Cost of printing digital photos

[Theodoric]

As a proud new owner of a digital camera, I am now accumulating thousands of pictures (Ok, I exaggerate slightly :) ) on my hard drive and somewhere along the line I am going to have to get some printed out. Any suggestions for the cheapest and most reliable (if these 2 are not incompatible) providers of printing services.

Printing out my own, except for being able to tweak and crop them, seems rather expensive; 50p per A4 sheet for high quality, glossy photo paper seems about the norm (or does anyone know a cheaper supply).

Browsing the web and checking at Boots suggests that about 15p per 6"x4" print may be about the minumum price; is this correct?

I also noticed that some firms seem to charge much more per print; presumably they will produce them by hand to give the best results.

[homealone]

to be honest if you can get it 15p a photo I'd go for it, not too many at first to test the quality?

However I have to say the convenience of the service offered by Kodak on Kodak paper may be worth the extra (49p per print). You can download the camera in the shop, or hand them a CDR & bob's your father's brother.

I couldn't find out, online, how much it costs at Boots?

In the first instance I think I would try a few options to see which gives the best result for the money.

Sorry - I havn't tried any services, myself, I had a look, inspired by your post - and was surprised how cheap it might be. Certainly competitive with inkjet printing - and won't fade!

- of course you could also do them on the colour laser at work!:eek:

[Dave Stones]

Originally posted by homealone
<snip>

we just got back from jollydays with 185 snaps. we were lucky the local chemists was doing an offer on digital prints, 50 for £5. but only the first 50. so of course 4 CDs went down ;)

the 35 odd ones were charged at 40p a print i think, all for 6" x 4".

so all told it was £29. i dont dare think how much it would be if we printed our own...

look out for these deals if u can

[Ramrod]

Jessops online is good

[bob_a_builder]

I apprecite the advantage of digital, i.e NOT printing every damm pic no matter how bad - but 49p per print (Jessops, from 34p per 6x4) seems a bit steep compared to the old fasioned 'steam' cameras where I wack of a film to Truprint or the like and get 6x4 for about 10p per.

At this rate I can still afford to throw away a good % of my duff prints into the bin.

I suppose its relatiively early days and so a fast buck has to be made while it can - surely the process of producing a print from a digital image must be loads simpler ( ie cheaper) than the old chemicals methods.

you can tell I've not made the switch yet, still dithering

[homealone]

Originally posted by bob_a_builder
I apprecite the advantage of digital, i.e NOT printing every damm pic no matter how bad - but 49p per print (Jessops, from 34p per 6x4) seems a bit steep compared to the old fasioned 'steam' cameras where I wack of a film to Truprint or the like and get 6x4 for about 10p per.

At this rate I can still afford to throw away a good % of my duff prints into the bin.

I suppose its relatiively early days and so a fast buck has to be made while it can - surely the process of producing a print from a digital image must be loads simpler ( ie cheaper) than the old chemicals methods.

you can tell I've not made the switch yet, still dithering

just a thought bob

- have a real look at how much it costs to print a digital photo on decent paper with an inkjet printer. 24 bit colour you could be looking at a minimum of £1 per A4 page - more with some printers. - 2 photo's per page? - & it will fade (unless you have Epson printer - another story).

[KingPhoenix]

i always use Jessops online, send them over the net, and 2 days later they come through the post... good quality too :D

[bob_builder]

The cheapest I could find was Bonusprint at 15p each:
http://www.bonusprint.co.uk/pages/digital_prints.htm?OnpageA=2

[Dave Stones]

Originally posted by bob_a_builder
<snip> old fasioned 'steam' cameras <snip>

what a fantastic sight they would be... :eek:

[SMHarman]

http://www.directphoto.co.uk/

Saw on my latest silver halide chemical photos envelopes when they came back in the post

15p with free index print.

Submit on card, CD or over the net.

[bob_a_builder]

Ah the digital gold (silver Halide) rush days must be over then !

That all seems a bit more reasonable

[bob_a_builder]

'Steam' cameras - what a fantastic sight they would be...

Your lens never steamed up then ?

You must be taking the wrong sort of pictures then - (nudge nudge)

[Tristan]

The thing is, if everybody had a digital camera, then Kodak would go bust tomorrow. Well okay, they wouldn't as old-fashioned film is still used for many purposes, but it would cost them an awful lot of money.

How can they make some of this back? By charging extortionate prices for the paper. It's the same with Jessops. And for HP, it's just another way of recouping the cost of giving you a printer for less than it costs to make it.

Isn't capitalism wonderful?

[Lord Nikon]

I think the biggest point is you don't get pixellation when enlarging a traditional photograph on high quality film.

[Dave Stones]

Originally posted by bob_a_builder
Your lens never steamed up then ?

You must be taking the wrong sort of pictures then - (nudge nudge)

i use video cameras for that wink wink