Since we are new parents, we have been taking tons of digital photographs of our two little ones. We have printed and mailed hundreds of digital images to friends and relatives and I have tried out the services of pretty much all the big box stores. The quality is acceptable in all of them (though I wouldn’t dream of taking my slides anywhere but a professional like Henry’s) and I typically order the prints during shopping. Among the following stores that I have tried out, Costco is significantly cheaper than the competition:
Wal-Mart Canada: $0.24 (4×6) $0.97 (5×7)
Costco Canada: $0.18 (4×6) $0.59 (5×7)
Loblaws Photolab: $0.24 (4×6) $0.99 (5×7)
Future Shop: $0.29 (4×6) $1.19 (5×7)
If you have any suggestions or opinions on printing digital photos, please do leave a comment.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 FMF // Feb 8, 2006 at 6:28 am
I use Costco too. Easy to order via the web and very affordable!
2 Doug // Feb 8, 2006 at 7:53 am
One of the issues I have with the cheaper places is that they always seem to cropy my photos. I guess the aspect ratio of my digital camera is not 4×3. The higher-end places seem to do a better job of this. Do you have the same issues with these places?
I also like matte finish prints - which I don’t believe a lot of the cheaper places offer..
3 Canadian Capitalist // Feb 8, 2006 at 9:43 am
Doug: Costco offers matte finish. Digital pictures don’t have the correct aspect ratio for printing so you have to crop before printing. I also just instruct to crop at the bottom of the image (better to cut a bit of the leg than the head!
)
4 Ray // Feb 8, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Digital cameras produce images that are actually 4:3 ratio… Photos, however, are printed in 6×4 or 3:2 ratio… hence the cropping…
And yes, I too use Costco.
5 Doug // Feb 8, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Do you guys find costco worth the membership fee? I guess so - but when I looked into it, I couldn’t justify the yearly cost in the savings.
Do you need a certain family size or something to make it valuable?
6 Jeff // Dec 15, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Cropping of your digital prints occurs everywhere. With most photo labs, digital prints are an automatic service that involes little to no employee interaction. Therefore, unless you crop your own photos, you will most likely experience cropped heads at the top of your photos. This can be avoided by asking your photolab to print your photos in “fit-in” mode. This prints your entire image on a 4×6 print (or whatever size you chose)but you will end up with white borders on opposite sides of the paper. For the most part, most customers do not notice the cropping, as it is usually minimal. However, you will notice it on those close up shots.
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