EasyZoom (www.easyzoom.com) is a new and clever cloud solution to upload, annotate and share high-resolution images even through slow internet connections. For photographers, EasyZoom offers the possibility to use high-resolution images in a team or with customers for collaboration and presentation.
The speed of the Internet is growing slower than the megapixel number of digital cameras. This brings new challenges, such as transferring large amounts of data to customers and collaborations on large images (e. g. 50 or 100 MP).
This is not only a challenge for photographers….technical applications in medicine, images and sketches of engineers and architects are already producing pictures in the gigapixel range. And even a hobbyist can produce stunning 41 MP recording with his smartphone.
When sharing huge images with customers, colleagues, or friends, common requirements are created for all user groups:
– Speed: because a lot of time and space is required to download high-resolution images (almost impossible when you working with the smartphone on the way).
– A unique image viewer to ensure that the other party has the same image impression and can work quickly with it: anyone who once zoomed into a high-resolution PDF document with the Acrobat will soon become frustrated with the slow response time.
Various photo programs can also display the images differently, which can lead to communication problems between the parties.
– The need to explain details on the picture: every professional photographer knows the problem of having to talk on the phone about areas of a picture without knowing exactly what the conversation partner is talking about.
The ability to insert photo markers changes the original and makes it unusable. In addition, the file must be sent back and forth with each new change.
EasyZoom is a cloud-based software solution that covers these requirements in an innovative way and opens up the new world of the microcosm “high-resolution image”. The development team of the start-up company Smart In Media (Cologne, Germany) is based around the founders and physicians, Dr. Martin Weihrauch and Dr. Alberto Perez Bouza. They have created this system as their second software product.
Starting with a solution for the so-called “virtual microscopy” for universities, the students can view microscopic slides of their university from anywhere and can also learn on the virtual slides through the annotations. EasyZoom is a development branch and is aimed at anyone who wants to share photos in full resolution. After the free registration, one can upload, rename and tag the pictures comfortably.
A batch mode is very useful for editing several images at once. You can set the pictures both publicly and privately. A watermark feature can optionally protect the images effectively. What is special, however, are the annotations, that is, short texts, which can be stored in the pictures.
These can even be quickly added to images in the browser of smartphones. There is a setting to allow annotations to the recipients of the images. Thus the collaboration on an image is possible for many persons and supports the professional photographer in his communication with his contractor as well as with his post-production service.
Images can be shared using the social media or share links. The zooming is – thanks to the technology and server strength – very quick even with a moderate Internet connection and allows a pixel-accurate fast display.
EasyZoom is free for users who have up to 2 gigabytes of images. The Pro version costs € 15 per month and offers generous 50 GB and some additional features such as the insertion of watermarks. The Premium version for €49 per month extends the space to 250 GB and other functions.
A marketplace for selling high-resolution images and entire albums is already in work. With it, users can not only sell images, but it is also possible, to place full sets of images with annotations out for rental (e. g. teaching purposes).
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