Greg_L_C

Prints from digital camera

I got my first digital camera and have been having a blast taking pictures. I found out real quick that printing them out my self is time consuming and will cost to much in ink and paper. and the quality is not as good as I would like.
I know there are services that you can upload your pics to and they will print them on photo paper. Anybody have any recommendations or links to Internet companys that do this at a reasonable cost and have good service and quality?

Thanks
Greg

Cary_H

I'd suggest you get cozy with a trustworthy photo lab in your area. Take a number of pictures at the highest resolution your camera is capable of, tweak them in whatever program it is that you're using and burn them to a CD. Ask them to run off a few prints of varying dimensions to get a reasonable idea of how large a print you can get that still makes you happy quality-wise. You either limit yourself to prints of a given size using these big files, smaller again if you ask less from your camera, or upgrade to a camera that will capture pixel counts to deliver the size of photo at the quality you demand.
I'm of the mind to get my photos from a guy I can bitch at face to face if I don't like what I'm paying good money for.
A lot of folks jump to digital wanting no more than to E-mail photos to family and friends and that's fine. OTOH, once you move beyond this you'll now "need" better tweaking software and a reasonably better and more pricey camera, only to find your current computer has one hell of a time processing files of the size you are playing with to meet your PQ demands. Digital photography can be real hazardous to your pocketbook.

Greg_L_C

this is the type and quality of picture I want made unto prints pic(warning 840kb pic) . I just want to be able to get some good 4x6 or the occasional 5x7 or 8x10 to sent to family.

Greg

Khoa Tran

i know some places do 35cents a print 4x6...the more you print the less each print will cost.. most places you can just bring in your media card and they'll have a reader to get the pictures...i would not recommend 8x10 printing, digital format has not been perfected like 35mm, the quality on paper that large isn't as great....

Cary_H

What is the mega-pixel rating of your camera, Greg? The picture looks great on my monitor, but when it comes right down to it, computer displays run out of gas showing you the level of resolution you require to get sharp prints.

Khoa: digital hasn't gotten us up there with conventional photography because the technology hasn't reached the point where CCDs can compete with film when it comes to capturing light. It's a function of grabbing an image of a high enough number of tiny bits to spread them out over a print and still maintain a level of density that gives us the sharpness that prints from film make routine. The challenge is to figure out how to capture increasingly smaller and smaller bits and jamming more and more of these onto a sensor with the smallest surface area they can come up with, and do it in a "might hasty" fashion. Photo paper is quite capable if we can bang enough data onto it.

Greg_L_C

Its a 3mp canon a70.


Greg

Cary_H

Sorry Khoa.....I misread your post first time around. You are correct. We can't capture enough data to populate an 8x10 sheet in sufficient densities......yet.

Note to self.....drugs NOT GOOD!

Cary_H

If I recall correctly, even a 14 meg TIFF file from a 3 mp sensor won't get you much more than a decent 5 x 7. Conventional advocates might contend it's not gonna do that.

Khoa Tran

yup, even a 9k nikon digital won't look good as a 10 dollar disposible 35mm...Cary i was about to say, oh well atleast you're very knowledgable =) i had a digital for a while, though it's very convenient to have because i do graphic design but for print and other stuff i love my trusty ae1

Thomas Newton

I would disagree with that. Not because of the underlying resolution of the sensor/media (CCD vs. 35mm film), but because that Nikon will have top-notch glass, a focusing mechanism, exposure measuring (automatic with photographer overrides), and most likely, a separate tilt/bounce flash.

The disposable camera will have a cheap plastic lens, fixed focus, basic or NO exposure metering, and a "red-eye" flash.

Scott Merryfield