[oclug] Photo Printers

[dman at lanhouse.ca]

I used a CD at Walmart.  My problem was that some of the CD-roms at the 
terminals were dead.  Also, there doesn't seem to be a storage server 
anywhere in the system.  For example, I wanted to print approximately 100 
pictures at approximately .5 MB per picture.  That isn't a lot of space 
but the terminal will busy out for longer then you want to wait.  In 
other words, the terminal will be unavailable when you arrive because 
someone will have already left while it is still transferring the 
pictures.  Once it finally lets you access it, your pictures will be 
copied off the CD fine but then the order will busy out the terminal. 
Also, the first time I used it the colour was off.  The second time, it 
was fine.  Walmart will force you to use a terminal to transfer the 
pictures even for 1 hour.  I gave up and use the crappy online tools 
instead.  How hard would it be to take the photos from the CD, copy them 
to a data storage server somewhere and free up the terminal for the next 
guy?

Hopefully, I'm not the norm and hopefully, some of the other places are 
better.

Dennis

On Mon, 2 Apr 2007, miden wrote:

> Thanks to both Brad and Stephen for useful information.
>
> I'll get a group of photos together and use them to test various places.
> Will get different sizes where possible.
>
> Sorry to bother folks with what must seem to be elementary questions
> which could be answered by just going out and doing it but that won't be
> feasible for a couple of weeks and I'd like to be somewhat prepared
> before I start.
>
> One last question - is it possible to take photos in on a CD or are
> sticks or cards required?
>
> Thanks for the very useful replies.
> -m
>
>
>
> On Mon, 2007-04-02 at 12:09 -0400, Stephen Gregory wrote:
>> I would recommend that you don't get a photo printer and take your
>> digital card to your local one hour photo lab (Loblaws, Shoppers, et
>> al). The cost of ink and paper for the photo printers is quite high.
>> Unless you print a very large number of prints the price per print
>> will be less at the one hour place. A number of places also have
>> instant print machines but I find the 1 hour prints to be better.
>>
>>
>> On 2-Apr-07, at 11:00 , miden wrote:
>>
>>> Yes,I've heard that - anybody know what the quality is like locally?
>>
>> It varies. Some of the instant print machines use smaller cheaper
>> printers which are not maintained. The colours tend to be a little
>> off. The 1 hour prints are generally better. Typically different
>> better printer is used and there is a dedicated person who takes care
>> of the printer. That person should notice when the colours start to
>> come out funny.
>>
>>
>>> I've read that the big box stores use the same equipment as custom
>>> commercial photo printers and charge a fraction... true?
>>
>> Even Shoppers uses the same equipment as the commercial printers. The
>> staff at a commercial printer should have better training on the
>> printers and the results could be better. However CBC (Market place)
>> did a test of photo (35mm) developers a few years ago and found that
>> the best developer was actually a Loblaws. IIRC they tested
>> developers in Ottawa. It was a couple of years ago so I would not
>> rush off to the nearest Loblaws looking for great prints. It does
>> show that commercial photo printer does not mean better prints.
>>
>> re: 2MB limit.
>>
>> I recently printed some 3.5MB prints at a Kodak machine. There was no
>> apparent file size limit or loss in image quality due to resizing.
>>
>> --
>> sg
>>
>
>