I was chatting with my friend Paul at the Dallas Camera Club meeting this evening. And, we got to talking about digital prints since both he and I have digital cameras (a Nikon Coolpix 5700 in my case and a Canon EOS-D10 in his).
And since it’s a digital camera, I haven’t had much need for prints. But, I have had some prints made for some of my better shots. In those cases, I went to dotPhoto. They’re an online store with reasonable prices and — unlike some other online print shops — they also offer matte prints (which I prefer).
In any case, Paul mentioned that Sam's Club actually does digital prints as well (I was aware of their film processing, but it didn’t occur to me that they might do digital). Apparently, you can just bring in a CDR or even a memory card (including CompactFlash) and they’ll make prints. Paul mentioned that they have a self-serve kiosk but that it can actually be faster sometimes to just go up to the counter — either way, it only takes about an hour or less.
dotPhoto’s prices were some of the best that I could find online (such as $2 8x10s, if they’re running a special), so I had a general idea of what Sam’s prices should be. So, I was pleased to hear that their 8x10s are regularly just $2 — and that’s especially tempting considering that it’s only an hour for processing (as opposed to at least a few days with online print shops).
Paul also mentioned Dry Creek Photo which has professional-printer “profiles”. As I understand it, you can download a profile specific to the digital printer that Sam’s Club or other processors use. Then, you can adjust your image on your screen at home, “print to” the profile (I’m guessing that it’s a faux printer driver) and then take that file to Sam’s Club. And, since all color correction was done on your local box, you can decline color correction on their end.
Being that Sam’s Club takes pride in their low prices, I do have my doubts about all this ;). But, at $2 per 8x10, I think ’ll give it a try. And, if it doesn’t turn out how I’d like, I’ll just go back to dotPhoto.