Good article, Pete. From the article:
Some remain sceptical. David Haueter, analyst with Gartner, says: "Kiosks have a future. But we still believe most prints will be made at home."
Yeah, but until printer manufacturers reduce the price of ink, it’s probably cheaper to print 4×6’s at 29¢ at a kiosk. Enlargements, oddly enough, are probably cheaper printed at home. Walgreens charges $2.99 for a 6×8" print!
Sam’s Club – 8×10 -$1.96.
I think there are two groups of people who will find different solutions to their photo printing needs.
1. Vacation snaphot takers who want 4×6 prints and are not very critical of the quality. They just want cheap prints.
2. Hobbyists who are more interested in quality, larger prints, Photoshop, etc. The range here is from "casual/beginner" to "purist."
The first group will get their batch of mediocre little prints at the drugstore and walk away happy. The second group will endure the printer manufacturer ripoffs on ink cartridges to get high quality prints at home.
Of course, this is a bit exaggerated. There is probably a whole spectrum of needs out there, but the vast majority will fit in one of the two categories, I think.
Bert
There is a third option – those of us who will have a custom print made at a brick & mortar photo store. I’ve had some 11×14 prints made on canvas which are now framed in my home.
Steve
That’s true, Steve. I’ve never done that…I guess I never had a picture that justified the expense…maybe when I improve my skills…
Bert
Bert,
I don’t feel like I’m settling for my "mediocre little prints" when I take my digital photos to a lab to have them printed. I have taken the time to edit the images to make sure that I’m getting the picture that I want. In fact, that is one of my complaints when I take film in to have it processed. It seems that no matter how carefully I chose my lab, the pictures seldom came back looking the way I expected them to look, and I spent hours scanning those pictures so that I could get what I was really looking for. My experience has been that if I take the time to edit my pictures I can usually expect to get what I’m looking for from the lab.
I don’t feel that there is a quality issue between home printed pictures and pictures that are printed in a photo lab. I have a difficult time distinguishing between the two. If I only have a few prints to do, I will usually do them at home. However, if I have a large group of pictures like from a wedding or a big family party, it’s cheaper and much faster to let the lab do the printing.
Jim,
I certainly meant no offense, nor did I mean to demean your pictures. As I said, the two groups did not include everyone, and you are clearly an exception to my oversimplified categories.
The only "quality issue" it would seem to me is the lack of control that you have over the process when you send them out for printing…unless you have a local shop that you can work with very closely.
Bert
