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Prints from digital camera (1 Viewer)

Greg_L_C

Stunt Coordinator
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Mar 9, 2002
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126
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

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Messages
279
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

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 9, 2002
Messages
126
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

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
569
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

Second Unit
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Jun 7, 2003
Messages
279
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.
 

Cary_H

Second Unit
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Jun 7, 2003
Messages
279
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

Second Unit
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Jun 7, 2003
Messages
279
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

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
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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

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even a 9k nikon digital won't look good as a 10 dollar disposible 35mm
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

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Printing digital photos does not have to be a high-cost process. I purchased a Canon i450 4800x1200 dpi printer for $90. Ink cartridges are about $5-$6 each. A package of 100 Epson 4x6 borderless high gloss photo paper cost $15 here: Epson photo paper. Even averaging only 100 photos per ink cartridge (and assuming both a color and b&w cartridge), the cost per photo is about $.25, not including upfront cost for the printer.

Photos from my Canon Powershot G3 4 megapixel camera look great. I have only printed a couple of 8.5 x 11 size photos, but even those look very good. It may not be 35mm film, but it's very close.

Printing digital photos can be expensive if you do not shop around for paper and buy a printer that requires very expensive ($35+) printer cartridges. HP printers may produce high-quality prints, but they are very expensive to operate.
 

Brian Perry

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Has anyone checked out the new HP 1500L color laser printer? It's "only" $799 (list) and has gotten great reviews. I'm thinking that if it produces good photos, it may be a worthy alternative to 35mm.
 

Cary_H

Second Unit
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Wow. If that's what you're paying for ink cartridges no doubt it'll be inexpensive, Scott. The best deal I get for my printer's ink is about $40 for 30ml of black, and a tad bit more for color.
There is also a vast range of what you can pay for photo paper. You must shop around for sure. I have seen a dozen sheets of 8 x 10 for as much as $15 CDN, yet I can get 100 of the same for only $27 CDN, any day.
For me, I've never done my own printing with exception of doing proofs, so cost isn't an issue for me. My beef with digital is the time I end up spending in front of my computer manipulating images. This makes a chore of it all. I made the jump to digital in the first place thinking it would rekindle a long lost interest in the hobby. The time factor and the weaknesses of the cameras themselves have me right back where I was beforehand.
 

Bob Graz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 26, 2002
Messages
798
Has anyone looked at the HiTi 630PL photo printer. It does 4x6 prints for .40 each. Product Specifications

Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer printing technology
Output resolution: 300 dpi x 300 dpi
16.77 Million Color Performance
Continuous-Tone Printing
Magic Coating Technology

It's $129.00 and packs of 50 sheets of photo paper with color ribbons are only $19.99.

It seems to get pretty good reviews and is affordable. I was just made aware of it a couple weeks ago during a lunch time conversation.
 

Mike H

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 10, 1999
Messages
76
I just had some vacation pictures print from a 4mp Sharp digital camera and they worked out great. I could not tell the difference at 4x6 size between a 35mm print and the digi-print.

I had mine printed at Target for .29 cents a picture.

Mike
 

Scott Merryfield

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Wow. If that's what you're paying for ink cartridges no doubt it'll be inexpensive, Scott. The best deal I get for my printer's ink is about $40 for 30ml of black, and a tad bit more for color.
This is the main reason I did not buy a Hewlett-Packard printer. They charge an obscene amount of money for their printer cartridges, and their newer models contain an IC chip in the cartridge to prevent 3rd parties from making replacement cartridges. HP's business model is to sell an inexpensive printer and make their profit on the supplies. There is no technical reason why their cartridges should cost $35 while other companies charge $10 or less.
 

Todd Hochard

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I've had the Sony DSC-S70 (3.3mp) for 3 years now, and I've tried MANY MANY different services for prints. Of the online services, I've found Snapfish.com to be the best quality.
In the local scene, I've found Costco's service to be the cheapest, and the best quality (exceeding that of Snapfish slightly). 20c per 4x6, 99c for a 5x7, and 1.99 for an 8x10. I can highly recommend them.
even a 9k nikon digital won't look good as a 10 dollar disposible 35mm
I have a wall full of 8x10 photos from my Sony that would dispute that notion, particularly for outdoor shots. Good optics and a still hand go a long way toward fantastic prints.

Todd
 

Max Leung

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Generally, laser printers are a BAD idea for photo printing. Color gamut is terrible, contrast sucks, you can't use very many specialty paper, etc. In short: Laser printers suck.

If you use a high-quality printing application like QImage, you'll find that you can blow up 1280x1024 (1.5 megapixels) pictures to 8.5x11s and get extremely good results.

You'll be hard pressed to see the difference between a 35mm and a Canon G3 (4 megapixel) photo when both are enlarged to 8x10, especially when you use Qimage as your print engine (using its vector scaling algorithm).
 

Tim Markley

Screenwriter
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Jun 12, 1999
Messages
1,279
There is no technical reason why their cartridges should cost $35 while other companies charge $10 or less.
I've never owned a Canon printer but I can tell you that Epson (boo!) also charges a mint for their cartridges. Dell charges even more than HP for the cartridges on their new printers. I've been looking at the Canon printers and that's probably what I'll buy next.
 

Michael Hughes

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
369
I use photoworks.com
.29 a photo, upload them to the site and they ship them out pretty good, its printed on kodak paper, they used to be known as seattle filmworks, but have changed names to suit there internet business.

also other sites like www.ofoto.com shutterfly.com charge .49 a photo and are also real good, but photoworks.com is less expensive.

I have had over 1000 pictures printed there from my digital camera.
 

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