Digital Photography - Next Wave

by Bob Seidel

Last week I did my column on the current crop of PC printers. I did briefly discuss dye sublimation printers intended for printing high quality photographs on your PC. But, this week I found an alternative that may be very attractive. Also, my tax refund burned a hole my pocket and forced me to spend it. So, here is the latest on the digital photography front.

There is now an alternative to printing photo quality prints on your PC. Internet services are available that will do that for you for a small fee. They are fairly simple to use - you upload your pictures to their website, where you can permanently store and organize them into folders and allow friends to view them if you wish. All this so far is free. Once they are on the photo website, you can use tools for photo editing, including cropping the image to specific sizes (4" x 6", 5" x 7", etc.).

You can then order prints online. This is where the magic comes in. These photo sites have equipment that can take a standard digital photo and turn it into a print so good that you cannot tell that it was taken with a digital camera. The results of my testing were so outstanding that I was just blown away by the quality. You especially see this in straight lines that are not perfectly horizontal or vertical - normally you would see pixelation or "jaggies" in a digital picture. I purposely selected a photo of me against a venetian blind - the results: no visible jaggies. Since this photos are printed on regular photo paper, they look and feel just like normal photos. The prints are mailed back to you, just as if you had sent in a roll of film in for processing.

There are a few competing digital photo labs to choose from. I experimented with Ofoto, which claims that it has the best image quality. Other labs are Kodak, PhotoAccess, PhotoWorks, and Shutterfly. Some services offer free prints as a test.

The costs are not bad. Although it would seem like printing on your PC is free, it is actually not because of the cost of the consumables (paper and ink). These costs will vary per your printer, but I would estimate that the fees charged by these photo services are close to what it would cost you to print it yourself. Ofoto charges $.49 for a 4 x 6, $.99 for a 5 x 7 and on up. Shipping is $1.49 for up to 20 prints and $2.49 for up to 50 prints. They also offer wallet size photos and specialty photos with borders, greeting cards, etc. The service is fast - I uploaded my photos on a Sunday evening and received them in the mail on Wednesday.

You can find Ofoto at www.ofoto.com, Kodak at www.kodak.com (click on Share to get to Photo Center), PhotoAccess at www.photoaccess.com, PhotoWorks at www.photoworks.com and Shutterfly at www.shutterfly.com.

Now on to spending money. I did comment in my yearly predictions column that prices on digital cameras would stay fairly stable. They do seem to be dropping a bit, and there are now more low-end cameras with the current 3.3 megapixel image "standard". I also predicted more activity on the "prosumer" cameras - cameras meant for the low-end professional or high-end consumer. I really wanted a more serious camera than my Kodak - I wanted all the manual features. So, I broke down and bought an Olympus E-10 digital SLR. More on this camera later, but the results are excellent. This camera has a 4.1 megapixel image, is a true SLR, and allows complete manual control if you want it, including ISO and white balance selection. You can also get an excellent true flash attachment (hot shoe) for it. I have only taken some test shots, but so far "Wow!". More later.

(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).