Getting Prints From Digital

[grasshopper]

Hello,

As I was trolling through these message boards, I ran across a post that mentioned he had just gotten his first set of prints back from the developers ....

I was not aware that people send their digital pictures to a develper and have them reproduced.

Could someone elaborate on who does this, what does it cost, etc.

Do you tell them what size you want them printed?

Do you send them your flash card? or upload them? Or burn them to cd?

Any info on this process would be much appreciated.

MS

[GordonMcGregor]

I've sent several files to various on-line developers. Basically I 'touch up' the images in photoshop (resize, sharpen, assign profiles) then upload them to the printers web site.

Waiting on the results coming back and will post comments when I get the prints back.

So far I've tried:

www.dotphoto.com (first 60 4x6 prints free sign up deal)

www.shutterfly.com (15 prints free, + up to 150 free if
you convince 10 friends to sign up (15 free per friend)

www.ofoto.com (15 free prints)

So far, dotphoto has taken more than 6 days to produce the prints (still queued for printing)

shutterfly has printed and shipped my pictures (took 5 days)

Ofoto has been the quickest. I uploaded the pictures at 10pm last night, and got an email saying they were completed at 3am(!) this morning.

Dotphoto is the cheapest of these, and ofoto provides the widest choice of print sizes.

Most sites are free to join, but offer discounts of you sign up for membership (dotphoto's prices go down to 19c for a 4"x6" if you are a member.

Gordon

[justincase]

in addition to the online developers, some local places are also accepting digital files. costco stores are slowly getting the capability. one of the costco's where i live does 4x6's from compact flash or smartmedia cards for 20 cents apiece. i hear that walmart and sam's club stores also take digital files and, surely, many more are coming.

[mlfrancis]

I sent my first shots off to SamsClub.com for developing. I was very happy with them and the prices were very good. 4x6 = $.24 each. They didn't seem to alter the photos like some of the local places do, which is what I wanted. Just print what I send them. You don't have to be a Sam's Club member to have pictures developed online.

[ega1]

grasshopper wrote:
Do you send them your flash card? or upload them? Or burn them to cd?


Hmm, somehow I just don't see myself mailing my Microdrive to a developer. :)

Actually I think most of these developers are flexible. You can upload or send CD-R's.

In addition to the ones already mentioned, I like photoaccess.com. They have matte prints (although that takes longer) and non-standard sized prints. As you've probably noticed, G2 ratios mean you have to crop for the standard 7 x 5 or 6 x 4. PhotoAccess will make borderless prints that use all your pixels.

[gordonw]

I get my prints from the local photo shop. If I take a really nice pic and my printer just cant do it justice, my local photo shop prints it on their £150,000 fuji printer, the results are great.
1024x768 is OK for 6x4inch prints
1600x1200 is ok for 8x6inch prints
4megapixel is good for 12x9inch prints and maybe a little larger.
In teh UK the service is called FDI or Fuji Digital Imaging. Hey, the colours are spot on too.
Happy snapping
Gordonw UK

[GordonMcGregor]

Got some of my prints back : my experience so far

placed order with dotPhoto two weeks ago, pictures not yet arrived (they were having a 60 prints free special for christmas, so they may just be busy)

shutterfly.com Prints arrived in about 10 days. Quality is okay, but the colours have been over exposed/ over saturated in some of the pictures. Not very impressed overall.

Ofoto. Prints shipped within 4 hours (!) of uploading the images. Arrived within 5 days of placing order. Quality is excellent and the colours and exposure are spot-on. Very impressed (although they are the most expensive of the group that I tried - 49c for a 4"x6". Dotphoto is 29c, but I haven't seen their output yet.

Ofoto used Kodak DuraLife paper, Shutterfly use Fuji paper.

Gordon

[grasshopper]

Thanks for all the updates: KEEP EM COMING!

I am still trying to get my hands on this camera, I order at one place, and then three days later they tell me they don't have it in stock. Don't they know it's dangerous to keep a man away from his gadgets!

[GordonMcGregor]

Got my prints from dotPhoto today (2 weeks after placing the order)

Packaging was fairly bashed up by UPS but pictures were
intact. I took advantage of the 60 free prints deal. Most of them are pretty good quality, but with some streaking on skies and large areas of similar colour. Dotphoto use Fujicolor crystal archive paper.

Overall I think ofoto did the best job so far. Waiting to see what results I get from printaccess.com.

[gadgetman]

I have a friend that tried the digital image processing at www.walmart.com and was really happy with their service. The pictures came back with images that were true to there color. I have personally used Walmart for regular 35 mm film processing both paper and foto CD and have really been happy with them. They are fast and cheap and the quality is good/acceptable. If I remember correctly they use Fuji products.

[GordonMcGregor]

Got the final set of prints back from www.photoaccess.com. Really unimpressed by these ones. Of the four I tried (ofoto, dotphoto, shutterfly and photoaccess) Photoaccess was the only one to use
standard thin paper envelopes. The pictures are also in
a very thin folder. All of the other places used cardboard
packaging which is a whole lot less likely to bend in the post.

The photoaccess prints were also really poor quality. All the colours were much darker and 'muddier' than any of the other prints. Too much red/orange in all of the prints.

So in order from best to worst, I'd rate Ofoto as the best, shutterfly, dotphoto and photoaccess as the worst I'd tried.

Dotphoto is the cheapest, but the print quality is quite poor, though acceptable. Ofoto was the fastest by a large margin, with good quality across all of the prints.

[Leighow]

I am new to the G2. But my plan was to treat them like scanned prints with lost negatives; which I print on my Epsom 880 (relacement cartridges cost as much as the printer !). I am finding that they print a bit "light" when compared to the screen image.

When I have a winner, I jepg to about 1 meg and e-mail it to a local camera shop that charges about $10 US for an 8 x 10 dye-sublimation print.

But all of that printing is crazy. With the G2 I hope to use my PC and TV more to do the image reviews.

[pvdiamon]

I just got photos back from www.mysticcolorlab.com. I've used them for years for prints from film, and now have uploaded. They took about a week from upload to receiving in the mail. They are a little less expensive that ofoto for 4x6 (.45 cents), but more for larger prints. I liked them for film because of prepaid mailers and they had excellent color reproduction. I was pleased with the digital prints too. They use Agfa paper. I could not find the site to upload in the Sams Club web site, only in WalMart--could you tell me where the upload site is? That price cited is about half compared to ofoto or mystic.

[SeanKlingler]

Have any of you tried ezprints.com? Just curious for any opinions of them.

[Carl31]

Just my pennies worth - I have used Print @ Kodak and AGFA digital services and received some superb 8x10 prints that you can't tell from a 35mm neg. This is in the UK

Carl

[jayspry]

I mainly use Ofoto and Photobox. Both a good. Photobox takes longer, their in Ireland, but they do a wonderful job and about one year ago a comparision showed that they are among the few that produce the best color (ture to the orginal) of most all providers. Ofoto was rated good also.

Jay Spry