FuturePhoto 4X6 for 29¢ until Jan 7

[slc95]

Just noticed this at FuturePhoto.ca and didn't see it listed here. FuturePhoto has 4X6 prints for 29¢ until January 7. This promo has been on since Dec. 10.

I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the FS prints compared to Walmart, the only other online print place I've ordered from. The paper and colour are much higher quality when comparing the same pictures. The FS prints almost (but not quite) rival Japan camera prints, although I haven't used Japan's online system.

[bluetroll]

costco is 19c buddy.

[slc95]

Sure, that's all great if you have a Costco near you, buddy. Plus from what I understand, Costco prints aren't as nice.

[hoiwai]

Sure, that's all great if you have a Costco near you, buddy. Plus from what I understand, Costco prints aren't as nice.

Costco's definitely aren't as nice. Good deal. Thanks :)

[Roninvancouver]

slc95, thanks for the heads up. F shop photos are the best avaialable. they use a 1/4 million dollar system which uses lasers for colour accuracy and print quality. totally radical and leading edge, blows costco out of the water...unless you do not care about colour quality :)

that price is about 25-30% off their regular price..cheers. also free pick up at fshop stores...

[jerryhung]

SnapFish is your answer to CHEAP CHEAP photo prints (like 6 cents each, Kodak Matte paper)

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/showthread.php?t=120700

You won't see 50+ FREE Prints from any Canadian photo sites

[Mint]

Another thumbs up for FS prints. I've used FS for all my prints and they always came out great.

[AEmgee]

Additional 20% off with Entertainment coupon too!

[bestjsg]

Additional 20% off with Entertainment coupon too!

wow...what is the entertainment coupon, can you please post it out?

[mark_in_2k]

Walmart also offer great picture quality at 25¢ each.

I've used both FS and Walmart and the quality is about the same.

[royaljelly]

I've developed identical photos at FS, Costco, Walmart, Blacks and Loblaws all in a direct comparison test from my Nikon D70. The main reason I believe that most people on this forum prefer FS is that they tend to increase the color saturation (much like they do at Blacks), thus giving the appearance of a "better" photo to most eyes of amateurs. Some say they use better paper, but if the colors are already blown out, what's the point?

Even though I had to pay an extra membership fee for Costco, I still find their photo development to be the best in quality. They also have white border/borderless, and matte or glossy options for 4x6 prints (not for the bigger enlargements though). Their colors are much more accurately reproduced, excellent sharpness, and they don't incorrectly crop/adjust my photo like they did at FS (even though I resize all my pics to fit the 4:6 ratio).

Costco 1 hr 4x6 reprints are 18cents, 8x10 is $1.99 (48hr), I forget what their 5x7 price is. My next test is to make a 12x18 photo from my recent trip to China (the great wall), that'll be a good test of the 6Mpix camera's resolution.

[Hugh Jass]

I've tried them all and find Shoppers @ 29¢ each to be the best. I suppose it's personal opinions
as to which look better.

[Avenger]

I have never been disappointed with FS. Costco does terrible quality in comparison :(

[Quick_lude]

royaljelly-
do you do your own colour touchups and resizing before submitting to Costco? Will they take Photoshop files or would I need to save them as gif/jpeg?

[WalnutCrunch]

I've developed identical photos at FS, Costco, Walmart, Blacks and Loblaws all in a direct comparison test from my Nikon D70. The main reason I believe that most people on this forum prefer FS is that they tend to increase the color saturation (much like they do at Blacks), thus giving the appearance of a "better" photo to most eyes of amateurs. Some say they use better paper, but if the colors are already blown out, what's the point?


I have several FS prints in front of me and some from other labs (London Drugs, Lens and Shutter). IMO, the FS ones have the best colours while the others are quite saturated; everybody looks like they have a bad sun tan. The FS photos are much sharper as well; they're free of any strange colour casts and are printed on thick Kodak Royal paper.

It might depend on the lab location, but the FS in Downtown Vancouver has never let me down. I usually postprocess my photos myself and make a comment to FS to print them as-is. I think you can tell if they've tinkered with it by the numbers on the back of the print... there should be 4 pairs of 0's if they were printed as-is (AFAIK this is what the numbers mean).

And the odd time that a print comes out poorly (bad calibration, etc), just one phone call will resubmit the order and they're ready in an hour or two.

[Doug]

I get mine done at the Kodak machine at Zehrs (The one where you pick up your pictures in 24hours) for 25¢ each, and they look GREAT. :)

[5hole]

FS may have a gajillion dollar machine, but that doesn't seem to help them deliver prints on time. 8 days! That's right, it took them 8 days to get my prints to the local FS. It may have been longer if I didn't stop by the store becuse the useless nits didn't bother sending me an email to let me know that they were ready! In addition to that, either the online cropping mechanism or the person printing at the lab are useless tools. They sent the prints as they appeared in the raw jpg! Incompetence. I'll give zehrs.ca a shot, next.

<ESC>

[slc95]

I've found delivery time to be pretty good...took 2 days and I ordered them at around 7pm each time. Not sure if it has anything to do with it being a new FS in Belleville or being so close to Toronto.

I do have to echo that I never did get an email saying they were ready, however I regularly checked the link to check on the order status.

I've decided since starting this link that I'm going to try ordering 5 of the exact same prints from Costco, Walmart, FS, Japan Camera and Loblaws, seeing as they seem to be the most popular Canadian developers with online ordering (except Costco, of course, although that may change once Costco.ca is up).

I will post the results of my findings to RFD for everyone once I get them in and I will make scans of all the photos for comparison. The scans will just be comparative, I know, but it will give an idea of the difference between all the pictures. Does this sound like a good plan? It won't be done until sometime into the new year.

[Mint]

Additional 20% off with Entertainment coupon too!

Hi Aemgee,

is that entertainment coupon a generic one? or is it a use once only coupon. 20% off would make it pretty sweet $0.23 :D

[pinkyroo]

I really like the loblaws prints and the fact I can pick up at the store. I hate dealing with FS. I have two orders into snapfish and I fully expect my alliances to change...

pinky

[PCDawg]

I used Futureshop and there prints(remember those i think it was 80% off deal??) r very good....i've tried Walmart as they had pretty good prices and havent looked back..

$0.25 and Kodak paper...Walmart is the way 2 go.....

[royaljelly]

royaljelly-
do you do your own colour touchups and resizing before submitting to Costco? Will they take Photoshop files or would I need to save them as gif/jpeg?

I'm starting to use more RAW images now, since I find that I get much better sharpness and color control even if I screw up my camera settings (white balance, etc). My adjustments are usually this order:

Loadup in Photoshop CS, slight cropping of the ratio according to the photo size I want (never reduce the picture resolution though), adjust levels & white balance, color sats/hues, unsharp mask (if any needed, I rarely use if for prints), save as the highest quality jpg possible, burn onto a cd and bring it into Costco. I doubt that their machines would be able to read Photoshop's PSD files (if that's the ones you're referring to). I might try a TIFF file next time at Costco, since that seems to be the next best format without any of the jpg compression artifacts.

I tried Sam's Club too (the one on Hwy & Bayview), and they were just awful. I tested out 2 different walmart's and got very different results (the one in Agincourt was great, the Major Mac one sucked). My guess it that even different labs amongst the same store chains will give you varying picture quality (I've read in the past about this problem with Futureshop too). The Costco that I'm using is the one on Woodbine near Hwy 7 in Markham.

In the end, it's all very subjective, and the best test is to do 1-2 reprints at the stores most convenient for your location.

[Quick_lude]

Thank you.. I'll probably do a test run with Costco, FS and Walmart, same pictures, formats, etc. Then I'll pick the one I feel gave me the best pics.

[AEmgee]

Hi Aemgee,

is that entertainment coupon a generic one? or is it a use once only coupon. 20% off would make it pretty sweet $0.23 :D

One time use. B&M only. There are 2 coupons in the Vancouver Entertainment book.

[ghettogal]

I've decided since starting this link that I'm going to try ordering 5 of the exact same prints from Costco, Walmart, FS, Japan Camera and Loblaws, seeing as they seem to be the most popular Canadian developers with online ordering (except Costco, of course, although that may change once Costco.ca is up).


so what was your finding to your experiment?

[Quick_lude]

I've sent my pics to Snapfish, FS, Walmart and Costco. I'll have them all except for Snapfish by Thursday night and will post my amateur opinions. :)

[mystique]

Additional 20% off with Entertainment coupon too!

I have a 2005 Vancouver <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=95 target=_blank>Entertainment book</a>, but I don't see a coupon for Futurephoto in there.

[dazz]

not a good deal at all. A lot of stores charge this price and some even offer 5-20 for free

boo

[kevinsit]

So far FS works best for me. I usually pick up my prints from the store on Robson/Granville, and I don't have any problem with it. Fast service with all the email notifications. So far I'm pretty impressed with their service.

[slippy]

well i just put in an order for a bunch of my pics. hope they turn out alright. i've only previously had prints done at rogersphoto, and they turned out fine

[AzNCrAzYcOoLeR]

anyone use staples service @ staplesphoto.ca ?

[Quick_lude]

I got my pics back tonight. So far the winner is

Future shop - best quality, colours and detail.

Costco - second but colours off, especially when compared to FS

Walmart -definite third.

Still waiting for Snapfish.

[eBuddy]

What about the other 25¢ labs such as Shoppers Drug Mart?