Sony expands its Creator’s Cloud Platform to Individual users
Sony’s Creator’s Cloud platform has now been opened to individual users after having previously been available only to Enterprise and pro customers.
This Sony platform offers its subscribers services such as cloud storage, peer-to-peer connections and overall workflow solutions across a convoluted range of apps.
Sony is also claiming that Creator’s Cloud will soon offer a new “camera to cloud” functionality that owners of Sony cameras who subscribe to the service can take advantage of.
Sony generally claims that its Creator’s Cloud system blends Sony’s own camera technology with cloud-based AI solutions for photo editing and storage.
The term AI has lately become a persistent buzzword for nearly every camera and software-based solution in sight on offer to photographic professionals and amateur users, but in Sony’s case, it might carry a bit more weight.
Either way, according to Sony’s VP of Imaging Solutions, Yang Cheng, “With Creators’ Cloud, we are building a unique space where content creators can blur the lines between hardware and software, online and offline,”
Cheng further elaborated:
“We know that content creators are looking for a one-stop shop, a place that integrates their content and creative tools, allows them to share and learn from other professionals and offers business opportunities and the expansion of Creators’ Cloud is the first step in Sony’s answer to this.”
In general with Creator’s Cloud, Sony claims to offer a space in which creators can blend workflow organization with an opportunity to discover and connect with other photo industry professionals and collaborate with them.
Simply put, it seems to aim at being a sort of pro photographer’s social media platform, but in a closed, pay-to-use version scattered across multiple apps.
Overall, Sony is positioning Creator’s Cloud as a constellation of apps that make workflow and collaboration easier.
How effectively this actually works will have to be seen though. Much of the platform is reportedly disorganized and in the case of some of its apps, not even fully functional.
The platform also seems to be aimed at competing with the well-known Adobe Creative Cloud platform that so many photographers subscribe to. Even the name Sony gave its system is suspiciously similar.
However, while Sony is an absolute master at creating excellent camera technology, their attempt at delivering a digital and cloud-based cloud system for photography workflows and collaboration needs a bit more analysis.
Most notably, while Sony is treating the entire platform as a cohesive network, each of its apps is delivered separately and with its own separate costs. Among these apps, some have free versions while others have both free tiers and multiple premium pricing tiers.
The overall effect of this is a confusing mix of payment vs. service options that Adobe Creative Cloud neatly avoids with its much simpler pricing schemes (though these aren’t without complaints either.)
The most recently notable part of Creator’s Cloud that Sony has advertised is its camera-to-cloud system. This too seems like a copy of Adobe’s Frame.io system announced in 2022, but it might be promising.
With Sony’s camera-to-cloud interface, users will be able to use it through what Sony calls the “Creator’s App”.
This app is a successor to Sony’s Edge Mobile Plus app and is supposed to work as a cloud-connected accessory to Sony cameras.
Through the app, photographers will be able to shoot their photo or video content through select Sony cameras and then upload it to their smartphones for transfer to a cloud for editing, sharing and management.
The app will also let users remotely control certain Sony cameras to update their settings and firmware.
According to Sony,
“All users can upload photo and video to Creators’ Cloud via Creators’ Cloud website. While camera control and file transfer to Creators’ App will be available to limited compatible models at time of release, Alpha 7 IV and ZV-1F, all users will also be able to upload via Creators’ App upon application,”
This means that even the app itself won’t be necessary for all upload contexts while some app features will work only with a limited range of cameras.
Sony does however promise wider compatibility options for the near future, claiming, “Other compatibility options will be available in Spring 2023. Direct upload from select cameras to cloud will be available at a future date.”
The company also clarified that “With the launch of Creators’ App for individuals, ‘C3Portal App,’ a cloud gateway application currently being provided for enterprises, will be renamed as “Creators’ App for enterprise.”
If you’re a photographer who works with Sony cameras, you can find out more details on Sony’s website. The company is promising to launch much of the above at some point in the spring of this year.
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Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.
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