OCUS Reviews 

Much of the communication is one way. I used to receive decent travel expenses, not great, but OK. Now they are cut in half. Ocus determines mileage by using a straight line on a map. That routinely can cut off 10 -15 miles on a trip. No photographer can fly directly to a job, nor can we drive in a straight line to a job. I will only do local jobs.

I am working as a photographer for more than a year with them. Their infrastructure is really robust, but you are treated like a fraudster trying to cheat. They have zero trust, no matter how much jobs you deliver, they treat you like a newcomer.
The payments are once a month, and very uncomplicated. They allow their partners to create multiple assignments for the same restaurant, so multiple photographers race eachother unknowingly. They make you name files twice. They don't let you reschedule appointments because they think you are a fraud. There is no priority based on your location, everyone can take jobs everywhere, practical when you want to travel/on holiday, painful if you live in a big city. If you make a mistake they punish you for weeks so you don't get any new jobs. The conditions are so weird, they expect you to deliver in 6 hours, someone else edits photos at night so clients receive photos immediately for absolutely no reason, this is not Amazon delivery, we are photographers. The restaurants call you weeks later asking for photos, because clients didn't even care to upload them. The prices they pay per project did not change since three years, and actually decreased because they create smaller jobs now like 10+1 photos instead of 20+1 previously, so it ultimately decrease your income and increase stress at work.
It acts like a big corporation, so it is comfy to work with them but they let photographers be crushed by client expectations. They don't invest into the relationship with photographers, even though they rely 100% on those people's manual work. They make you feel like Uber drivers, but the drivers actually get paid per hour (in Europe), you are left on your own. They also stopped compensating last minute cancellations, which causes a big loss in income, they only compensate (30%) if you actually go to a restaurant and they refuse the session or closed or so. If you get too many cancellations, they punish you for fraud, and it is an automatic process, a human takes a look at it only after weeks.
I once had a call with them, workers are actually kind and smart. It maybe that the food delivery companies are simply toxic wastelands, preying on poor restaurants, and OCUS serves them while exploiting photograpers. It is unfortunately not sustainable. Many experienced photographers left, the quality probably suffers immensely. Why should I keep the same service, if I get paid less and less, they don't understand it and expect the same quality while paying less.

I've been with OCUS for several years now in the UK. It has proved reasonably good as a secondary source of income. However there have been more than a few niggles with their policy updates lately and communication is not nearly as straightforward as it should be.

Over recent months I have seen a huge decline in available missions throughout the UK and Ireland. Ocus did get round to contacting me after posting this review although they couldn't provide much info regarding the current lack of assignments.

Overall Ocus support desk is very helpful. I wish normal things were easier like rescheduling, or asking for more compensation, or just basic communication that comes up.

Terrible website. Menulog use this website for their photography services, I have driven out to the restaurants/cafes several times after confirming the day before only to be abused that they don't want to do the photos. So hard to get a hold of Ocus, don't respond to my ticketed emails but I receive constant emails to rate the help I received, like you kidding me right. Definitely avoid using them. Smartshoot is a similar platform and 1000 x better.

I understand there are few things which are not good. But it will happen coz company based in France and we are working in other part of the world.
Pricing for 1 food shoot is less according to Canada for 20 to 30 dishes it takes almost 2 to 3 hours easily specially if you want to give quality. With lights plus crockery then backdrop. So price is still less.
2nd you can only chat or email. Sometimes we photographers needs quick response coz we are on field but that's the company policy.
3rd. Traveling fees earlier was good but recently the shoot was more then 35km and they didn't provide the amount. And for more then 50km 9 dollars are too less.
4th. You will not get shoots on everyday. So don't think this is your primary job of earning. Make it hobby or 2nd job or you are new to photography.

Working with Ocus is a positive experience. They are precise in their requests, quick and responsive to my questions, and punctual with payments.

Communication is terrible. I rarely get a respond to my support tickets , just reviews to rate the help received,

The lack of personal communication makes it difficult to do the assignments well. There needs to be better Feedback on assignments and the rating system seems arbitrary and insufficient. The comments are vague and always the same. They don’t allow for improvement.

Significantly lack of assignments, overall experience is good

DoorDash uses this company to take photos for menu items. We received service from this company, but they could not provide all of the pictures taken that day. Only 8 out of the 20 photos were available for some reason. And there is not a way for any representative to find the rest of the photos for some reason. It's not that hard to send all of the photos. Incompetent company.

Always prompt to answer and very helpful!

The fees have not increased for at least 5 years and the euro to pound exchange rate now favours the company contracted to manage payments.
From time to time the company announces an innovation to working practice that is unworkable and quickly and quietly dropped.

Fairly easy and quick process for creators although rates could be better and there could be a more regular amount of shoots coming in.
Contacting restaurants to arrange shoots is also time consuming because sometimes the contact details are generic and getting in touch with the right person is difficult. But overall worth it if you’re very organised.

A perfect solution for professional photographers and people from all sectors who need professional photography.

Overall good but picking up job on this portal can be improved. As I am hardly able to get jobs

The pay for photographers is miserable, and they are making the working conditions more and more difficult with senseless rules that are bad both for photographers and customers alike. All this is pushing away the best photographers with bad consequences in the quality of the photography work, increasingly done by amateurs with little experience. Operationally there are also big problems, with many clients never receiving their work.

OCUS deserves a 5/5! The platform is professional, organized, and easy to use. Assignments are clear, payments are timely, and the support team is always helpful. A great experience for photographers and clients alike and Ocus is best place to work for freelancers.

Ocus is easy to work with. a dream job without having bosses over your head, without anyone pressuring you. you get the job done and whenever I needed help they were there

When im uploading my menu items it says uncategorized and hidden