Getting Prints Made From Digital Cameras? 21
schussat asks: "Now that I have a digital camera, I'm looking for a good company to produce prints (I know, some say prints are obsolete, but it's nice to be able to hold a photo once in a while). Do you guys have some favorite sites that make high-quality prints? What about Linux support? I've found that PhotoWorks, which I have long used for 35mm film prints, does not yet support Linux uploading at all; Shutterfly on the other hand has a Linux GTK uploader client. Are there others that folks would recommend?"
Meijers (Score:1)
lets you bring in a flash card and they will print out disant pics.
Kodak Photonet works okay (Score:2)
I used Kodak Photonet [photonet.com] with some success. Note that this is not the same thing as the link off Kodak's site, which is some horrible system that requires IE.
You upload your images to Kodak with either a input type="file" widget in a form or by supplying a url of the image (I did the latter). Select the print size and number of copies, give them your CC info and viola in a couple weeks you'll get your prints in the mail.
The cost is fairly low. My only complaint was that the prints were too dark, even though they looked good on my monitor (probably because I jack the gamma up for playing quake). While you are waiting for your prints they have a convenient system for status checking.
I have used OFOTO.COM (Score:3)
I submitted various 640 x 480 pics taken with an old Sanyo camera.
The results were quite good.
For a 4" print, minimum resolution should be 640 x 480, higher would be better. Also the lossines of the jpg file (I send some with various levels of compression) plays a role. You can easily see artifacts on highly compressed or economy mode pictures. My 640x480 pics were about 65k in size and the quality of the pics were excellent. They print the pictures on kodak paper, so it is i.e. a photograph and will last just like one (no ink fade etc.)
I think they charge about $0.40 a print, plus S&H (2.50).
You can also preview your pictures in various frames, and order them too.
Some possibilities (Score:2)
You might browse lists of photo sharing sites, such as this one at AmateurPhoto.About.Com [about.com]. I looked at two, and see that PhotoLoft.Com allows browser or email upload, and there's a "Store" for creating gifts which involve your photos.
I then looked for a similar page on Yahoo!: Yahoo! ... Photography [yahoo.com] and found that ImageStation.Com [imagestation.com] allows several upload methods and has a "Store" which can apparently make prints (based on the price list in the upper left corner). Plenty of unexplored sites there, although many are professionally oriented. And "Yahoo! Photos" requires IE so is useless.
Note that now that you have the name of several services which meet your needs, you could now search for pages which list all those sites and you might find indexes which list more. Yup, a MetaCrawler [metacrawler.com] search of "Imagestation PhotoLoft" (omit the quotation marks) found several photo service index pages.
Re:I have used OFOTO.COM (Score:2)
Anywhere "modern", perhaps? (Score:1)
You may be surprised as just how fast the various "1 hour" photo shops have adapted to new tech. Their processing machines already convert most pictures into a digital format of some sort, and spit out a high quality ink print, rather than true photo paper. (unless you pay a lot, *and* use 3+ day photo processing, even then you may have to specifically ask for true photos -- if they do 'em at all)
Just be careful of the price. I've seen shops that will do
Camera Shops (Score:2)
If you want the best... (Score:3)
If my word is not enough, please check out this testimonial [colorimaging.com]. I think it's very compelling in its own right.
As for labs, again, colorimaging.com [colorimaging.com] comes very highly regarded, although I have not used them. Chances are if you are seriously looking into Iris prints and you find a lab that can actually afford one, then they are probably well-established enough that you can trust them to produce quality output.
Re:I have used OFOTO.COM (Score:1)
--oh and one other rant!!
kodak does not always make the best paper--they just have the best marketing!!--you don't believe the marketing about your OS, why about your paper!
(the above is not meant as an attack on any one person, but on things that I hear people say all the time that always annoy me!)
Re:Camera Shops (Score:1)
Re:Camera Shops (Score:2)
The printer actually uses a bank of LEDS to display the image onto the polaroid print, somehow (I'm not an expert on Polaroid tech...)
The Netherlands.. (Score:3)
Disclaimer: I wrote the php stuff, but am not otherwise affiliated with foto baron or digitalefoto.nl. I am also NOT responsible for the content of the site, so don't whine to me about flash
//rdj
Re:I have used OFOTO.COM (Score:2)
This from the ofoto faq:
Ofoto delivers high-quality photographic prints from your digital and film photos. We use the latest printing technology available from Eastman Kodak.
We print your photos on KODAK PROFESSIONAL Digital III Color Paper, a resin-coated, silver-halide color paper designed for digital printers that use LED, CRT, or laser printing devices. (For details, download Kodak's Digital III Color Paper Datasheet .) A light source inside our digital printers exposes this paper pixel by pixel, by. This process mimics traditional photography, in which light from the subject exposes photographic film inside of a camera.
--- snip ---
Take it for what it's worth
Get a photo quality printer (Score:2)
You can get 6" by 4" paper for it with tear off edges. The print bleeds onto the tear off strips, so that when they are removed you have edge to edge print.
I've printed 1100x800ish scanned photos at A4 size, and the quality still holds.
Shutterfly (Score:1)
I *HIGHLY* reccommend Shutterfly. I have been using them for a few months now. They have developed about 5 rolls of film for me, and I've also uploaded many digitally-created drawings & CGI to them, and had them all printed to 4x6's, and/or 8x10s. the quality is superb, service is excellent (they answer email in the same day), and the website is quite easy to use.
You can upload directly though the browser, so it is quite platform independent.
35mm Film development is free, they even pay to ship the roll there, and to send you the negatives back.
http://www.perceive.net [perceive.net]www.perceive.net [perceive.net]
Prints from Digital Pics (Score:1)
Printroom.com [printroom.com]
Re:Prints from Digital Pics (Score:1)
Anyhow....as I was saying....
I've used the following:
Printroom.com [printroom.com]
Good quality prints, cheaper than the rest. They support the following upload methods:
Standard HTTP browser upload
Drag-N-Drop Plugin - IE and Netscape
Lexar Shoot-N-Share (whatever that is)
Qbeo Photogenetics direct (really cool program, check it out [qbeo.com].)
Zing.com [zing.com]
Great photo sharing system. Prints are very good. Limited on print sizes, however. They upload using the following methods:
Explore tool plugin
Drag-N-Drop Plugin
Standard HTTP upload
Email (never used it, though)
Ezprints.com [ezprints.com]
About the only online photofinisher I've found that does custom sizes for posters, panoramic, etc. Very good print quality! Supports the following upload methods:
Their own proprietary picture software
Standard HTML uploads
Don't know of any that support linux, other than the ability to email your photos in to Zing.com.
Re: (Score:1)
Getting Prints Made From Digital Cameras? (Score:1)
Try independent photo labs (Score:1)
Re:Get a photo quality printer (Score:1)
Of course, this only pays off if you're printing a lot of pictures.
-Stype