Buying photo printer vs photo lab
 

Just curious to see how many people here use a photolab or use their own photo printer for printing photos? If you do use a photo lab where do you go? If you use a photo printer what make and model do you use?

photo lab is probably the better bet. better quality for a fraction of the cost. I got my portfolio prints all done at costco. matte with no color adjustments for $4 per 12x18 print. The color is pretty accurate, and quality is pretty good for portfolio/personal use

$4 at costco! SNAP!

When i bought my mkii in HK it came with a ip4200 photo printer.

I have to say it's pretty sweet. runs out of ink REAL quick if you do high dpi large print on glossy all the time though.

Printing at home gives you more control over the final product, but for most consumers, getting prints done at Costco or Walmart will be more cost effective. The colours may be not as vibrant, but you can't beat the price. London Drugs is more expensive, but they use the higher quality Fuji Crystal Archive Gold papers, and the prints look much better, but they're about 4x the Costco prices.

Getting a photo printer (especially a high end one) is more for exhibition quality prints - you can really wow your friend and family though! Print quality will also come down to how good you are at post processing an image, color calibration & inkjet paper choice.

Are you thinking of selling your prints or are they for personal use? If you're thinking of selling prints, then I would say get the best printer you can afford, or get the best professional prints done at a pro lab.

The lowest end printer I would personally buy is the Epson R3000 ($700-ish) because it takes rolls too - great for printing panoramas - but is limited to only 13" wide. The next step up would be the Canon PIXMA Pro-1 ($1000-ish) which is an absolutely fantastic printer, but cannot print on roll media and is limited to a 13"x19" sheet. The B&W prints that this printer is capable of is really quite amazing. We currently use an Epson R3000 & a Canon iPF6300 that prints to 24" wide media and it's pretty sweet, but impractical for most home users.

how long does it take to print the digital photos at costco and at what price?
do they also develop and print films as well?
thanks

About an hour at Costco, not sure if they still do film though.

also keep in mind, if you decide to go the home route, there is also a learning curve to get the desired results. It's not exactly plug and play, you need to calibrate both monitor and printer properly. Also if you or the hardware screws up a print, that can be an expensive mistake whereas in the photolab, if they fuck up a print, or the results aren't as desired, you won't get charged.

honestly, unless you're doing prints for gallery exhibition or a pro sending deliverables to a client, you're much better off printing in the lab because the difference in quality will not be worth the rather pricey cost differences.

Took out film years ago.

shoppers is probably the cheapest place to get film developed. they only do it at a few select locations but you can drop off film at any location and pick it up there. They include a photo CD as well in the price. But I have not tried it personally yet. So I can't vouch for quality

For personal use, photo printer at home is fine, unless you have the extra money to burn and/or dedicated about creating the highest quality with your final printouts.

On the other hand, for professional use or exhibitions, it would be better to use photo labs cause print lab's printers are maintained to provide 'service', so the color results, photo paper quality, and all final products would be more consistent.

Think about this, if something's screwed up, you can bring it back and ask them to get it done right, instead of eating the cost yourself.

If you have an inkjet printer and you want to print for professional usage, there is also the concern of inconsistent ink distribution unless you use the printer on a daily basis.