Vince Maskeeper

I know many here have opted for buying their own printers in the home. And while that might be an option down the road, I'm wondering about what commerical services you guys have used for printing digital images.

I recently conducted an experiment using the local Walmart: I took 4 images, one using each resolution setting on the camera and featuring a shot of a newspaper. I checked each one on the pc- and obviously, as the resolution increased, the newspaper text got more and more readable.

However, when the prints were returned, at 4x5 there really was almost no difference between the images. There was a slight differnce between 640x480 and 1024x768, however going from 1024x768 to 1600x1200 to 2048x1536 seemed to show almost no improvement at 4x5--- at least almost no improvament I could see on the prints with the naked eye.

I am wondering if this is really a limitation of my eyes at these higher resolutions, or if its possible that the walmart photo printer maxes out around 300 dpi and so the added resolution of the higher res formats was essentially wasted.

It seems that 2048 images should be a nice 400 dpi when printed that size-- but, as I said above, the fine detail in the newsprint did not seem to improve much versus lower 1600 and 1024 resolution version (which should have been 300dpi and 200dpi respectively).

So I was wondering if anyone else has tried this type of experiment, if anyone here has a printing method they absolutely swear by (something that i can take a cdr or flash key to, and order up affordable 4x5 prints). Are there differences in the processes or inks (is it possible to develop digital images with a more photochem like process, is there any advantage)?

Are there some of these services that are really doing better work than others? Or are they all basically the same stuff??

-V

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MatS

can't answer your techincal questions Vince but here is a coupon for 25 free prints at Target good till the 9th of this month if you wish to continue your experiment

http://staging.merchantmail.net/m/p/...204&otype=text

Philip_G

easy, I bought a canon 560i printer on sale at BB 2 weeks ago for $99 bucks. I didn't think it would print photos that well, I printed some from my trip to London and they turned out fantastic.
Even from my old 2.1mp nikon they look great. No grainyness, nice and glossy, I printed out a night shot of St. Paul's and the blueish purple sky replicated perfectly.

Max Leung

Generally all the printers do no more than 300 dpi, even the high-end print labs. Some may do 400dpi, but 95% of the time you will not be able to tell the difference. Unless you spend all your time printing and analyzing grid patterns spaced at every other pixel.

Also keep in mind that color accuracy will vary greatly between different photo places. Hopefully, you will find a place where they calibrate the equipment regularly, either auto-calibration or some ISF-like guy comes buy and services the machine.

Myself, I have a color calibrated Epson 2200. Color accuracy is better than the nearby Costco with the fancy-pants Fujitsu/Noritsu 400dpi printer. However, 4x6s at Costco are really cheap...pick your poison.

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Philip_G

My mom had some prints done at costco from my camera, they were terrible, very very grainy.

Brandon_S

The local WalGreens does a very good job with digital photos. I used to have them printed at Wal-Mart, but often times they would turn out horribly dark and hard to make out. The WalGreens close to me just got a new photo printing machine and I have been very happy with the photos it produces.

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Seth_L

Yes, but with a Dye-Sublimination printer you don't need more than about 300DPI because it doesn't rely on dithering to make different colors. Inkjets rely on dithering to achieve apparent colors.

Max Leung

Yeah, that's why you see inkjets advertised as "4800x1200" DPI or "5760x2880" or some-such huge number.

However, consider that nearly all print media (magazines, artbooks, etc.) are dithered. Just take an 8x magnifying loupe on your favorite artbook/magazine and you'll see!

Isn't there a problem with longevity on dye-sub printers though? And you need special papers right? It must be fairly costly...hopefully the results are worth it, as I don't recall ever seeing a dye-sub print before.

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him...a super-callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Gameshow host: "Is taking Viagra kosher during Passover dinner?"
Whoopee Goldberg: "Not if it leads to pork."
Kermit the Frog: "Hey, that's my line!"

MickeS

A small 4*6 picture can easily be printed with good result from a 1024*768 digital image file. The main reason to have higher res pictures is to show on the monitor or make larger prints from.

I take mine to Walgreens, for 29 cents per picture. They look good and it's easy to do, so I have no desire to buy a photo printer. I would have to print several hundred pictures before I got a return on that investment, and that's not even counting the ink or paper.

/Mike

John Pine

Vince, F.Y.I…..just bought a Canon i960 Photo Printer ($180) on Tuesday. It prints enlargement up to 8x10 with awesome results. To take the shots I used my Canon G3 and Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy. I also manually aligned the six print heads and the prints are stunning. I have two framed (8x10) enlargements sitting in my cubicle. I work in a large office (100+), and I’ve had over 20 people rave over the enlargements and ask for details about what I printed them with. No more Wolf Camera for me!

Philip_G

Vince, if you were really wanted to compare email me a picture and I'd be happy to print it out and mail it to you.