Photo Print Quality

Sam

I took 4 photos and printed them out with my Canon 850i ink jet printer, Costco, and a local profesional lab. My conclusions after comparing these prints are: A. The relatively cheap ink jet did surprisingly well, and is very close to my monitor. B. Through error the Costco prints were printed twice. Once each on consecutive days. The appearence from one day to the next varried substaintaly. The black and white had a pink cast, more on one print than the other, but still there. The color on the color photos was off quite a bit from my monitor , and ink jet copy. The cutting / trimming of the photos was off, leaving small diagional slices of white unprinted paper showing. One showed defects and bloches not on my ink jet copy.Overall sharpness was not as good as I would have expected.
C. The local pro lab prints are stunning. Color very close to my monitor, and my ink jet copy, but with increased detail and more vivid. (not increased saturation) Oh, and I was able to instruct the pro lab not to run any adjustments.

I had a number of people at work looking at the photos and I would ask them individually which print they liked better and 100% chose the lab prints.

Costs. a. Ink jet.....Unknown. $2.00 to 3.00?
b. Costco $1.99
c. Lab $6.49

If I want to frame it, I wll use the lab print.

This is my experience, and conclusions. Please feel free to comment about your experiences.

Sam

Ann McRae

My experience pretty much mirrors yours! I used to use Costco alot, but have been quite dissapointed by them recently. My local pro lab does get almost everything right, and does a very good job. My epson does remarkably well, but you dare not get the prints wet! And pricing is about the ame as you outline.


Unfortunately my little Epson has bit the bullet so I am without the ability to home print. This has me contemplating/salivating things like the Canon 9900, the new hp lg format, or taking an aquaintence up on the offer of $5 per foot to use his Epson 4000!

ann

LiquidOps

Very interesting comparrisons. Thank you for sharing.

I am still kind of new to this.... I have always used costco, but can totally relate to your complaints regarding quality and alignment. Yeah, they are cheap, but some of this is bogus.

How would I go about finding my local "Pro Lab".

I would love to find one that I can start getting to know.

I'm in Orange county, CA

Thanks,

Steven

Sam

Ann McRae wrote:

My experience pretty much mirrors yours! I used to use Costco alot, but have been quite dissapointed by them recently. My local pro lab does get almost everything right, and does a very good job. My epson does remarkably well, but you dare not get the prints wet! And pricing is about the ame as you outline.


Unfortunately my little Epson has bit the bullet so I am without the ability to home print. This has me contemplating/salivating things like the Canon 9900, the new hp lg format, or taking an aquaintence up on the offer of $5 per foot to use his Epson 4000!

ann

Ann,

I would go for the 9900! It's on my list. While it may be great to have access to the 4000, I realy want a printer right next to me to proof my work immediately.

Sam

Sam

LiquidOps wrote:

Very interesting comparrisons. Thank you for sharing.

I am still kind of new to this.... I have always used costco, but can totally relate to your complaints regarding quality and alignment. Yeah, they are cheap, but some of this is bogus.

How would I go about finding my local "Pro Lab".

I would love to find one that I can start getting to know.

I'm in Orange county, CA

Thanks,

Steven

Steven,

Finding a Pro lab is real easy. They are in the phone book, guranteed! That's how I found mine.

Sam

Aaron Wilson

I agree
I find costco only good for a proof copy on 35mm film and not digital at all. i have used walmart and it's ok... but the best i have found is WOLF.