Another thorn has been driven into the side of dedicated SLR camera users. Alamy, a stock news photo agency with a global presence, announced today that it will now be accepting images taken with compact cameras and smartphones. A representative of Alamy remarked that it is "obvious that good photographers using these devices will be able to capture and record breaking news and events with a quality that is acceptable to both on and offline news agencies." According to Alamy, its users will be able to upload their photos to a remote FTP server run by the stock photo service.
Copyright 2013 Alamy Limited
This is a move that many have been seen coming for a while now. What better way to get exclusive photos of breaking news than with a photographer's iPhone? Recent history is rife with examples of social media beating traditional news outlets to the punch when it comes to developing news stories. Although the images will be subject to the same strict submission rules that govern the submissions via SLR cameras, Alamy has removed a "blanket ban" of sorts that dictates what cameras can be used. The next big headline you see in the news may be accompanied not by a shot from a 5d Mark III, but the mobile device in our pockets that we always take for granted. One of the rules, however, did not come as a surprise: "No Instagram filters."