Digital Photo Prints (info)

Reviews and Ratings of various digital photo online print services for digital camera pictures.

WHO AM I...

I am someone like you, looking for the best deal on ordering digital camera prints online. I created this web site to share information and encourage competition among the various companies, which will drive down prices for you and me. Competition is good - as more web sites offer photo print services, the prices keep dropping. But more competition also means more confusion for the consumer and its hard for each person to make these comparisons on their own. This site is intended to make it easier for you to select the photo print service that is right for you.

Some of these companies pay me a referral for each person that goes through my site to sign up with them. So, if you use the links here it will help support this site, which means I am more likely to keep the information up-to-date and grow the amount of information here. You can also support this site but telling your family & friends about it, or linking to it from your own web pages. Thanks and enjoy.

REQUIREMENTS...

To be listed on this site, a digital photo online print service must have:

no sign-up fee
no usage fees (except Smugmug)
an introductory offer for new members such as free prints or free trial period
good quality prints (we'll do a blind quality comparison later)
reasonable prices

So, you can rest assured they each have their charm.

THE GOOD LIST

So here's the deal. I got plenty of advice. Am I an expert? No. But I've order hundreds (maybe thousands) of digital prints from online stores in the past few years.

Here is my advice on printing the pictures from your digital camera (or any picture you scanned in). You don't want to mess around with your own printer, paper, ink, etc. It can get expensive quickly when you keep running back to the store for more supplies, especially the photo paper. With prices dropping at all the online photo printing sites, save yourself the grief of doing it yourself. You're better off ordering prints online, its more convenient and you get better quality results!! Prices have really come down in the past couple years. The main guys in online photo printing is Shutterfly...

my notes on shutterfly

Kodak EasyShare Galley used to be called Ofoto.com and they are the major competitor to Shutterfly...

And the third one is Snapfish, which beats the big guys prices and has cheap shipping to US or Canada...

Lastly, PhotoWorks are new for online photos, and you might want to check them out too...

No free prints, but a great price: Winkflash is offering new customers 50% off on their first 75 prints. Thats only 6 cents per print! You need to use coupon code WP78FGTY when you sign up. Details here. They have the cheapest shipping rates: only 99 cents for any number of prints.

Not a free service, but a new player: Smugmug is promoting themselves as a "photo-sharing" site with paid subscription that allows you to store your hi-res photos online with no ads. You can also order prints, which is why they are listed on this site. There is a free trial for new customers.

COMPARISON (as of 8/24/05)

Provider Free Prints 4x6 Price Shipping (USA) Shipping (Canada) Sales Tax (States) Total for 25 prints shipped Matte/ Glossy Borders Text on Back Aspect Ratio Prints Proc Time Notes

... The Online Sites with Good Reputation ...

Shutterfly
(notes) 15 29c
24c (100pp)
22c (200pp)
19c (500pp) 1.79 (10)
1.99 (20)
2.49 (30)
4.99 (100) 2.99 (49) CA 9.74+tax /
7.24+tax Both Lots 80 char 1 day They do it all...
Fast & Friendly Site.
Pricing

Kodak EasyShare Gallery(formerly Ofoto) 10 25c (1-99)
19c (100+) 1.49 (10)
1.79 (19)
2.49 (49)
3.99 (75)
4.99 (99)
7.49 (149) 2.99 ALL 8.74+tax /
7.24+tax 1-2 days Pricing

Snapfish 20/
25 12c (1+)
10c (1000) 0.99 (5)
1.48 (15)
1.97 (25) add 1.00 ALL 4.97+tax /
4.47+tax Both Lots ? Not any more? 1-2 days Add 5c/print for Kodak Royal heavy paper (glossy only).
Pricing

PhotoWorks 25 19c ? ? ? 4.75
+shipping
+tax 3.5x5
3.75x5
4.5x6
same price 24 hrs Kinda funny web site. Its geared towards mailing in film.

Winkflash 0 12c 0.99 N/A none 3.99 Both White or None Yes 3.25x5
4x5.3
same price 24 hrs Pricing

Winkflash Canada 0 24c CDN N/A 2.65 CDN ? 8.65+tax CDN

RitzPix 10 code "free4x6" 25c 1.48 (10)
1.97 (20)
2.46 (30)
link N/A ? 8.71+tax 2-3 biz days Pricing

... The El Cheapo Online Sites ...

YorkPhoto 10 10c 0.99 (5)
1.48 (15)
1.97 (25) add 1.00 MD, WV 4.47+tax Both Add 5c/print for Kodak Royal heavy paper (glossy only).
Hi-Res 90 days.
Pricing.

DimePrints 0 10c 1.99 (90) N/A ? 4.49+tax White or None 1 day Bare Bones!

Club Photo 20 19c 1.99 (30)
2.99 (60)
3.99 (90)
etc. add 1.00 ? 6.74+tax Both 4x5.3 4 biz days!

EZ Prints 0 29c ? 7.25++

BonusPrint 0 17c 2.99 2.99 ? 7.24+tax 4x5.3

DotPhoto 30 29c >> 15c
18c (550) 1.79 (10)
1.99 (20)
2.49 (30)
2.99 (50) 2.99 (49)
3.99 (75)
4.99 (100) ? 6.24+tax 1-3 biz days 90 days delete.
Pricing

XP Photo 0 12c 1.49 (~20)
1.99 (~31)
2.49 (~52)
3.99 (~79) 2.89 (52)
3.99 (79)
4.99 (106) ? 4.99+tax Both 60 days delete.
Pricing

PEPhoto 0 9c 2.99 (50)
3.99 (100)
+1.50 proc! ? 6.74+tax 4x5.3 Pricing

PhotoDirect 0 15c 2.99 (50)
4.99 (300) N/A ? 6.74+tax 4x5.3 1 biz day Pricing

PhotoDirect Canada 0 17c CDN N/A 3.99 (50)
5.99 (300)
CDN 8.24+tax CDN 4.x5.3 Pricing

... Stores ...

Costco (San Diego) 20 17c store pickup N/A ALL 4.25+tax 2 hours 8x12 is 1.99
Passport photo 4.99

Wal-Mart 0 19c pickup
15c 1-hour
12c mailed store pickup or variable ALL 4.75+tax

Target (Yahoo) 10 20c pickup
19c mailed store pickup
1.99 (50)
2.99 (100) N/A GA (mail) or ALL 5.00+tax Pricing

CVS 0 29c store pickup N/A ALL 7.25+tax

CONCLUSION

First of all, I recommend to avoid the El Cheapo sites. They generally have slower processing time, less customer service, fewer print options and other products available, and unfriendly web sites. Besides, when you look at the total price for 25 prints, they aren't really any cheaper than some of the "big players".

For the best web site with the best products and the most experience, I recommend (and regularly use) Shutterfly. It really seems like they really know what they are doing, and everybody I know who has used Shutterfly likes them.

However, if you just want to order some cheap prints and don't want to mess with prepaid programs, Winkflash is probably the way to go.

That said, I think Snapfish is the sweet spot in the middle of those extremes. Snapfish just dropped their print price from 19c to 12c and have cheaper shipping than most. My recommendation is to first order the free trial prints to make sure you like the web site and the quality of prints, then purchase the 1000 prepaid prints for $99.99 which have no expiration date. You are then paying 10 cents per print which is the cheapest I have seen ANYWHERE and you get reasonable shipping rates. Plus they have plenty of other products available if you decide you need them.

PRODUCTS

Following are the cameras from Amazon.com that I recommend. Shop around and you'll find Amazon has the lowest prices of reputable online stores. Most of the time they have free shipping and no sales tax to most states. And if you get an Amazon Visa card, you can save 20 bucks off your first purchase and get back 3% of all Amazon purchases.

Sony Cybershot DSCW5 5.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom $295

... ... ...

Canon Powershot SD500 7MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom $474
(Additional battery for SD500)

>>> Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom $340 <<<

Canon Powershot SD300 4MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom $300

Canon Powershot SD200 3.2MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom $240

LINKS

There may be other photo printing sites listed below that I didn't cover in my comparison...

Lastly: If you liked this site, you may want to check out my other "Useful Info" sites:
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