Where To Get Prints ?

[bigbilly]

All my photography is now digital and my need to have prints is rather limited. As I don't have a brilliant printer can anybody recommend a good mail order company for producing prints please. Cost is not a problem as the volumes will be relatively small but would like recommendations on good service and quality.

 

I have seen these DIY devices for printing at the supermarkets. What are they like and would a non techie like me cope ?

 

Many thanks.

[gumdrop]

The last time I bought a colour printer, I studied the Computer Shopper recommendations

on their website and came away with a 6 colour photo-printer an Epson Stylus, it was excellent

but now I am just a monochrome laser man (a Samsung).

Edited February 20, 2017 by gumdrop

[shipbroker]

When I was working as a Transport Consultant I found delays in getting stuff processed and often clients wanted a digital disc emailing then some A4 copies for their files. so like Gumdrop I got an Epson Stylus and printed my own. ....however, I did use our local supermarkets printers and frankly found them OK.

 

geoff

[Glen and Les]

We have had photos printed at Asda and also used BonusPrint online (I used to use these to develop film prior to digital days) - both were of a good standard.

[davidhr]

All my photography is now digital and my need to have prints is rather limited. As I don't have a brilliant printer can anybody recommend a good mail order company for producing prints please. Cost is not a problem as the volumes will be relatively small but would like recommendations on good service and quality.

 

I have seen these DIY devices for printing at the supermarkets. What are they like and would a non techie like me cope ?

 

Many thanks.

Boots the Chemist.

[SamD]

All my photography is now digital and my need to have prints is rather limited. As I don't have a brilliant printer can anybody recommend a good mail order company for producing prints please. Cost is not a problem as the volumes will be relatively small but would like recommendations on good service and quality.

 

I have seen these DIY devices for printing at the supermarkets. What are they like and would a non techie like me cope ?

 

Many thanks.

 

Are you talking of printing snaps/holiday photos etc or photo keepers? If the latter then I would look for a local independent.

[David 38]

Boots the Chemist.

Last time I went they had 2 machines one a Kodak the other a Boots, the Boots being a lot cheaper.

[WispMan]

I use Max Spielmann as their machines seem better than ASDA ones.

MS is part of the Timpson chain.

[LongTimeCaravaner]

I have always been happy with ordering mine on line from Snapfish.

[WispMan]

If you order online, don't forget:-

 

"Someday my prints will come"

[bigbilly]

If you order online, don't forget:-

 

"Someday my prints will come"

Ho Ho Ho !!

[BillySmart]

DSCL (dscolourlabs. co. uk) has been a reliable and good quality printer in my experience over the last few years. I don't want to spend the money necessary on a good quality A3+ printer and the ongoing cost of ink for the limited number of prints I produce for competitions so I've tried a few labs. DSCL have been good for both quality and turnaround. Many home printers, even good quality ones, produce a noticeable colour cast when printing black and white unless they're properly calibrated but I've not found this on professionally printed images.

 

While the cost of prints is very reasonable unless you get into the high-end expensive papers, there's a standard P&P charge with most online firms so it's worth ordering a batch of prints all at the same time if you can.

[Guest]

I use an app on my iPhone called FreePrints

 

You have to pay postage but you get amounts free every month

[IanV8]

I used our local Tesco at Christmas to produce a load of great grand kid pics for my mum and they were great quality and cheap.

 

I took them on a stick and it was easy, other people trying to use the Bluetooth to their phones were having problems.

 

Ian

[mickfishing]

I use an app on my iPhone called FreePrints

 

You have to pay postage but you get amounts free every month

 

+1

[flashgordon]

If you use colour labs, they provide a profile for their different types of papers, important if you are looking for top quality prints, but remember that looking at a picture on your screen it is back-lit, a print doesn't have this feature so often look a bit flat and dull, so they benefit from an added touch of brightness in Phohotoshop or what ever you use to edit

[ericmark]

I know my camera club recommends https://dscolourlabs. co. uk/ however to date not used them, I tried Asda and set all pictures before submitting as exactly the size I wanted having enquired first how many dots per inch however all returned random cropped so returned them, seems you have to set up using their machine at the store.

 

They do have a ColorMunki at the club which we can borrow to set up the computer screen so what I see is hopefully what others see, however as yet I have not calibrated my screen,  I did print at collage when doing A level photography and the results were very good, the printer had I seem to remember 8 colour cartridges and an A4 sheet took something like 3. 8 minutes to print, which does not seem long, until you think 10 students with 6 hours for the exam and if no reprints each one has 4 prints to print, and only the Mac connected to printer was calibrated so also time for final adjustment.

 

I was however impressed with results, but then looked at cost, each cartridge cost £70 and they had a life of 6 months once fitted, yes each one held a lot of ink, but £1120 per year to print at home was simply not going to happen. I do have a A4 Canon printer scanner but the quality is not a patch on those prints from collage and collage printer was A3 plus would take role paper.

 

I do want to start printing some photos 10 x 12 to submit into competitions, but to use colour labs you really need to print quite a few pictures as the postage mounts up if just doing one or two, so will likely try supermarket again for printing, this time being careful to adjust on their machines.

 

I did after a wedding walk into a supermarket to get a quick print, but found I would need to sit there with camera converting all the pictures to Jpeg first, they could not handle RAW files, so never got it done. I printed low quality at home, having used Photoshop to convert files to printable format, I know my computer screen is a far lower resolution to printing, but in the main I don't hang photos around the room, and 10 x 12 or even 8 x 10 photos take up a lot of room and are easy damaged in storage, so once finished processing a picture I tend to use FastStone photo resizer and reduce the resolution of pictures ready to display on TV or tablet or even Facebook, does some times seem a waste taking 16 Mb pictures only to be then reduced before showing anyone, 10 Mb would be ample to allow some cropping, but I would never dream of not saving as a RAW file and only the top end cameras allow you to select size of RAW file, and then that's down from 25 Mb.

 

 

[DeeTee]

I was in professional photography from 1958, studying and gaining professional qualifications at the School of Art in Coventry and also at the College of Advanced Technology in Manchester.

In the late 1960s I joined a company which designed, built and marketed world wide photo colour laboratory equipment before the advent of digital photography. I also ran a professional colour laboratory.

Until about ten years ago, when the business was closed on the owner's retirement, I used a local professional photo lab for my needs. I had been consultant for the original owner when the lab was set up many years earlier. I was also able to use the facilities of other professional labs from my trade contacts.

I have used Boots instore photo labs for my printing needs for many years and find they provide good value for money. Boots used to have the option of different paper surfaces but only provide glossy prints now. Sometimes there can be  colour mismatches between one hour standard print sizes and the one hour canvas and poster size as they use different processes. Despite the mismatches, provided that they are not viewed side by side, both version are to an acceptable standard.

I took a series of photos of a caravan site while I was staying there last year and created a collage on my NetBook in the caravan. Unfortunatley when I took the file to the local Boots the one hour canvas service was not operational. I had the canvas it produced at my local Boots when I returned home. The print is now displayed in the Site's reception.

 

[SamD]

4 hours ago, ericmark said:

I was however impressed with results, but then looked at cost, each cartridge cost £70 and they had a life of 6 months once fitted, yes each one held a lot of ink, but £1120 per year to print at home was simply not going to happen. I do have a A4 Canon printer scanner but the quality is not a patch on those prints from collage and collage printer was A3 plus would take role paper.

 

I do want to start printing some photos 10 x 12 to submit into competitions, but to use colour labs you really need to print quite a few pictures as the postage mounts up if just doing one or two, so will likely try supermarket again for printing, this time being careful to adjust on their machines.

 

 

Have you had a butchers on EBay?  I have had an Epson A3+ printer for many a year and you can now pick up one for a couple of hundred quid and a lot less with a few scuffs etc. .  Cartridges for genuine Ultrachrome Ink cost less than a tenner and, although I have not got accurate figures it is over a year since I bought my last set of 8 cartridges and they are going strong.   OK the downside is that with only occasional use, they use a bit of ink on auto nozzle clean BUT the upside is it's great fun and produces just what you want (mostly!).

[Cliff&Jackie]

I have said this on another feed, this is called 'Caravan Talk' for a reason - to Talk about caravan related things!

Come on moderators, do your job!

Cliff

[hawkaye]

12 minutes ago, Cliff&Jackie said:

I have said this on another feed, this is called 'Caravan Talk' for a reason - to Talk about caravan related things!

Come on moderators, do your job!

Cliff

 

Bit harsh. It seems to be in the correct forum. Even caravanners can have interests other than caravanning. If you don't like what you see, just click on by.

[Durbanite]

39 minutes ago, SamD said:

 

Have you had a butchers on EBay?  I have had an Epson A3+ printer for many a year and you can now pick up one for a couple of hundred quid and a lot less with a few scuffs etc. .  Cartridges for genuine Ultrachrome Ink cost less than a tenner and, although I have not got accurate figures it is over a year since I bought my last set of 8 cartridges and they are going strong.   OK the downside is that with only occasional use, they use a bit of ink on auto nozzle clean BUT the upside is it's great fun and produces just what you want (mostly!).

We have an Epson printer and it prints out some excellent photos however the downside is that it will not print at all if one of the cartridges is empty even though you are only printing in B&W.   I cannot remember when last I bought original Epson cartridges as we now buy the recycled ones at a fraction of the price.

[Alexbee]

18 minutes ago, Cliff&Jackie said:

I have said this on another feed, this is called 'Caravan Talk' for a reason - to Talk about caravan related things!

Come on moderators, do your job!

Cliff

 

2 minutes ago, hawkaye said:

 

Bit harsh. It seems to be in the correct forum. Even caravanners can have interests other than caravanning. If you don't like what you see, just click on by.

 

Harsh, unnecessary, controlling, and basically bang out of order, before joining and then exercising a desire to control everybody, maybe folks should have a look at the variety of subforums offered by CT  and when they see all the ones that are not directly caravan related, e,g. Hobbies, cooking, and so on, make their decision.

[SamD]

14 minutes ago, Durbanite said:

We have an Epson printer and it prints out some excellent photos however the downside is that it will not print at all if one of the cartridges is empty even though you are only printing in B&W.   I cannot remember when last I bought original Epson cartridges as we now buy the recycled ones at a fraction of the price.

 

Doesn't work for me though.   Have a workhorse printer for plain paper printing etc so the K3 only gets used a few times per month or so.   Other makes clog the K3

[Silversurf]

3 hours ago, Cliff&Jackie said:

I have said this on another feed, this is called 'Caravan Talk' for a reason - to Talk about caravan related things!

Come on moderators, do your job!

Cliff

I'm a member of CT and quite a few other forums that cater for my many interests and my quests for advice, information and where I can hopefully offer some advice, some are small with only one forum, some have sub-forums as with CT.

 

Many times, on all these, I stray away from the thing I may be researching, to a sub-forum and invariably find something interesting, learn something new.

 

I follow posts on CT not by any particular thread, i. e. awnings, but use the 'view new content ' function which covers all and sundry, if there is something interesting, to me, I read and follow it, if it is of no interest to me, though it will be to many others, I simply pass it by, much like reading a newspaper, I have no interest in sport so just turn the page.

 

Yes Cliff, moderators are needed in the background, in my opinion to ensure that nothing insulting or inappropriate appears on the forum, to occasionally assist members by moving their post/thread to a different area to give them better coverage, as is occasionally done on here, all seamlessly and invisible, you hardly know they are there, tasks they perform in their own time, with in most cases without any thanks or acknowledgement, which they don't seek anyway.

 

When you say " Come on moderators, do your job! " be careful what you wish for, there are many forums moderated to death by a clique of moderators whose only interest is their own, is this something you wish for ?

 

Some of this type of moderated ( caravan ) forums are often mentioned on here.

 

Be your own moderator it isn't difficult. ..................honestly.

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Silversurf
Typo