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Kodak photo printing kiosk
These Kodak printing machines have been popping up recently -- one in
my local drugstore, and another at the nearby (35 miles away) Wal-Mart Super Center. I haven't seen anything else written about them, so I thought I'd share my experiences. First, where am I coming from? For a few years I've used a Canon i560 inkjet printer which was inexpensive when new and is now becoming rather dated. I used it mainly for printing text and web pages, rarely for prints. The few prints I ever made using generic paper and third-party (cheap) inks seemed okay, but I wasn't looking at them critically -- just once in a blue moon printing up a snapshot or two for the relatives. Recently I got my new DSLR and started thinking more seriously about prints. I printed a 8x10 test photo using the generic ink and paper, but I was disgusted by the poor color rendition. I then sprung for some genuine Canon paper and inks and tried again with the same image. The result was considerably better, but still considerably different from what I saw on my computer monitor. Buying a newer and better printer was an option, but realistically. . . How many prints do I expect to make? I decided to give the Kodak machine a test. I picked out 11 nice photos from my library and stored them on a USB flash drive, and today I took them back to the drug store. The kiosk has slots where you can insert just about any kind of media: 3.5" floppy disks, CD-Rs, many different kinds of flash cards, and USB drives. (It even has a scanner, so you can scan prints and make new prints from them.) My first attempt to use the machine was a failure -- it refused to read my flash drive, even though it works perfectly on all my computers here. I went home and copied all the images onto a SD card and then went back to give it another try. This time it was able to read my images, and I was in business. The touch screen interfacce is easy to use, though a bit slow. Soon I had the machine churning out 4x6 prints. It also is able to make 5x7 and 8x10 prints, which is probably the next thing I'll try. I'm very happy with the results. The prints look sharp, and the colors are much more accurate than my inkjet printer. On my reference photo the colors are close to what I see on my monitor. Even with a magnifying glass I can't see any problems worthy of mention, as contrasted against the grainy texture and occasional "banding" effects from my i560. An important point to make is that I live in a small town which has *never* had any kind of film processing lab. Film always had to be shipped out for processing, then wait a week or more for prints to come back. From a convenience standpoint, this digital kiosk puts us a huge leap beyond where we were before. -- Tony Belding, Hamilton Texas |
#2
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
Tony Belding wrote:
The touch screen interfacce is easy to use, though a bit slow. Once I was going to use one, but the person in front of me was loading photos from a 1GB memory card, and they said that it was about 50% through, and they had already been waiting 15 minutes or so. That was ridiculous. An important point to make is that I live in a small town which has *never* had any kind of film processing lab. Film always had to be shipped out for processing, then wait a week or more for prints to come back. From a convenience standpoint, this digital kiosk puts us a huge leap beyond where we were before. many places have automated 1 hr lab prints, where you upload the files on the internet, and they print them in an hour. But I guess if your small town doesn't have those, then the photo kiosk is the next best. |
#3
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
i went to three of those machines. none of them would read my usb
drive. everything else reads it. the ritz system sitting next to the kodak did. i want to ask kodak about it, but the links for email on their website loop back around to each other or come up with page not found. did not see any appropriate phone nums. Tony Belding wrote: These Kodak printing machines have been popping up recently -- one in my local drugstore, and another at the nearby (35 miles away) Wal-Mart Super Center. I haven't seen anything else written about them, so I thought I'd share my experiences. First, where am I coming from? For a few years I've used a Canon i560 inkjet printer which was inexpensive when new and is now becoming rather dated. I used it mainly for printing text and web pages, rarely for prints. The few prints I ever made using generic paper and third-party (cheap) inks seemed okay, but I wasn't looking at them critically -- just once in a blue moon printing up a snapshot or two for the relatives. Recently I got my new DSLR and started thinking more seriously about prints. I printed a 8x10 test photo using the generic ink and paper, but I was disgusted by the poor color rendition. I then sprung for some genuine Canon paper and inks and tried again with the same image. The result was considerably better, but still considerably different from what I saw on my computer monitor. Buying a newer and better printer was an option, but realistically. . . How many prints do I expect to make? I decided to give the Kodak machine a test. I picked out 11 nice photos from my library and stored them on a USB flash drive, and today I took them back to the drug store. The kiosk has slots where you can insert just about any kind of media: 3.5" floppy disks, CD-Rs, many different kinds of flash cards, and USB drives. (It even has a scanner, so you can scan prints and make new prints from them.) My first attempt to use the machine was a failure -- it refused to read my flash drive, even though it works perfectly on all my computers here. I went home and copied all the images onto a SD card and then went back to give it another try. This time it was able to read my images, and I was in business. The touch screen interfacce is easy to use, though a bit slow. Soon I had the machine churning out 4x6 prints. It also is able to make 5x7 and 8x10 prints, which is probably the next thing I'll try. I'm very happy with the results. The prints look sharp, and the colors are much more accurate than my inkjet printer. On my reference photo the colors are close to what I see on my monitor. Even with a magnifying glass I can't see any problems worthy of mention, as contrasted against the grainy texture and occasional "banding" effects from my i560. An important point to make is that I live in a small town which has *never* had any kind of film processing lab. Film always had to be shipped out for processing, then wait a week or more for prints to come back. From a convenience standpoint, this digital kiosk puts us a huge leap beyond where we were before. -- Tony Belding, Hamilton Texas |
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
On 2007-01-03 15:39:51 -0600, "Bucky" said:
Once I was going to use one, but the person in front of me was loading photos from a 1GB memory card, and they said that it was about 50% through, and they had already been waiting 15 minutes or so. That was ridiculous. When I wrote that it was slow, I was referring to the user interface. Going through the various options, selecting photos and setting enlargement sizes can take a while. The time it took to read images from my SD card was not an issue, I don't think it was more than a few seconds. (But as noted before, I only had 11 photos on it today, so it wasn't much of a test in that regard.) -- Tony Belding, Hamilton Texas |
#5
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
Tony Belding wrote:
These Kodak printing machines have been popping up recently -- one in my local drugstore, and another at the nearby (35 miles away) Wal-Mart Super Center. I haven't seen anything else written about them, so I thought I'd share my experiences. First, where am I coming from? For a few years I've used a Canon i560 inkjet printer which was inexpensive when new and is now becoming rather dated. I used it mainly for printing text and web pages, rarely for prints. The few prints I ever made using generic paper and third-party (cheap) inks seemed okay, but I wasn't looking at them critically -- just once in a blue moon printing up a snapshot or two for the relatives. Recently I got my new DSLR and started thinking more seriously about prints. I printed a 8x10 test photo using the generic ink and paper, but I was disgusted by the poor color rendition. I then sprung for some genuine Canon paper and inks and tried again with the same image. The result was considerably better, but still considerably different from what I saw on my computer monitor. Buying a newer and better printer was an option, but realistically. . . How many prints do I expect to make? I decided to give the Kodak machine a test. I picked out 11 nice photos from my library and stored them on a USB flash drive, and today I took them back to the drug store. The kiosk has slots where you can insert just about any kind of media: 3.5" floppy disks, CD-Rs, many different kinds of flash cards, and USB drives. (It even has a scanner, so you can scan prints and make new prints from them.) My first attempt to use the machine was a failure -- it refused to read my flash drive, even though it works perfectly on all my computers here. I went home and copied all the images onto a SD card and then went back to give it another try. This time it was able to read my images, and I was in business. The touch screen interfacce is easy to use, though a bit slow. Soon I had the machine churning out 4x6 prints. It also is able to make 5x7 and 8x10 prints, which is probably the next thing I'll try. I'm very happy with the results. The prints look sharp, and the colors are much more accurate than my inkjet printer. On my reference photo the colors are close to what I see on my monitor. Even with a magnifying glass I can't see any problems worthy of mention, as contrasted against the grainy texture and occasional "banding" effects from my i560. An important point to make is that I live in a small town which has *never* had any kind of film processing lab. Film always had to be shipped out for processing, then wait a week or more for prints to come back. From a convenience standpoint, this digital kiosk puts us a huge leap beyond where we were before. I've tended to use the kiosk that just does a 4x6 for 29c. The one I use doesn't have a usb, I use cf card I have as a spare. Quality is only slightly less the www.yorkphoto.com. I was looking at some prints from an hp photo printer which makes 4x6 or 5x7. Very nice but price per print is higher than 29c. As far as I can tell, quality from Walgreen over the counter (while you wait for a single 8x10), 4x6 kiosk or the one you are talking about are very similar. My break even on price vs yorkphoto is if greater than 20 prints. Dave Cohen Dave Cohen |
#6
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
nlehrer wrote:
i want to ask kodak about it, but the links for email on their website loop back around to each other or come up with page not found. did not see any appropriate phone nums. don't know if these phone numbers are relevant for the kiosk, but here are some Kodak #s: Kodak 800-235-6325 Press #. Kodak Gallery (Ofoto) 800-360-9098 Say "agent." http://www.gethuman.com/us/ |
#7
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
On January 03 2007, "Bucky" wrote:
many places have automated 1 hr lab prints, where you upload the files on the internet, and they print them in an hour. But I guess if your small town doesn't have those, then the photo kiosk is the next best. Upload to mpix.com and they deliver to your door. Excellent quality prints no matter what size town you live in. -- Carl Miller www.carlmillerphotos.com |
#8
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
Tony Belding wrote:
These Kodak printing machines have been popping up recently -- one in my local drugstore, and another at the nearby (35 miles away) Wal-Mart Super Center. I haven't seen anything else written about them, so I thought I'd share my experiences. First, where am I coming from? For a few years I've used a Canon i560 inkjet printer which was inexpensive when new and is now becoming rather dated. I used it mainly for printing text and web pages, rarely for prints. The few prints I ever made using generic paper and third-party (cheap) inks seemed okay, but I wasn't looking at them critically -- just once in a blue moon printing up a snapshot or two for the relatives. Recently I got my new DSLR and started thinking more seriously about prints. I printed a 8x10 test photo using the generic ink and paper, but I was disgusted by the poor color rendition. I then sprung for some genuine Canon paper and inks and tried again with the same image. The result was considerably better, but still considerably different from what I saw on my computer monitor. Buying a newer and better printer was an option, but realistically. . . How many prints do I expect to make? I decided to give the Kodak machine a test. I picked out 11 nice photos from my library and stored them on a USB flash drive, and today I took them back to the drug store. The kiosk has slots where you can insert just about any kind of media: 3.5" floppy disks, CD-Rs, many different kinds of flash cards, and USB drives. (It even has a scanner, so you can scan prints and make new prints from them.) My first attempt to use the machine was a failure -- it refused to read my flash drive, even though it works perfectly on all my computers here. I went home and copied all the images onto a SD card and then went back to give it another try. This time it was able to read my images, and I was in business. The touch screen interfacce is easy to use, though a bit slow. Soon I had the machine churning out 4x6 prints. It also is able to make 5x7 and 8x10 prints, which is probably the next thing I'll try. I'm very happy with the results. The prints look sharp, and the colors are much more accurate than my inkjet printer. On my reference photo the colors are close to what I see on my monitor. Even with a magnifying glass I can't see any problems worthy of mention, as contrasted against the grainy texture and occasional "banding" effects from my i560. An important point to make is that I live in a small town which has *never* had any kind of film processing lab. Film always had to be shipped out for processing, then wait a week or more for prints to come back. From a convenience standpoint, this digital kiosk puts us a huge leap beyond where we were before. You mentioned a Wal-Mart. Have you tried printing the pictures on their 1hr machine? Some stores produce excellent results, others not so good. Also, some of the online places produce excellent prints up to poster size for reasonable prices. |
#9
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Kodak photo printing kiosk
Tony Belding wrote:
edited, for brevity I decided to give the Kodak machine a test. I picked out 11 nice photos from my library and stored them on a USB flash drive, and today I took them back to the drug store. The kiosk has slots where you can insert just about any kind of media: 3.5" floppy disks, CD-Rs, many different kinds of flash cards, and USB drives. (It even has a scanner, so you can scan prints and make new prints from them.) My first attempt to use the machine was a failure -- it refused to read my flash drive, even though it works perfectly on all my computers here. I went home and copied all the images onto a SD card and then went back to give it another try. This time it was able to read my images, and I was in business. The touch screen interfacce is easy to use, though a bit slow. Soon I had the machine churning out 4x6 prints. It also is able to make 5x7 and 8x10 prints, which is probably the next thing I'll try. I'm very happy with the results. The prints look sharp, and the colors are much more accurate than my inkjet printer. On my reference photo the colors are close to what I see on my monitor. Even with a magnifying glass I can't see any problems worthy of mention, as contrasted against the grainy texture and occasional "banding" effects from my i560. edited Hello, Tony: I've used a Kodak kiosk (at Wal-Mart), occasionally, also; it did an excellent job, every time. Still, my humble Epson "Stylus Photo 825" inkjet can match Kodak's commercial contraption. Its 4"x6" glossy prints are superbly sharp and awfully attractive, with vibrant and accurate colors. Not bad, at all, for a $70 device! Cordially, John Turco |
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