Even in a hurry, avoid Walgreens...

Dusty Sensiba · December 12, 2007

I got in a hurry to get some prints to somebody locally and thought to myself:

"Self, maybe we can head over to Walgreens and see if they can get us some prints at this late hour. All the places I know and trust are closed. Hell, while I'm there waiting maybe I can cross the street and get Taco Bell, they're open too."

So I drove over with my pictures on an SD card (afraid they forgot that some people still use 'those old big cards').

First off even the SD reader was broken. Luckily I outsmarted them and had a backup plan...they used a notebook PCMCIA CF adapter to read my CF card. Because their CF slot doesn't fit my CF card.....wow.

So I order up my prints and go across the street.

When I come back I could't believe what I got.
1.All photos were oversharpened. I sharpen my photos in photoshop or Camera Raw. They did it again and tripled the effect. Some of the edges had wierd fringes. If only they could apply the same sharpness to their consciousness....they wouldn't be working at Walgreens.

2.All photos were oddly colored. I color correct, they color discorrect. They made it look like I don't know how to properly expose things. The highlights and shadows were all clipped and the greys were off.:huh

3.Crop and rotation. I had my photos cropped to a 2:3 ratio and the machine thought it needed to crop closer. It also didn't appreciate the way I didn't have the ground level in some of the photos so it 'fixed' that for me. I guess it's not OK to leave some lines in your images crooked for artistic effect anymore. My bad.:dunno

4.They have some filter that does odd things to skies. It detects the sky, darkens it severely and blurs it. I could see wierd streaks in the sky.:huh

I would say I got what I paid for but I can't say the prints I got were worth five bucks.

So I complained to the 'certified digital photo professional' at the lab (yes, her shirt said that) and she started telling me something about how the machine will not let you make a print too big if it thinks the resolution is too low:deal (and this has what to do with sharpening, cropping, rotating or color management?).:scratch

I guess if somebody wants prints they need to wait until tomorrow when I can get to a decent lab.

Rhuarc · December 12, 2007

Dusty Sensiba wrote:

I got in a hurry to get some prints to somebody locally and thought to myself:

"Self, maybe we can head over to Walgreens and see if they can get us some prints at this late hour. All the places I know and trust are closed. Hell, while I'm there waiting maybe I can cross the street and get Taco Bell, they're open too."

So I drove over with my pictures on an SD card (afraid they forgot that some people still use 'those old big cards').

First off even the SD reader was broken. Luckily I outsmarted them and had a backup plan...they used a notebook PCMCIA CF adapter to read my CF card. Because their CF slot doesn't fit my CF card.....wow.

So I order up my prints and go across the street.

When I come back I could't believe what I got.
1.All photos were oversharpened. I sharpen my photos in photoshop or Camera Raw. They did it again and tripled the effect. Some of the edges had wierd fringes. If only they could apply the same sharpness to their consciousness....they wouldn't be working at Walgreens.

2.All photos were oddly colored. I color correct, they color discorrect. They made it look like I don't know how to properly expose things. The highlights and shadows were all clipped and the greys were off.

3.Crop and rotation. I had my photos cropped to a 2:3 ratio and the machine thought it needed to crop closer. It also didn't appreciate the way I didn't have the ground level in some of the photos so it 'fixed' that for me. I guess it's not OK to leave some lines in your images crooked for artistic effect anymore. My bad.

4.They have some filter that does odd things to skies. It detects the sky, darkens it severely and blurs it. I could see wierd streaks in the sky.

I would say I got what I paid for but I can't say the prints I got were worth five bucks.

So I complained to the 'certified digital photo professional' at the lab (yes, her shirt said that) and she started telling me something about how the machine will not let you make a print too big if it thinks the resolution is too low (and this has what to do with sharpening, cropping, rotating or color management?).

I guess if somebody wants prints they need to wait until tomorrow when I can get to a decent lab.

One reason I love having my small and fiarly inexspensive Canon photo printer (not one of the 8 inks, an "old" 6 inker!!) I can print out a bunch of borderless 4x6 shots that look great in no time!

claudermilk · December 12, 2007

Same here. That old obsolete i950 still gets me exactly what I need--even at 1AM on a Sunday.

Rhuarc · December 12, 2007

claudermilk wrote:

Same here. That old obsolete i950 still gets me exactly what I need--even at 1AM on a Sunday.

And IMO it looks damn good doing it! LoL

cmason · December 12, 2007

If you are looking for Walgreen 4x6 prints done at home, I am a broken record when it comes to recommending the Canon Selphy printers. These are dye-sub printers that create 4x6 that you will swear comes from a photo shop, and they are about $0.28 ea. The paper and ink roll come together in the box:

I have the 510, but here is the 740.. all of $80.

Best of all, it is tiny: I toss it in my camera bag when I visit family...print out photos to hand to Grandma...always a big hit.

Rhuarc · December 12, 2007

cmason wrote:

If you are looking for Walgreen 4x6 prints done at home, I am a broken record when it comes to recommending the Canon Selphy printers. These are dye-sub printers that create 4x6 that you will swear comes from a photo shop, and they are about $0.28 ea. The paper and ink roll come together in the box:

I have the 510, but here is the 740.. all of $80.

Best of all, it is tiny: I toss it in my camera bag when I visit family...print out photos to hand to Grandma...always a big hit.

You know, that isn't a bad idea! I don't suppose any of these use the same BCI-6 ink tanks that the 950/960 series used do they?

Zanotti · December 12, 2007

cmason wrote:

If you are looking for Walgreen 4x6 prints done at home, I am a broken record when it comes to recommending the Canon Selphy printers. These are dye-sub printers that create 4x6 that you will swear comes from a photo shop, and they are about $0.28 ea. The paper and ink roll come together in the box:

I have the 510, but here is the 740.. all of $80.

Best of all, it is tiny: I toss it in my camera bag when I visit family...print out photos to hand to Grandma...always a big hit.

They really produce outstanding shots and the ink/paper are in one package meaning you never run out of only one!

cmason · December 12, 2007

Rhuarc wrote:

You know, that isn't a bad idea! I don't suppose any of these use the same BCI-6 ink tanks that the 950/960 series used do they?

nope completely different. These are dye sub, the ink is a ribbon, and is literally 'melted' onto the paper (ok sublimated for all you chem majors). In any case, you can not buy the paper and ink separately, it comes in a kit...the ribbon prints 15? or so prints, then you toss and pull out another.

Rhuarc · December 12, 2007

Aren't the 950/960 carts dye sub based ink? So if each print is about .28 cents that would mean one pack was about 5 bucks. That doesn't seem too bad!

cmason · December 12, 2007

This is what the ribbon looks like, never seen another like it. I bought packs of 108 prints for about $30 on sale, even better price on Amazon. Remember this price is for paper + ink, not just ink.

Lots of good reviews: Steves Digicam (photo credit above) and photo.net

SloYerRoll · December 12, 2007

cmason wrote:

This is what the ribbon looks like, never seen another like it. I

This looks exacly like the kodak EasyShare printer docks. They get the same rave reviews as the Canon printers like this.

Rhuarc · December 12, 2007

SloYerRoll wrote:

This looks exacly like the kodak EasyShare printer docks. They get the same rave reviews as the Canon printers like this.

I never considered something like this since I have my IP6000D, but I never thought about it in the context of taking it with me and printing stuff out for people on the spot.

SloYerRoll · December 12, 2007

Rhuarc wrote:

I never considered something like this since I have my IP6000D, but I never thought about it in the context of taking it with me and printing stuff out for people on the spot.

I used to have a Printer Dock. It was really nice to have. It runs three passes to make the picture (RGB) then it makes a last pass to make the entire image waterproof!

The end result is a very nice looking picture that is very durable. I tried to bust up a few pictures that didn't turn out the way I liked and it was really hard to mess them up.

I can't speak for the Canon, but I'm sure it's along the same line.

Bottom line: they are great little tools to have, your limited by size, but that's not a big issue since I buy larger prints through SM anyway. It's even really good for my wife who scrapbooks. She just types in keywords into lightroom and sends the shots to the printer dock. Done.

xposedphotography · December 13, 2007

Dusty Sensiba wrote:

I got in a hurry to get some prints to somebody locally and thought to myself:

"Self, maybe we can head over to Walgreens and see if they can get us some prints at this late hour. All the places I know and trust are closed. Hell, while I'm there waiting maybe I can cross the street and get Taco Bell, they're open too."

So I drove over with my pictures on an SD card (afraid they forgot that some people still use 'those old big cards').

First off even the SD reader was broken. Luckily I outsmarted them and had a backup plan...they used a notebook PCMCIA CF adapter to read my CF card. Because their CF slot doesn't fit my CF card.....wow.

So I order up my prints and go across the street.

When I come back I could't believe what I got.
1.All photos were oversharpened. I sharpen my photos in photoshop or Camera Raw. They did it again and tripled the effect. Some of the edges had wierd fringes. If only they could apply the same sharpness to their consciousness....they wouldn't be working at Walgreens.

2.All photos were oddly colored. I color correct, they color discorrect. They made it look like I don't know how to properly expose things. The highlights and shadows were all clipped and the greys were off.

3.Crop and rotation. I had my photos cropped to a 2:3 ratio and the machine thought it needed to crop closer. It also didn't appreciate the way I didn't have the ground level in some of the photos so it 'fixed' that for me. I guess it's not OK to leave some lines in your images crooked for artistic effect anymore. My bad.

4.They have some filter that does odd things to skies. It detects the sky, darkens it severely and blurs it. I could see wierd streaks in the sky.

I would say I got what I paid for but I can't say the prints I got were worth five bucks.

So I complained to the 'certified digital photo professional' at the lab (yes, her shirt said that) and she started telling me something about how the machine will not let you make a print too big if it thinks the resolution is too low (and this has what to do with sharpening, cropping, rotating or color management?).

I guess if somebody wants prints they need to wait until tomorrow when I can get to a decent lab.

Sounds like you just had some bad luck! I'm a manager for Walgreens so I probably have a bias opinion but I happen to think for the most part, the labs do a really good job. We have a digital Fuji lab which does an incredible job of printing. The paper is exposed with a laser and then developed through the typical chemistry. There are no filters that automatically change the apperance of the image, it must be done by the customer on the kiosk or manually by the tech. As far as sizing goes, if you do not crop for the correct proportion you are just playing craps as how the computer will proportion the image for you (ie 4x6 proportions much different than 8x10). Now if you experienced a Kodak lab at Walgreens I see where you might have run into some strange issues as the machines are very dated/obsolete. Either way I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with your local Walgreens, but I wouldn't say that holds true for all 6000 stores.

Scott Buel · December 14, 2007

xposedphotography wrote:

Either way I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with your local Walgreens, but I wouldn't say that holds true for all 6000 stores.

I agree. I've had very good luck and have been very happy with my local Walgreen's for some quick 8X10s I needed for Christmas.

Even in a hurry, avoid Walgreens...

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