Hi, I was wondering if people could help me out on this issue. I got a lot of emails regarding the upload of image, i am using the image uploader (checkout+) of templatecodes, and that works great but the size of the image is the general cause of the question. If people place a listing they take multiple photos of the object and they want to import those images directly from the cam memory. But those photos are large and around the 3-4 mb and mostly taken with a 4-12 mp camera. How can i set the settings correctly so people dont have to manually resize before uploading photos, so they can load it in directly. Hoping to hear from you, Dominick
Regardless of how you have the script configured you still have to take into account the amount of memory your web server allocates to scripts. If you exceed that amount you script will fail.
It allowes up to 16 mb to upload, so it has to be enough. But what are the "perfect" settings for the image upload part.
Whats a normal raw camera picture??? You asking for someone to define that which is undefinable because all cameras take different sized images. do yourself a favor and learn a bit about images and image formats it will save you a lot of confusion. Most point and shoot cameras for sale today are 10+ megapixels. Here is a list of a couple canon cameras and their images sizes at the best settings. canon 50D 15megapixels 4752 x 3168 pixels dimensions canon 5d mkII 21.1 megapixels 5616 x 3744 pixels dimensions powershot A480 10 megapixels 3648 x 2736 pixels dimensions Now take an image editing application like photoshop or gimp and create a new image and type in the pixel dimensions for one of the above cameras. In the bottom left hand corner of the window it will show you the amount of memory used by that image. Gimp shows like 85meg used for a 10 megapixel image. This will likely vary a bit depending on the app used. So the question isnt what to set you script to based on the camera but what to set the script to based on what your web host allows. You cant set you script to work with modern, straight out of the camera images because your web host doesnt allow your scripts to use enough memory.
I am lost on this one - why would anyone want to upload 10 megapixel images, even if you could? Only a very stupid person would try to upload such large images across the internet even if his host did provide the space and working memory. Its a bit like this other point about images being squashed. If you put rubbish in, guess what will come out. Most people unless they are very naive do know that they have not got 2 hours to upload a set of huge images over the internet. They also know they can't send them by email. Its is down to them to scale and trim their images to something reasonable where they have a machine with the working memory to do it. on.
@seymourjames I wasnt talking about a 10 megapixel image, i was just talking in general. about the steps somebody has to do to place a listing. I think its very important for a classifieds site to be as easy as possible, right? And i can import pictures straight out of a digital camera into hotmail, and other sites (ebay, classifieds etc etc)
Ease comes with a price. If you want a server that can handle large images straight from the camera then poney up the $$$$$ and go with a real hosting plan. Do you think e-bay and hotmail run on a single shared hosting plan? Your trying to make changes to the script to allow camera uploads but seem to be ignoring the fact that the limiting facot is your web host, NOT the script and how its configured. You can change you script to allow 1000000 x100000 pixel images if you want but if it doesnt have the memory it wont be able to do anything with the image. Im continually amazed when people run cheap little hosting plans and compare it to sites running millions of dollars worth of hardware and expect to have the same functionality.
I agree - as easy as possible is a good goal. BUT there are practical issues to consider. Bandwidth (speed and cost) - So you got the memory on your server to process those large images direct from your camera. Lets say, 8 nice high resolution images from your camera giving 16MB in total. You got a 1 Mbps upload (many have more but a lot have less and for those who have less it will be painful). How long will it take then. I can tell you the best you will do is 120 seconds. Realistically you are looking at 3-4 minutes unless you have an unfettered internet connection all the way through. Your customers will be hitting the back button and fiddling with the camera connection for sure. What you need to be aware of is ISPs do not cater for uploaders. They never compete on upload speeds. The reason why is that unloaders are a tiny proportion of all the internet traffic.
@lhotch and @seymourjames. I agree with you both, thats why i asked this in the first place, what are the perfect settings to have the perfect balance between it all.
Well it is a classifieds site and not a photoshop gallery. I try to advise sellers to put in 250 x 200 pixels or at least in those proportions. Perhaps a little larger but not a lot. I don't want them trying to stick in 1500 x 1500 pixel images as it clogs up the server and they often write saying that they can't upload their photos in bla bla bla. People want to put their stuff on fast and go away. In my case my buyers write to the sellers and always ask have they got more photos etc. Then it is there own communication. In marketing the point is to give just enough to get somebody to do something else. In this case, the buyer contacts the seller. The seller is then happy that potential buyers are contacting him for more info or more photos. From the sellers point of view it is working.
