I'm fed up with costco, want to try something new.

Generally they're a nice place to deal with.

In the last 2 weeks I tested their consistency, got my monitor calibrated and picked up two auto corrected sets of prints when I specifically told them not to auto-correct.

I am now ready to try another lab.

A toronto lab would be nice, but I'd like to hear what canadians are using and what you think is the best one.

Also - after looking at frontier gamuts and comparing them to inkjets, I would like to see a few inkjet prints. Do any of the labs use ultracrome epsons to print your stuff? Have you tried them?

Thanks for looking.

I'm still amazed there is no London Drugs in Ontario. I use their new lab here in town and it rocks. Sometimes the girls running the Epsons don't really know how to access my 200+mb TIFF files.

Wal-Mart in Canada is a write off since they just send their stuff to a lab in Ontario that is "unnamed".

I do know some local guys here in Vancouver use mpix.com but that seems a waste of time to me.

I'm curious why you didn't upload the files online?

PhotosGuy wrote in post #3081867
I'm curious why you didn't upload the files online?

I did.

I thought I made a mistake, but then I checked out the envelope:
auto correction: NO


They bump the magenta one notch and decreased density. So it doesn't really look right now.

I have to say that the difference are less pronounced when you look at it with your eyes, but they are still there and easily visible.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #3082391
I have to say that the difference are less pronounced when you look at it with your eyes

As opposed to looking at it without your eyes...?

It sounds as if the quality of the training there is much difference than in the US? The people here seem very knowledgeable, & I think they said that they had 6 months of training.

I've always maintained that Costco had ok prints but not outstanding and certainly not consistent. The last part for me was always the kicker, you just never knew if you were going to get great prints or just ok. I've even sent the same file a week apart and had day and night prints. They were just that different. When you question them the manager got really defensive and po'd for running that kind of test on them without me telling them that that was what I was doing.

I'm sure that there are some top quality labs in Toronto but I haven't used any. When I lived in Montreal I used Photos on the Spot. Their work definitely had a wow factor for me. If I lived closer now I would still use them but it is just too far. I will use them for any of the large prints that I do on the Metallica paper, they just do an outstanding job. If you are going to use them any amount they will set you up with a user name so that you can ftp the files over to them. It would be an overnight courier for you to get them.

I now use Technicare in Calgary (which is a couple of hours away from me) and they are great too. They use the ROE's ordering system which I really like. It is great on the user end as you can really see what you have ordered before you transmit. I recently uploaded an order from a wedding to them on a Sunday night which had over 400 prints in a combination of 4x6,5x7 and 8x10. I had it back at my doorstep Tuesday morning. They have lots of offices in western Canada but none in Toronto.

I have also used the pro lab through Camera Canada. Their quality was really good and the speed was acceptable. Again though, this is not in Toronto.

You could try some of the ones listed in the ACE directories. They don't have alot listed there but some.

I went through a fair number of labs before I settled on the ones that I use. I have fairly high standards on getting my prints and discount houses (Walmart, Costco, Super Stores,etc.) have never been able to consistently deliver to this. It is an exercise worth going through but certainly has some trials and tribulations along the way.

I was just thinking. What about SDM? LOL

cdifoto wrote in post #3082415
As opposed to looking at it without your eyes...?

prints vs photographed prints on a monitor.

ssim - thank you.

Have you tried vistek by any chance?

They did an OK job with film, but I don't even know what they use for digital.

Have you downloaded the printer profiles and color matched for them? My Costco has them available. I found the consistency to be a little better after I did that but it still isn't perfect. But at $2.99 for a 12x18 I just live with it, plus they will reprint while I wait if I am not happy with them.

Michael

mspringfield wrote in post #3083621
Have you downloaded the printer profiles and color matched for them? My Costco has them available. I found the consistency to be a little better after I did that but it still isn't perfect. But at $2.99 for a 12x18 I just live with it, plus they will reprint while I wait if I am not happy with them.

Michael

That's how I feel about it, Michael. My son worked at the Costco about 25 minutes from my house. Another store is opening about 15 minutes away south. So, I have 2 choices and the new one has all new machines. The staff have been amazing at reprints for me. For $.99 I can tolerate a little wait. I've seen some of their poster sized pro-prints, they were doing some when I was there on Friday. They were stunning. If I were the photographer, I'd be very pleased with the results. All prints together were under $100 and the envelope was full of poster sized prints. That's really a deal. But I will try the ones other people recommend that mail back to me and see if it's worth it for the really important jobs.

Be aware that mine updated the profile every year in the Fall.
So you need to find out what yours does, too.

Also, I forgot to include the profile on a file I already had a pic of, & didn't see any difference between them. They've said the they don't see much difference, either.
Again, a big factor is the quality of the training & the people using it that makes the difference with a $500,000 printer, right?

mspringfield wrote in post #3083621
Have you downloaded the printer profiles and color matched for them?

Give me some credit.

Of course I did.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #3084867
Give me some credit.

Of course I did.

Knowing your work I was hoping so... Of course I have been known to forget something simple like that...