Earning Bitcoin with cheap camera equipment.

[Jet Cash]

I've seen many threads asking about methods to gain a passive income in Bitcoin, and most of the replies seem to be based on faucets, trading or sig spamming. I thought I would see if I could build a passive income from free or almost free, camera equipment. I've started a project in Fit to Talk, and I chose to run it there for two reasons. I have complete control over the thread, and the project is aimed at Bitcoin Talk members who may be in countries with "challenged" economies, and they may not have English as their first language. This is the link -
https://fittotalk.com/english-talk/index.php?topic=380.0

The project is aimed at helping members to create images that can be submitted to sites such as Shutter Stock, and later on, I can post links to instruction videos on YouTube, but first I have to manage to build a camera system that is as close to free as I can get it. Please feel free to post comments and advice in this thread. I've almost managed to build a working system based on a Canon EOS 350D, and I will post comments on testing and tuning it once I have obtained a lens and memory card.

I'm trying to restrict this project to the purchased items and free software, and I'm not using any of my more expensive still and video cameras, except for photographing the equipment of course. I'm also avoiding the use of mobile phones, as members may not have phones with suitable cameras included. Maybe that could be a future project, or perhaps somebody else could start such a project.

[HeRetiK]

The project is aimed at helping members to create images that can be submitted to sites such as Shutter Stock [...]

Are there stock photo sites that pay their members in Bitcoin?

I haven't keep track of stock photo sites for a while, but e.g. Shutter Stock seems to only support payout using the likes of PayPal and Skrill [1] (And I'm honestly surprised that Skrill is even supported, it feels like yesterday that having to deal with cheques was more or less standard).

[1] https://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/kbat02/000006593

[Jet Cash]

That's something that I need to research.My feeling is that if one can find an exchange that will allow payment into your account in dollars, then they could be used to purchase Bitcoin. The idea is to collect Bitcoin into a savings wallet, and use this as an investment for the future. I got the impression that some members had problems in accepting payments in their local currencies. The project is also a way to learn a new skill, and maybe one could earn Bitcoin by taking wedding photos, or some other local event reporting.

[HeRetiK]

I'm super curious if you find something. IMHO crypto is a pretty good fit for royalty-fee-based earnings since for many content producers relatively small payments are involved.

[NeuroticFish]

Are there stock photo sites that pay their members in Bitcoin?

At some point, about 2 (or more) years ago, I've done a bit of research in that direction. I was hoping I find something without KYC requirements.
I've even posted some images to bittit (which now doesn't seem to exist anymore). Unfortunately I've never received a satoshi for them.
So.. good luck with your project, but be careful, since where money is involved, IRS may get involved too, and you may need KYC and accounting. I hope I'm wrong.

[bitmover]

I thought I would see if I could build a passive income from free or almost free, camera equipment.

Jet Cash, are you sure you can sell photos to shutterstock with cheap equipment?
I mean, those photos are very high quality and resolution, colors, etc. They are even better than those free websites like pexels and pixabay, which are very good too.

I don't use cameras since smartphones showed up, but my smartphone cannot make good resolution photos like shutterstock require

The project is aimed at helping members to create images that can be submitted to sites such as Shutter Stock [...]

Are there stock photo sites that pay their members in Bitcoin?

I haven't keep track of stock photo sites for a while, but e.g. Shutter Stock seems to only support payout using the likes of PayPal and Skrill [1] (And I'm honestly surprised that Skrill is even supported, it feels like yesterday that having to deal with cheques was more or less standard).

[1] https://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/kbat02/000006593

I think this could be easily solved. Jet Cash can sell to shutterstock, receive in fiat, convert to btc, and pay for those members in btc.

[Jet Cash]

I don't want to get involved in any money or other financial transactions. That's when you need KYC, and government permissions, and of course it creates tax liabilities and possible scam accusations. I hope that it can become a small group of members helping each other to find cheap kit, and to improve their photographic skills. Maybe some of the members will work together to help with exchanges, but I would prefer to keep out of that.

BAT is a crypto for content producers, and Steemit offers crypto payments as well. Maybe those sites could be used for people to get started.

[shield132]

Man apologise if I didn't understand things there cause I have some questions: If you try to help to local charities, why did they give you Canon 350D gift?
I think it will be better if you take it in some local phone/camera repair services and ask them what kind of chargers and etc are needed for it and if they have equipment, whether it's possible to test it.
And also, you need great camera like Canon EOS 5d mark 3 and similar to take high quality pictures which will be acceptable for shutterstock.

[Jet Cash]

Some of the charity shops in England just dump stuff that hasn't sold in a month, in the rubbish bin. It was in a box that they asked me to dispose of. I bought a charger on Amazon, as I mentioned above, and the camera appears to be working, but I need to do a white board teat when I get a lens and memory card. It didn't sell because it had a dead battery, no memory card, lens or charger, and it was not possible to confirm it was working.

In my opinion, the camera is not the most important item when creating commercial images. I would rank it fifth in the following list

1. The business acumen of the photographer
2. The creativity and knowledge of the photographer
3. An ability to use image editing software to enhance pictures.
4. The lens
5, The camera.

I hope that this project can build a community to help members with items 1, 2 and 3, and that it can provide suggestions for the acquisition of Items 4 and 5. Maybe we can look at repairing broken equipment to reduce costs.

Buying the most expensive camera, and taking auto pictures of cats, babies, clouds or the tower of London is unlikely to get one listed, let alone make sales. At a basic level, one should switch to aperture priority the enhance of blur backgrounds, or to shutter priority for night shots. It is also useful to have a reasonable command of English to add descriptions, keywords, and the EXIF data.

[NeuroticFish]

1. The business acumen of the photographer
2. The creativity and knowledge of the photographer

I agree that the commercial exposure the image gets and the creativity are the most important.
However, I'd put the camera onto place #3 because many may prefer unedited photos and a bad camera can add noise into the photo which will make it undesirable.

[Jet Cash]

Is it the camera, or the settings that cause the noise? For example, an incorrect ISO setting can introduce noise. Also, I'm told that the noise can be removed by using Lightbox, although I have never tried this.

[NeuroticFish]

Is it the camera, or the settings that cause the noise? For example, an incorrect ISO setting can introduce noise. Also, I'm told that the noise can be removed by using Lightbox, although I have never tried this.

I've seen cameras where setting low ISO (100 or less) was basically impossible, so the noise was present whenever there was no perfect sunshine. I so don't remember what camera was that, but if I will remember I'll let you know.

And of course, there may be a "cultural difference" too in what cheap camera means 
What I mean is that Canon EOS 350D costed 999$ in 2005 and that doesn't make it cheap. I can even tell that my camera from 2005 (Sony DSC-H1) made cleaner pictures than my actual DSC HX-60 ; imho nowadays they sell high number of megapixels instead of better image processors.

[Jet Cash]

I've just bought a wide angle zoom lens 24-40mm, but it is stuck at f3.5. The lens id usable, but it will be interesting to see if I can repair it. It comes with the caps and a filter, and it looks to be in reasonable condition apart from the aperture setting. It is manufactured by Sun, so, as a cheaper lens, it may be harder to repair than a Canon. I only paid £10 fr it, so it is an interesting experiment.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-FD-fit-Wide-Angle-Zoom-24-40mm-working-but-Stuck-at-f3-5/401922682467?hash=item5d94756e63:g:1ZMAAOSwCH9dpd2g&autorefresh=true

Now I need to find a compact flash card.

[NeuroticFish]

Now I need to find a compact flash card.

One direction could be the Chinese shops, like AliExpress and such, just the delivery times are big.
Another direction could be to find a friend or acquaintance who upgraded the card for his phone (or got one that doesn't even need a card anymore).

Also keep in mind that most probably you don't need a big card. Even if you get it with you in holidays, you'll just have to transfer the pictures more often to laptop, cloud or an USB stick.

[Saisal]

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[Jet Cash]

@ NeuroticFish
Thanks for the comment, and I decided things were going too slowly, so I gave in, and I have bought a 4Gb card, and a couple of lens online. I'm waiting for delivery at the moment. The Chinese option is cheaper, but I didn't want to wait a month for the free delivery. The max memory size I can use is 8Gb, and maybe I will order one in the future. It might help as I want to record in RAW. There doesn't seem to be much interest in this on Bitcoin Talk, so I'm moving away from a cheap camera system acquisition into an experiment in reverse lens macro photography. Things get really interesting once you go to 10 or 20 times magnification. As long as you can focus of course.

@Saisal

I don't have any problems with making money, andif you had really read my posts, you would have realised that my project was aimed at helping people to build their photographic skills on a low budget. I hoped that this would help them to avoid the predatory scams that seem to be abundant on Bitcoin Talk at the moment. I haven't clicked your link, but you text follows the same tired old formula, so I would encourage others to ignore it.

[Harlot]

Are DLSR cameras really the only option for this project here? I mean if we are only talking about an "almost free camera equipment" here we have cameras on our phone who could do a pretty good job on delivering a good image. The only downside I see is it will lack the image quality from what the DSLRs have and most cameras from phones nowadays over saturates images as it looks "good" in your social media.

[Jet Cash]

Mobile phone cameras have improved a lot, and even my cheap Huawei can take useful pictures. They are limited by the lens and sensor size, and it is only recently that depth of field control has been introduced. A modern phone with 3 lens and advanced features is going to cost well into 4 figures, and that is above the budget for this project. Whilst some have received large payments for shots taken with a mobile, they tend to be opportunistic rather than planned stock photos. To build a portfolio of several thousand images, and to differentiate your photos from the millions of others that are available, I believe than one needs to have a fair degree of control over the image capturing process, and also it is useful to store them in RAW. This helps with the post processing.

[DiamondCardz]

Anyone with a mid to top-tier phone made within the last five years should have a camera that's capable of taking high-quality photos. You've touched upon this, but the most important thing is making sure that their photography skills are up to scratch.

I do think that this has a relatively thin link to Bitcoin though. I don't know of any stock photography sites that pay in Bitcoin, and from the sounds of it you do not either. Maybe this could be a project you could work on to help this idea come to fruition?

[Harlot]

I still think you need to consider good mobile phone cameras as a good option for the project. Even though they are on a jpeg format this photos could still be edited on free apps that can be downloaded to the phone itself. Apps like Lightroom and Snapseed are both good and free softwares that mobile photographers use to make the image even better. I might not be utilizing my phone's camera right now but if you somehow include this project I think a lot of us members here can start maximizing the use of our phone's camera. Still if the issue here is quality control I think we just need a strict set of guidelines for us to follow.