Print myself or Use online services ?

I'm a happy G2 user for about 4 months now.
I'm at the point where I am wondering what is the best way to get prints.
I have used a few online printing services and have been very satisfied with the results.
Now I am wondering if I should get my own printer to create the prints myself.
I guess I am looking for advise on the following two questions:
1) Can an affordable home printer with the proper paper create the same quality as the online services such as Costco ?
2) And if so, what printers are recommended

Thanks ahead for any suggestions

I tried once taking some pictures to Wal-Mart to see what it would be like. I learned that I need to pre-crop the image to the appropriate dimensions first.

I get very good results from my HP printers (970CXi and Photosmart 100). I can print whenever I want and have a lot more flexibility. However, for sharing photos with friends the service route may be better.

My best advise is to first search the forum across all discussion groups for discussion on printers and discussion on service providers. There are a few in here.

The color cartridges must cost a fortune when using a printer for you pictures?

It really depends upon the printer and how it conserves ink when printing. The HP models have been very good and deliver very good print output. I used to regularly print 8 1/2 x11 color prints on my HP970, along with using it for business color and booklet printing along with color brochures. I found that I changed the ink cartridges a maximum of twice a year if I really did quite a bit of photo and color brochure printing.

I just bought a Canon s9000 and have been printing 13x19, 8 1/2 x 11 and borderless 4x6 prints. Print quality and speed is amazing. I am about 1/2 way through the first set of cartridges (it has 6 single color cartridges). Replacements run about $11US per cartridge, but I find that it also goes through the PhotoMagenta and PhotoCyan most rapidly. The advantage with the separate cartridges is that I replace an $11US color cartridge vs a $54US multi-chamber cartridge as on my HP. Time will tell what the overall ink costs will be.

There is something nice about being able to go upstairs to my office and print a photo for someone visiting and wanting it. The 13x19 prints are amazing for wall mounts too. Needless to say, you need maximum resolution for these

dn7elson
Thanks for your reply. and I agree with the advantage of printing on the spot. I checked out Cnet.com for there review of the Canon S9000 and they rated it 7 out of a scale of 10.
Some of the negative reviews, were that the print quality was not up to what they thought it should be.
I would be very interested in hearing your options on the print quality.
I love the idea of the large size
Thanks
TmcG

I have been extremely pleased with the print quality.

I have used both the Canon inks and for the most part the Photo Pro paper, although I have had excellent results with the Kodak Premium Picture Paper (it was on sale and had a buy 2 get 1 free special also).

The poor printing comments seem to cluster around the use of non-Canon papers. Apparently some do not work as well as others. The Kodak paper seems to work every bit as well as the Canon, but the price difference, if you shop internet sites carefully, is a couple of cents per sheet for most of the premium papers, so this ceases to be a major consideration for me.

I just blew up a shot that I took of the cherry blossoms, tidal basin and Jefferson Monument (Washington, DC) and printed to 13"x19". It took a couple of tries to get the best combination of software, and process to get it right, but the results are stunning. I ended up resizing the image in Photoshop and taking it to 13x19 image size @ 300dpi (yes, a huge file ) and printed from Photoshop to get the final product. Other means yielded OK to disappointing results.

Thanks again for your advise. It has been very helpful.
TmcG

I think you're better off printing yourself.
However, wide format printers are expensive. You may want to buy an 8x10 printer and send larger prints to be printed. You might not do that many anyway.
If you have a lot of smaller pictures, say a bunch of 4x6 from a party, then it's soooo much simpler to have them printed outside.

I bought the Canon 820D with my G2. The printer is both fast and produces excellent results. It also has the advantage of being able to print direct from the camera. I don't use that option often but it is easy (plug in and print) and fast. I can take a photo and have a 6 x 4 print in less than a minute.

Thanks for all the good advise
TmcG


http://www.pbase.com/t​mcg

I have also had the same question, and I decided to go to a GOOD mini lab which print out from a CD (onto which I burn my files). The reason? Even home printers using photo paper (as far as I know) don't last as long as the photos that mini labs print out, because of the inks, I think. Find a good mini lab is my suggestion.
Although getting a printer would be fun, I wouldn't use it for archival purposes (longer than a couple of years).

I would think that you would use your CD for archival purposes and the prints for viewing and display.

With a digital image on CD you have the ability to produce an original, fresh image upon demand. With an image archival program using a keyword database you should be able to make the storage and location a relatively simple task.

I have recently had Sams Club print some of my pictures I burned to CD. They had a PC there I put my CD in and I was able to crop to 4x6 on the spot (I had burned copies of my originals). At $0.20 a print, that is cheaper than when I use the best paper with my printer.

What I learned from this is:
1) For bulk printing, to send to my mother in Florida who will probably never get a computer or WebTV, it is cost effective to go to use the one hour lab at Sams.
2) To pre-crop the picture sized before I burn to CD.

For bulk, snapshot prints, you will get no arguement from me on this.

For a quick, last minute request for a print or enlargement, you cannot beat printing it yourself.