickr. I use it to share my photos, and as sort of a backup service for photos I don’t want to loose. Currently I have almost 3500 pictures stored, and more are coming. I’ve been a paying customer – a so called “pro” for a little over a year, and I have no plans of canceling my subscription. However, there are a few key features I think is missing from this top of the line photo sharing service:

1: Support for RAW format

I shoot almost all of my photos in Nikon’s RAW format NEF. Only the pictures I take using my cellphone is directly converted to JPEG. The rest is stored in large files that I can do just about anything with using my favorite photo editing software. Problem is that Flickr doesn’t support these RAW formats. And since I use Flickr as sort of a backup service as well as a sharing service, I would really like to have my original files stored there as well. I have searched the web for an alternative or additional service where I can security store my originals, but to date all I have found are expensive services for professional photographers and that is not what I’m looking for. I don’t mind paying for the service, but I would like to be able to afford bread and butter as well…

2: Improved access control

Some photos are for everyone, some are just for me, and some are for a select few. With Flickr all you can do is share with everyone, with your friends, your family, or with no one.  I would like to be able to share my photos with the people I select. And I don’t want them to have to register with Yahoo! to gain access. Either by a unique link (like Google’s Picasa) or by email somehow. That way I control who has access my photos, and the people I want to share with can keep their personal info personal.

I’m trying to think of a third wish but I got nothing. Seems there are only two features I find missing on Flickr. Is it really that semi-perfect? Hm! Well, why not? Still, I’d say the two points I have are pretty important so I really hope to see them implemented soon. Or maybe someone has a tip for a different service I can use to fulfill my photo storage and sharing needs?