Hardly Normal (aka Harvey Norman) printing review

[ajo43]

I have a canon bubble jet i560 at home and while the resolution is great i have just not been able to get the skin tones right.

So I decided to try the Harvey Norman printing service in Martin Place in the city. Here's my impression:

- this service is popular. If you want to go at lunch then expect to wait 15 minutes just to upload your photos. And don't expect them right away. At least a 1 hour wait
- interface - seemed pretty good. Takes all kinds of memory cards and is very easy for you to select your photos. I wouldn't dream of using their post processing options but for some the quick b&w function may be useful
- cost - 40c a photo for 6x4 seems reasonable to me. Anything bigger and the cost is far more expensive. 5 x 7 was about $7 and A3 size is $50!!
- result - the print is on fuji paper using a fuji system (I'm not sure the technical spec of the system). I must say i was very impressed. The skin tones were much more realistic than what I can get off my bubble jet and the resolution was very good (although I was only doing 6x4 shots). I would like to try bigger prints but the cost was just too much.

So in summary if you want to print off a bunch of 6x4 shots and you are not in a big rush I would recommend this service. At 40c a shot I think it probably compares with the price of printing at home on a bubble jet with the prices of ink and paper.

Give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised.

[Geoff]

I agree - I use my local HN outlet to print most of my stuff too, just had some 5x7 stuff done in the last few days, very impressed too. That's my 2 cents worth...by the way - the 5x7cm was only 10cents more per copy so maybe the city significantly bump their prices up..I did mine at HN Balgowlah. I also got a cheap frame (pays to ask for best price)...the sticker said $29.95..and he gave it to me at 'cost' $18!! I did buy my D70 there (no..I didn't no birdy at this stage!)...Cheers guys,


Geoff
http://www.pbase.com/d70geoff

[ajo43]

Maybe I had the pricing wrong for the 5x7 I'll have to check on Monday.

Does anyone notice that the format that our D70 produce photos at is the same as the old 35mm cameras whereas all the new P&S digitals have different size prints?

I hope this doesn't mean that in the future we have to crop all our photos to print on a new 'standard' size.

[Nnnnsic]

A3 is $50?
Crikey.

Try Photoking for more professional prices and more professional quality.

[MATT]

Its good to here that the image is the same size as a 35mm. I have a s5000 fuji at the moment and its images appear nearly square. So when you print them on 6x4 they crop teribly.

On the HN printing, I have used the fuji center in my local town, the results are excellent. A lot better than ,my i850 cannon printer. I have yet to try the service of national or similar, but am curious as to their quality.

The other thing is how long will they last? My printed ones last about 8mnths on the fridge and 35mm film photos last forever!

MATT

[Nnnnsic]

Your i850 shouldn't be giving you that bad a result... my i865 has excellent results...

[MATT]

I woundnt say my i850 is terrible but its not as good as the fuji printing centre.

MATT

[Onyx]

The Fuji machines Hardly Normal uses IIRC are supposedly good. The other alternative some places use are Afga machines. I had a bad experience with one place using Fuji's, the skin tones were too warm/pink. So out of personal preference I've stuck with the Afga's. I might give the fuji a try again, see if it was just a once off bad luck thing or it's consistent.

Ajo43 - the skin tones not being right on your home printer is mostly likely a paper issue. I found that with Kodaks loaded in my canon it's terrible for skin. All other colours seems fine, but skin is a problem. Canon's photo paper plus glossy is my home printing staple - it produces astonding results considering the $100 purchase price of my i455.

[ajo43]

Thanks for the tip Onyx.

Can you tell me if you have made any adjustments to the printer profile or if you just click Glossy Photo Paper Plus and High Quality?

Thkx

[Onyx]

No, I haven't messed with changing printer profiles. I use Canon's easy photo print software - cos I don't know how to otherwise.

Basically, once the images are prepped in photoshop and saved, I open up the easy photo print program and select the appropriate choices there (paper media, paper sizes, etc).

I tried a pack of Kodak Ultima once - because they were on special. It recommended selecting glossy photo paper for my printer, and I did... but I didn't like the results. I probably could have experimented more and tweaked the settings, but ink is relatively expensive that I gave away the paper and stuck with what I know works consistently - Canon paper.