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Old December 23rd 04, 10:58 AM
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Kibo informs me that John stated that:

Please I ask only those who have a college degree in a field relevent to this
question or professional photographers answer. Sorry I have to be so strict,
but I need advice from people who know what they are talking about. But if
you
know what your talking about and do not have a degree go ahead and answer, but
cite your sources, thanks...


*snort* On Usenet? - Good luck!

Question
Will a home photo printer produce the same long term results as the 1 hour
photo lab? When I mean long term, I mean a photo lasting a number of years
without fade. My family purchased a cute little photo printer to go with our
Sony digital camera that is 5-6MP MP I believe. The pictures look just as
good
as a 35mm, but I wonder if they will last 5-10 years.


The short answer is 'no'. The dye+paper used in most inkjets has a short
lifespan, even when protected from light & the atmosphere. If you want
your prints to last more than a year or two, you need to print via
conventional photo paper (ie; a pro lab), or at least use a high end
pigment-based inkjet.

On the other hand I can
go to a photo lab and insert a Memory Stick, pro, SD, mini SD, XD, San Disk,
CD/DVD, CF, or a floppy disk into one of the machines an receive goodprints
within the hour. Dont tell me that the little photo printing machine that we
have is as quality as the 1 hour photo labs. Because they both look the same,
there has to be a huge price difference between the home machine and the
professional machines.


Most likely, yes.
I could be wrong about this, but I suspect that most photo kiosks use
dye-sub printers, rather than conventional (wet process) printing on
true photographic paper, like 1 hour labs. Both of these technologies
are different from home inkjets, BTW.

I've attempted to persuade my family not to completely dump their 35mm cameras
and the idea of biringing their camera into a photo lab to have the pictures
printed, but they do not listen. I personally own a Vivitar camera that uses
SD cards and the 1 hour lab produces good results. But their photo machine
only takes memory stick, bummer!!


That's pretty shortsighted of them. My local service station recently
aquired a photo kiosk, & it takes CDROMs as well as a wide variety of
memory cards. I find it extremely convenient (& cheap!) for traditional
sized photos to give to relatives & friends. I was also very pleasantly
surprised to find that the output quality is excellent for the price, &
the machine doesn't screw around with the colour or tonal balance of my
images.

--
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. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
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