Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Digital Photography -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Mercer-Hursh who wrote (9973)	2/3/2005 2:07:14 PM
From: Crocodile	Respond to of 21647

This won't be of much help to you, Thomas, but it might be worth posting for any Canadians who might read this thread. I've been using FutureShop Photos (an electronics chain up here) for at least 2 years now. Service has always been excellent. Prices are pretty good. Quality of prints seems excellent. The kind of prints I tend to get done are macros of insects and similar, and printed at sizes usually 8x10 to 12x16 which are being used in natural history museum exhibits. They have to hold up to pretty close inspection by specialists who know exactly what they're looking at (or for). So far, plenty of praise and no negative comments. Just did a fundraiser sale at Christmas for a local nature center and everything sold well. A lot of the buyers, some of whom were photographers, were quite surprised that these photos are digital (yep, seems there are still people surprised by that). A couple of days ago, I did a bunch of photos for someone -- photographed their tiny old b&W photos from the 30s and 40s just using my Nikon in macro mode. I did some fixing up -- removed bad cracks, fixed up dust that must have been on the original negatives, removed scratches, etc.. Had the prints made as 6x9 glossies yesterday, and it's nuts.. they look like they must be original photos. They're pleased as anything as they're framing them for a family gallery. I just did them as a favour and didn't guarantee anything, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well they turned out. Nice thing about the lab I use (FutureShop) is speed of work. I submitted the files online around 7:30 in the evening and they were ready to pick up by around 11:00 or so the next day (they open at 10:00 a.m.). I've occasionally placed orders for a dozen different 11x14s and, sometimes, my order has been ready to pick up about 5 or 6 hours later on the same day. Pretty handy. I haven't got any experience with postcards yet, but have been thinking of giving that a try sometime. Haven't done posters yet - the 12x16s are getting up there though and they looked super, but obviously the process would be too expensive for inexpensive copies to sell (a 12x16 costs something around $12.00 each to have printed by the photo lab). Just a bit of input for anyone who might happen to be interested. I'd probably be inclined to check with some of the local electronics stores in any city to see what they're doing. My guess is that there are a lot of good local labs around that are now doing everything from photos and enlargements, to posters, cards, postcards and calendars as that's what is happening in my area. ~croc