All tools have in common that they can be used to download public photos that are hosted on Flickr. They differ in handling and features though.

The latest addition is Flickr Photo Downloader, a lightweight easy to use Java application. Everything is configured in the main application interface. Here you can enter the Flickr user account name that you want photos downloaded from.

The download directory is automatically adjusted by the downloader. That’s handy for users who do not want to configure the download location manually, but it is possible for users who want to change it manually to another location on the computer.

The remaining settings are for the photo size, which can be small, medium or large, and the number of pages that should be downloaded by the software.

A click on the download button initiates the process. The download speed depends on the network bandwidth. One issue here is that the program is not displaying a progress bar or indicator. That’s usually not a problem for smaller sized downloads but could be problematic for larger downloads as it is not clear when the downloads will finish. You could look into the download directory to see if there is progress, but that is the only way.

Flickr Photo Downloader displays a message at the end that all photo downloads have been completed.

The program saves the photos by default into the user directory. The dialog has an option to open the folder containing the newly downloaded photos directly. Users who have to use a proxy to connect to the Internet can configure one under the Settings menu link.

The program seems to block downloads if the page count goes out of bounds. Flickr Photo Downloader is a small handy software to download photos from Flickr. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system and available at the project’s Google Code homepage. (via)

Flickr Uploadr is a computer program that is available for Windows and Mac users. It can be used to easily upload multiple photos from the local computer system to the popular photo hosting website Flickr. The photo uploader offers a clean interface. Photos can be added from the build in file browser or by dragging and dropping them into the interface.

Flickr Uploadr will automatically display thumbnails of each photo that has been loaded into the software. A click on a photo will display various tags in the right sidebar. It is for example possible to change the title, description, tags or safety level of the photos. Other options include hiding the selected photos from public areas at Flickr and defining which user group is allowed to see the photo.

One interesting option is the ability to selected multiple photos at once so that information can be changed for all of them at once.

Flickr Uploadr requires permissions and a logged in user to work. The program will automatically open the Flickr website and display an authorization prompt for the software after login. The program needs to be authorized only once. for every Flickr account.

Flickr Uploadr will display the disk space for the remaining month and the full size of all photos that have been added to the photo uploader software.

A final click on Upload will initiate the transfer of the photos to the Flickr account.

Flickr Uploadr is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OSX 10.4 and 10.5.

The software program itself has not changed a lot though. The software developer has improved the algorithms in the background but not the user interface. The program displays the three buttons Search, User and Group to the user upon startup. All can be used to download photos from specific Flickr sections.

The first option (Search) performs a Flickr search for either a keyword or tag, the second (user) will display photos uploaded by a specific Flickr user while the third (group) will do the same for a Flickr group.

The photo preview page will display thumbnails of the photos that have been found in the Flickr search. Only five thumbnails will be displayed by default. This figure can be increased to a maximum of 500 thumbnails per page. Copyrighted images are displayed with a huge copyright watermark. These photos will not be downloaded by the program. A Creative Commons checkbox is available to only display photos that have been tagged with it.

Flickr Downloadr will then download all photos (even if the count exceed 100K) that are not copyright protected. The software program works fine and seems to be more reliable in this version.

This includes a title and description for that folder on Flickr, permission settings (public, private, only friends, only family, friends and family), a matching method (what to do if images already exist on Flickr), order and filters. A click on the View and Sync all button will process all folders that have been selected for synchronization and display new images in a preview window. A click on the sync button in the preview window will start the file synchronization process that transfers the files to Flickr.

It is also possible to right-click a folder and synchronize its contents (and the contents of its subfolder if selected).

FlickrSync can be run automatically from the command line after the first configuration. This process requires no user interaction which makes it a great way to synchronize photos with Flickr on a regular basis, e.g. during system startup or after moving photos from a digital camera to the computer system.

The file synchronization software FlickrSync supports all Flickr image formats. It is compatible with computer systems running Windows XP or later Microsoft operating systems.

Vista Flickr Uploader is a specifically designed Flickr image uploader for Windows Vista. It makes use of the Extensible Metadata Platform support of Windows Vista. The downside is that XMP is not supported yet by Flickr which means that the only distinguishable feature that the application is offering is not supported by Flickr.

It will however be interesting if Flickr is adding support for XMP in the future. Other than that the Vista Flickr Uploader is supporting the usual features of an uploader.

Several images can be selected and uploaded at once. Each image is shown as a thumbnail in the program window. Permissions can be set so that only a certain group can access the pictures and it is possible to select one of the existing sets to add the images to it.