Where do you get our digital pics developed?

MonkeyDonkey

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I've not had my digicam for long but I'm gonna want to get some pics developed soon.
I have a £2 voucher for Internet Cameras Direct (as thats where I bought the camera) but after that has anyone got recommendations as to where I should go?
I want to do it on the internet rather than taking my Smartmedia cards anywhere.

Thanks
 
ICD use Pixology to back off the work.

From Pixologys website, they are also behind:

BT Openworld
NTL
John Lewis
Dabs
Jessops
Kodak
Dixons
Currys
Microsoft
Konica
Jungle
Photobox
and loads more.....

So you should get the same result from any of the above (although prices may
differ).

Now if you play it smart, all of the above offer a number of free prints
when you register so in theory, you could have a lot of photos printed
before you start paying for them and they will all be printed by the same
lab.

On another point, I have always got on well with Fotango (who do not use
Pixology)

Having said all that, on Monday of this week I ordered a set of prints from Fotango and an identical set from Jessops (using their free prints intro offer).

The prints from Fotango arrived the following day (Tuesday), the ones from Jessops have not arrived yet.
 
FWIW I've used Jessops standard service, their Diamond service and a couple of other high street processors including Boots. When they get the job right the results are good when they don't the results are poor. This inconsistency is infuriating if you've spent £40 to £50 on getting pictures developed, I now print my own using an Epson 890 injet printer and the quality is better than the best of the high street processors, the downside is the cost although I tend to use 'roll' paper for the 'let's see how they look' pictures to keep the cost down and then only do a larger print for the pictures that are worth keeping.
 
I'm sorry, I think I mi-understand. You guys are saying that you take your digital pictures to a shop to get them printed?

To me, the biggest benefit of Digital photography and Photoshop (or any other package) is that you can print your own pictures to the (generally) size and quality you require.

Personally, If I'm doing a "see how it looks" i'll run it on 80 gram plain, and then run one decent version on glossy or other quality paper.

Is there a difference in the quality that the shop can produce to the one I can do at home? I've only got an Epson Stylus 760 bus it does "b****y grand" for what I want!

Collin
 
Originally posted by minimad
I'm sorry, I think I mi-understand. You guys are saying that you take your digital pictures to a shop to get them printed?

To me, the biggest benefit of Digital photography and Photoshop (or any other package) is that you can print your own pictures to the (generally) size and quality you require.


Not quite.

Whilst the current inkjets from Epson etc are very good, they are still not as good as the quality you can get from £10k+ worth of lab kit. In addition, printing your own prints is actually quite expensive.

What is being refered to here involves uploading your pictures over the internet and then ordering prints from them which are produced in photo labs and are very high quality. The cost can be as low as 25p per print which can be cheaper that using an inkjet.

So when I came to buy a new inkjet, I bought a HP because it is better at text etc than the Epsons but only so so for photos. Yet I know if I need a top quality print, I can upload the picture, order it and have in a couple of days for less than it would cost in ink and photo paper.
 
Ah, I understand now!

Think I may have to look into this quite carefully. Got a couple of images that I just can't get printed how I think they should look!

Thanks for the explanation.

Collin :D
 
Originally posted by minimad
Ah, I understand now!

Think I may have to look into this quite carefully. Got a couple of images that I just can't get printed how I think they should look!

Thanks for the explanation.

Collin :D

You're welcome.

If you want to look into this (for the prints you can't quite get right), look at the names I listed above and take advantage of the free intro offers :D
 
I have been sending off my prints to pixology under the Jessops banner. I have had good results but my problems started about 2 months ago. I was uploading the pics to the site and waited for 2 weeks. When I enquired via email where my pics were I was told after 6 attemps to get an answer back that they could not print them because they did not believe these pictures were mine and that I did not have the copyright on them. I explained that I was a semi Professional photographer and they can see the same pictures on my web site www.fineimages.co.uk. After more emails and hassle my pics were finally released but the postman tried to fold them up and stick them through the letter box!. I have now invested in an Epsom 1290 and now have the pigment inks from Permaflow. (Large bottles) To date I have had great results and printed some 60 A4 full colour prints and the level on the bottles has hardly moved. My advise to you all is control your own prints!
Gadge
 
Originally posted by Networkguy
The cost can be as low as 25p per print which can be cheaper that using an inkjet.

Well when you consider the paper is a quid a sheet and you can't get 4 photos on one sheet, it does indeed work out cheaper than printing yourself.
 
I selected 100 prints for printing, copied them to CD, took them into Jessops, they copied them while I waited, I collected them the next day.
They will also copy from your card, you can select which prints you want.
The prints were excellent and only cost 17p each. They charged me the same as 35mm.
 
Grandad

What size were they when printed? 8x6?

What is the quality like? any good?

Collin
 
Size 5x7, Quality very good, better than I can get on my printer, but I must try super glossy paper to match. Printer Epson Photo 750.
 
40 plus images at jessops 3day service is 15p per print (same as 35mm).

£6 for 40. Can anyone beat this?

And you can take in pictures on most media for download.
 
I either take my memory stick with edited pictures on, or burn a quick CD and go to Jessops and use the kiosk. Usually pretty good, although I've had problems with black borders. I got this down to the software they use not accepting my 3:2 ratio. I now have a specific size noted down that works.

To me, the biggest benefit of Digital photography and Photoshop (or any other package) is that you can print your own pictures to the (generally) size and quality you require

Biggest benefit to me is take lots of photos, select and adjust the keepers. Printing 100% of the ones I want at Jessops is a LOT cheaper than printing 3 rolls of film when I only want 15 prints off them
 
I develop at home using my HP Photosmart 1115 Printer !

Great quality .. with Kodak inkjet paper (Satan Finish, 220 gm)..

Put them in albums also .. can't differentiate from older analog pics developed in studios ..
 
Life Saver

Have you ever sat down and worked out the cost per print?

This is a geniune question - Do you have "pro" printing facilities in UAE?

Have you ever used them?

How do the costs compare?

Collin
 
Good Question ..

We do have pro developing for digital in UAE .. but because the market is limited compared to analog .. they are overpriced ..

One pic = 2.5 Dhs

5 Dhs = 1 Pound ..

When I do it at home .. it's a bit less .. not too less putting in mind the price of Ink .. but it's much easier .. and still less ..

Most of my prints are 4x6 .. for that .. one A4 paper takes 3 pics .. so, for a pack of 50 papers, I get 150 pics

150 pics = 90 Dhs (Price of the pack) ..

One pic = 0.6 Dhs .. Add the price of ink .. still less .. !!
 
I think Life_Saver makes a good point.

A lot of people don't even think about comparing the cost of doing it yourself against using a lab.

In LS case, it works out cheaper (just) to do it himself but I would question if he has ever worked this out before.

After all, a lot of people will think that doing it themselves MUST be cheaper.

Yet with the cost of the printer itself, paper, ink, wear and tear on the printer etc, in many countries (but obviously not Life_Savers), using a lab can save a lot of money.

I am quite surprised that the online photo printers (such as Jessops) have not started using this in their advertising.

After all, Joe Public always has a moan when he or she has to spend at least £50 on a new set of ink tanks so if he or she saw an advert from Jessops claiming to save 30 to 50% on his printing costs, he would jump at the chance.

Of course another problem is that to do photo quality prints at home, you need a photo quality printer. If however you are doing mainly non-photo printing a lot of the time, this works out even more expensive as printing letters and charts etc on a photo printer cost a LOT more than a non photo printer because even when not printing photos, they still use more ink.

So for me the anwer was easy.

I have a HP LaserJet for day to day b&w printing. I then have an all in one (printer/ scanner/ coppier) for day to day printing and then instead of spending even more money on a good quality photo printer, I just use an online lab for those occasions when I need a top quality photo printing.

As I said, in the UK because this is cheaper anyway, even if it cost the same, I have saved quite a bit of cash by not having to buy a photo printer in the first place.
 
I use Ofoto.Com for my prints. I generally print my own photos on my HP Photosmart P1100 but sometimes you just want that professional look.
I tried 5 different professional sites (sent them all the same 5 photos) and Ofoto's looked the best to me.
 
Having done all my digital printing on my Epson Photo 750 at home so far, I must admit that I'm tempted to try the likes of Jessops for printing. Their 35mm 'Diamond Laser' developing service is second to none and I always use that when developing my 35mm.

Re the cost. I've worked it all out and can't see that there's much in it price wise. I use Print-Rite inks (see other post) and am experimenting with cheaper non-branded paper. So far the results are good, but still trying new things to get the perfect results. I guess if I used Epson inks and Epson paper, it woudn't make financial sense. For me, the quallity of prints from the 750 is good enough for now. Most of all I like the convenience and control of doing my own printing.

Quality wise, I feel my 35mm prints are still way better than anything I've done with digital, but that's perhaps not a fair comparison bearing in mind that 35mm is a Pentax Super A with Pentax SMC lenses and the digital camera is a Fisher-Price, sorry..., Kodak DX3700. :p
 
I read in a consumer magazine that one advantage to having digitals printed professionally (besides price) is that the ink that they use won't fade in comparison. Anyone else heard that? I personally also copy mine to a CDRW because I don't want to risk losing my card. Then I take them locally and print them in bulk at 15 cents US a picture for 100+. The downside is that they don't have the option of "no cropping" so I have to make sure the photos are sized correctly before I copy them to CDRW or I might lose some image in width. Anyone have ideas on how to skip this step for 4x6?
 
Originally posted by avsilky
I read in a consumer magazine that one advantage to having digitals printed professionally (besides price) is that the ink that they use won't fade in comparison. Anyone else heard that?

Yes

A common problem with inkjet technologies is that the ink will fade in quite a short period of time (sometime months).

The FijiFilm Frontier (used by most of the online print labs) uses a totally different technology and claims that prints will be free from fading (under normal circumstances) for up to 150 years.

Infact, I just found the details

For those that are technically minded, here is some information about our print devices and paper types. For small format work (up to 10"x15") we print on FujiFilm Frontier printers. These work by exposing red, green and blue laser light onto FujiFilm Crystal Archive* photographic paper at 300 DPI (dots per inch). The life expectancy of the prints is 150 years.


Some of the printer vendors however in recent times have started developing new pigmants and papers to overcome this problem but only time will tell.
 
For short runs of less than 40 prints you should consider checking out www.bonusprint.com - 15p a print like jessops but no minimum quantity requirements. Postage is 70p.

I just had about 30 printed recently and I felt the quality was better than acheived on my Fuji NX-500 dedicated photo printer (the NX-500 uses Fuji Thermo-Autochrome paper - no inks etc).
 
for your own 6x4 professional prints at home buy the HP Photosmart 130 or 230 model. Amazing printer without the hassle of resizing etc. It is a small printer but boy what quality!!The best buy for my digital camera!!!
 

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