Kodak Gallery (Ofoto) is an online photo sharing site where anyone can upload pictures for free just like Flickr.

The service is especially popular among Kodak digital camera users since these cameras ship with Kodak Easyshare software that can directly upload photos from the camera to you online Kodak Gallery.

Now if you have been using the Kodak Gallery service to store all your precious digital photos, here’s some not-so-good news:

Kodak will delete all your pictures unless you buy something from them.

Kodak has just revised their Terms of Service and the new policy states that Kodak Gallery members must make an annual purchase else their photos will be deleted from the photo gallery. Here’s the requirement:

1. If your online photos use less than 2 GB storage, you must make annual purchases of at least $4.99 from Kodak.

2. For everyone else, the minimum purchase requirement is $19.99 and this is annual.

How to Download Photos from Kodak Gallery

It’s good to have a business model but forcing people to pay for your service is a bad practice. Kodak Gallery is a closed service and so there are no tools or APIs that will help you move photos from Kodak to other free services like Flickr or Picasa Web Albums.

There’s however an inexpensive workaround. You can opt for a premier gallery that costs around $2.5 per month but offers you an option to download full-resolution photos from all your picture albums. Once you have a copy of all your images on the hard drive, cancel your Kodak subscription and upload them to Flickr.

The other more expensive alternative is the Kodak CD - they will burn all your uploaded photos on a CD and each photo will be saved in the original resolution. Hat tip Sharath Bhat.

Related Resources:

• Flickr Guide: How to Do Everything with Flickr
• Flickr vs Picasa Web Albums