Photo Printing - Boots - Online or what

isofa

Very good review of consumer level photobooks in last months (Dec 2009) What Digital Camera magazine: http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/magazine/2452/what-digital-camera-december-2009.html

Not sure the test is online though.

kevsan

I use snapfish alot - never had a problem with them and usually have offers going.

darich

I've used snapfish, photobox, colourmailer, bonus print photodeal and probably a couple of others.

I've always found photobox to be excellent quality with good quick service. Prices are a touch higher than a couple of the others I mentioned but, in my opinion, the quality is worth it. Prints always come on either kodak or in the majority of cases fuji paper.

I used photodeal for a canvas print and it took them 3 attempts to get it right. They also sent me non standard size prints (approx 1/2 inch bigger than the 16x20 I ordered) and they were matt rather than glossy.
In both occasions, the final product was good and I was happy with it, but not so happy it took a few attempts to get there. I may have been unlucky but I generally avoid photodeal now.

I think it was colourmailer/ prints seemed to be printed on a good printer but it wasn't photoquality. High quality but not photo quality. Looking at the image at certain angles you lost the colours in it especially the black which seemed to go a shade of blue. Maybe not a big deal for smaller prints but when printing poster size you want the best quality.

It can be difficult to gauge which site is more expensive because I found that photobox is competitive with larger prints eg 30x20inches but less so with the 15x10inch prints. I find snapfish or bonus print to be cheaper for smaller sizes. So it pays to compare all the sites at the particular size you're buying.

espresso

I notice that ASDA was not tested by the Gadget show although Tesco was. I have always had excellent results from ASDA's photo service.

darich

One of the girls from my work took her memory card into Asda for prints and the machine corrupted her card. She hadn't made a copy so her honeymoonshots were almost lost but for some software recovery program she managed to get.

The moral of the story is always back up your memory card before you go to ANY printing facility.