Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Sean Harding — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 04:57:00 GMT

You know, at this point I pretty much just use Costco for all of my digital printing. I've been very happy with the results. I'm an extremely picky customer -- not only have I worked on and off as a professional photographer for years, but I've also worked in photo labs. The results I've gotten from Costco have been outstanding, and only once have I had to take something back to be redone (which they did immediately without question). Using the drycreekphoto.com color profiles, I get even better output. On top of all of that, the prices are hard to beat and I can usually get my prints back in an hour or less (unless I have a huge number of images to print).

I used to use Ofoto, and sometimes I still use West Coast Imaging for important big prints, but for the vast majority of my color printing from digital files, Costco is king...

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Michael Teper — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 07:51:00 GMT

Buy a cheap printer. The last one I bought (Canon i470D) cost me around $50 after rebates and the ink is super cheap as well ($15 for Canon color cartridge). The quality is good enough for 4x6 to give out to family as well as for a few 8x11 portraits. Btw, when I say "good enough", I mean as good as any 4x6 35mm film developed at a high end pro lab. At least to my eye.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Michael Teper — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 07:53:00 GMT

Oh, so the reason I am advocating buying a printer is that you just can't beat the convenience. (unless you find yourself at Costco frequently enough such as that is not an issue).

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Jon Galloway — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 08:28:00 GMT

We used Shutterfly quite a bit, but switched to the printer (we also have a Canon i470D). The convenience is nice, it's a bit cheaper, and the print quality is good.

Shutterfly (and the others) are still good for the "value add" sort of things - mini album, postcards, etc.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

theCoach — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 13:31:00 GMT

I could be hurting my own cause by promoting it, but Adorama.com makes gorgeous prints cheaply. Very high quality. Highly recommended.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Michael Teper — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 14:39:00 GMT

Incidentally, there are two issues here: one is printing and the other is picture storage and sharing. I use ImageStation.com for the latter.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

KC Lemson — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 15:41:00 GMT

Michael - I think convenience is something that different people would define differently =) My mother, for example, would define convenience as having digital photo development at places she is frequently at, such as the grocery.

If Epson made 4x6 semigloss paper and they had a decent program for mass-printing 4x6s, I would probably use it more for that size. They used to have this program called PhotoQuicker that was great, but it was one of those things they only made available on certain CDs for a limited time, and if you misplaced the CD you're pretty much out of luck. They try to foist their Film Factory software on you instead, which has the most godawful user interface on the planet.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Jason Luther — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 16:14:00 GMT

Changing the subject slightly, do you have any experience doing batch scanning of 4x6 photos? Lots of people have been sending us non-digital photos of our wedding, but I'd like to put them on my website.

Can anyone recommend a cheap service or a scanner (or scanner/printer combo) that makes the task of digitizing a stack of photos easy?

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

BigJimInDC — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 17:41:00 GMT

Well, seeing that I own a photo printer/scanner (HP PSC 2110), I will say they look good and are extremely convenient. At the same time, I did the math on the price of home printing them and it just isn't worth it, from a purely financial side of things. For me, when needing a lot of prints made, and especially for larger than 4x6's, I simply use www.ClubPhoto.com that I have been using for years now.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Michael Teper — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 20:39:00 GMT

KC, you're right on the difference in definitions. My advice is based on pretty rare printing (I print probably < 2% of what I shoot). I use Adobe PhotoAlbum 2 for organizing photos (and its great for that) but for printing I go to Windows Picture and Fax viewer.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Kevin Respecki — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 00:39:00 GMT

I've recently bought the Epson Personal Photo Lab. It's a dedicated 4"x6" printer and works like a charm. Photos are archival and the colors are fantastic. 100 pages + ink cost 29.99 (all in one package), so prints end up at .30/ea. If I ever need anything bigger,It's back to my regular Canon inkjet.

re: Buy a photo printer or use an online photo printing service?

Matthew — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 06:57:00 GMT

Kevin,

<quote>
100 pages + ink cost 29.99 (all in one package), so prints end up at .30/ea.
</quote>

30c each PLUS part of the cost of the printer. Lets say you print 600 photos (ALOT of photos - plus don't forget you will probably replace the printer in 2-4 years) from a printer that cost $150, that is an extra 25c per photo (ie almost doubles the cost). And that is assuming the printer lasts that long. ;-)

Seeya
Matthew