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On-line developing service recommendations/results?

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s50dan

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I've seen a number of services offering on-line developing and wanted to see about other's experiences. Right now I develop my photos at Costco (in-person) for 0.19c/print (4x6) but I like the on-line convience. I've looked at the following on-line companies:
http://www.snapfish.com
http://www.ofoto.com
http://www.bonusprint.com/us (USA site)

Currently, bonusprint looks extremely cheap but I have never heard of them. They also don't offer the on-line scrapbooks and some of the other features of the first two providers.

Comments?
 
I've tried 2 online services, Shutterfly (which you didn't mention) and Bonusprints. Most of my pictures are outdoors, generally golf course shots.

I found Shutterfly's prints too dark for my liking (don't even try their Vivid Pics effect, really dark). The photos lacked detail in the shadow areas. The color was pretty accurate, with a slight bias toward yellow.

I just received an order from Bonusprints (used U.S. site). The order took 8 days to arrive from overseas. I was expecting 10 days, so I was pleased. I ordered mostly 4 x 6's, with a few 5 x 7's. At 19 cents per 4x6, I can't even think about printing at home for that cost.

The photo quality is excellent! I find them to be a bit brighter than original. Much more shadow detail than Shutterfly's. With the 4x6's, I found a slight shift toward yellow (brown?). The grass isn't as green as I would like. The same photo's in 5x7 produced better green color. ???. The 5x7's are a bit more vibrant. They are beautiful prints.

The photos have a nice glossy finish. I will order some more photos from Bonusprints. I wish the the 4x6's had the color as the 5x7's, however.
 
Thanks for the compliments about Bonusprint as I work there! I find it very interesting that you detect a difference between our 4x6's and 5x7's as we print these on different machines (both Agfa d-labs.) We will have to review the contrast settings on each - it is not a comment I have heard before, but that does not mean you are not correct! Anthony
EJ Signer said:
I've tried 2 online services, Shutterfly (which you didn't mention)
and Bonusprints. Most of my pictures are outdoors, generally golf
course shots.

I found Shutterfly's prints too dark for my liking (don't even try
their Vivid Pics effect, really dark). The photos lacked detail in
the shadow areas. The color was pretty accurate, with a slight
bias toward yellow.

I just received an order from Bonusprints (used U.S. site). The
order took 8 days to arrive from overseas. I was expecting 10 days,
so I was pleased. I ordered mostly 4 x 6's, with a few 5 x 7's.
At 19 cents per 4x6, I can't even think about printing at home for
that cost.

The photo quality is excellent! I find them to be a bit brighter
than original. Much more shadow detail than Shutterfly's. With
the 4x6's, I found a slight shift toward yellow (brown?). The
grass isn't as green as I would like. The same photo's in 5x7
produced better green color. ???. The 5x7's are a bit more
vibrant. They are beautiful prints.

The photos have a nice glossy finish. I will order some more
photos from Bonusprints. I wish the the 4x6's had the color as the
5x7's, however.
Click to expand...
 
Anthony,

I hope I didn't scare off any customers. They are the best prints I've gotten, either online or locally.

When I hold the same photo of 4x6 and 5x7 side by side, you see the difference clearly. It's odd, because I uploaded the same file for both sizes, just cropping them for each size.

The answer is probably 2 different machines, 2 different settings.
 
I finished uploading my photos to Bonusprint on 6/10/03 9:30pm (east coast USA) and received the photos today 6/17/03. Their sight reads as follows: "For our customers in the USA, we estimate that you should receive your order back within 14 days of placing it with us."

Great Price, great quality, and faster delivery than anticipated

(117 photos = $23.05 delivered)

Highly recomended

Bill

PS. upload time to their servers was very good too.
 
I've used Ofoto for about a year with excelent results. I tried Shutterfly once, and it wasn't bad, but quality wasn't as good as Ofoto. PC Magazine just did an article comparing many of the online services in the "Best of 2003" issue (July 2003) and they named Ofoto a "Best Buy." Rated below Ofoto were: Blub Photo, PhotoWorks, Shutterfly, and Snapfish. They also rank photo kiosk systems and give Agfa E-box a "Best Buy" rating.
dpd
 
I'm sure you didn't scare anyone away! To quote Oscar Wilde, "If there's one thing worse than being talked about, its not being talked about!"

By coincidence, Agfa Germany have one of their top image scientists in our laboratory tomorrow and we are going to ask her why this has happened and how we gain consistency between the two machines.

I'm very glad you feel our prints are the best you've seen.

Anthony
EJ Signer said:
Anthony,

I hope I didn't scare off any customers. They are the best prints
I've gotten, either online or locally.

When I hold the same photo of 4x6 and 5x7 side by side, you see the
difference clearly. It's odd, because I uploaded the same file for
both sizes, just cropping them for each size.

The answer is probably 2 different machines, 2 different settings.
Click to expand...
 
Anthony Ward said:
Bonito said:
I uploaded some photos to this site on 6-04-03 and have yet
to receive the photos.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I received an e'mail saying that I should get my pictures either today or any day following. I did not receive them today but hope to see them tomorrow or the following day.
 
Can I just say, having been reading this thread, that I'm absolutely astounded by the level of support from Bonusprint.

Someone from the company goes to the trouble of monitoring this board and is completely proactive about getting their customers the best possible product.

This is incredibly refreshing nowadays, when so many companies could care less whether you're satisfied as long as they can get your money.

As a macintosh user, I can't wait for you to come up with software that will allow me to access all the features of the site. You'll be getting a customer whenever I need my prints from an online source.

Cheers,

J.
 
Thanks for the kind words. We are going as fast as we can with the Mac development - Anthony
Freeflyer said:
Can I just say, having been reading this thread, that I'm
absolutely astounded by the level of support from Bonusprint.

Someone from the company goes to the trouble of monitoring this
board and is completely proactive about getting their customers the
best possible product.

This is incredibly refreshing nowadays, when so many companies
could care less whether you're satisfied as long as they can get
your money.

As a macintosh user, I can't wait for you to come up with software
that will allow me to access all the features of the site. You'll
be getting a customer whenever I need my prints from an online
source.

Cheers,

J.
Click to expand...
 
Hello. I am interested in trying out your site. Shutterfly and dotphoto did not meet the high expectations from Sams. But both have great interfaces for clients to order prints directly. At dotphoto, I even get a commision for my prints ordered there. And they offer larger prints, like 11x14. But the quality is lacking.

Will you all be adding larger print formats? How does your print quality compare to the fuji frontier?

Thanks.

Drew
 
at the moment we are sticking to the sizes we offer to keep shipping costs down. We use Agfa d-labs which are comparable to (and more expensive than!) Fujis. Anthony
Drew Loker said:
Hello. I am interested in trying out your site. Shutterfly and
dotphoto did not meet the high expectations from Sams. But both
have great interfaces for clients to order prints directly. At
dotphoto, I even get a commision for my prints ordered there. And
they offer larger prints, like 11x14. But the quality is lacking.

Will you all be adding larger print formats? How does your print
quality compare to the fuji frontier?

Thanks.

Drew
Click to expand...
 
Anthony,

I couldn't find anything on the Bonusprint web site about the finish and paper type used for digital prints. What's available/provided?

Dan
Anthony Ward said:
Drew Loker said:
Hello. I am interested in trying out your site. Shutterfly and
dotphoto did not meet the high expectations from Sams. But both
have great interfaces for clients to order prints directly. At
dotphoto, I even get a commision for my prints ordered there. And
they offer larger prints, like 11x14. But the quality is lacking.

Will you all be adding larger print formats? How does your print
quality compare to the fuji frontier?

Thanks.

Drew
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the informative posts here. I've never tried an online printing service. I was wondering if one should match to the printer's ppi before sending the jpegs to them? In other words, if i want to print a 4x6, should I find out the service's ppi of their printer and then use Photoshop to match that when saving my jpeg, or should I just use the highest resolution I have for the image?

Any help here would be appreciated.
 
Hi Dan

We use Agfa Prestige Digital paper (which is very thick), and only offer a gloss finish.

Anthony
s50dan said:
Anthony,

I couldn't find anything on the Bonusprint web site about the
finish and paper type used for digital prints. What's
available/provided?

Dan
Click to expand...
 
I would just use the highest resolution available. Our software at Bonusprint.com uses 300 ppi. Anthony
Steve R2D1 said:
Thanks for the informative posts here. I've never tried an online
printing service. I was wondering if one should match to the
printer's ppi before sending the jpegs to them? In other words,
if i want to print a 4x6, should I find out the service's ppi of
their printer and then use Photoshop to match that when saving my
jpeg, or should I just use the highest resolution I have for the
image?

Any help here would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
Steve, If you have QImagePro, that is the easiest way to prepare images for printing either online or at a kisok. On the chance that you're not familiar with the program, here is the URL: http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

It is probably the best imaging software value going and has a huge and extremely loyal following. It has a "Print to File" feature for sending images to an outside printer that takes care of everything. I often use it to "gang" several photos on an 8x10 layout with text and then have either WalMart or Ofoto print it.
Dan
Steve R2D1 said:
Thanks for the informative posts here. I've never tried an online
printing service. I was wondering if one should match to the
printer's ppi before sending the jpegs to them? In other words,
if i want to print a 4x6, should I find out the service's ppi of
their printer and then use Photoshop to match that when saving my
jpeg, or should I just use the highest resolution I have for the
image?

Any help here would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the information. Another question: my camera, Canon S50, supports EXIF printing (hope I have the right acronym). From my limited understanding of this capability and what I read in the manual, this means I can specify the prints have file# and (more important to me) date and/or time stamp (like film cameras). Does your service recognize this feature so I'll get the date stamp printed on my photos? If so, does it appear in the lower right of the picture?

Dan
Anthony Ward said:
We use Agfa Prestige Digital paper (which is very thick), and only
offer a gloss finish.

Anthony
s50dan said:
Anthony,

I couldn't find anything on the Bonusprint web site about the
finish and paper type used for digital prints. What's
available/provided?

Dan
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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