Out of date costs in the PopPhoto article. September issue just arrived
today with comparisons of costs, pros and cons for various methods. Cost
comparison of inkjet vs. discount retailer:
4x6 - $0.25-0.40 $0.19-0.39
5x7 - $0.55-0.75 $0.49-0.79
8x10 - $0.75-1.50 $2.99-3.30
Unfortunately, they don't say how many images per sheet of paper they
used in their calculations. You can't print four 4x6s on an 8.5x11
sheet, but you can print four typical digital camera 4:3 ratio images at
4x5.3" on one sheet on most printers and need go only very slightly
below 4" to do it on any printer. Thus the cost depends on whether it is
35mm or DC images. For album style pages, double sided photo paper gets
you 8 images for the price of one sheet.
I don't use the really expensive paper for everyday 4xX prints. I've
been using Epson Photo Paper, currently $19.95 for 120 sheets at Costco.
Some of my 8x10s on this paper have been hanging where they get a lot of
direct sun and open to the air for a couple of years with no noticable
deterioration. I've never figured out my ink cost, but paper is less
than 17 cents a sheet.
I've been getting my film developed and scanned without any prints. I
find viewing the scans on the screen much better than standard 4x6
prints for enjoying/evaluating the images. And that way, no matter how I
eventually print them or have them printed, I only pay for the ones I
really want, and usually as something larger than 4x6. What with
bracketing and those oh so rare shots where I am not near perfect ;-) ,
the number I want to print are way fewer than the ones I take. The
scanning does cost, develop and scan is $18.50 for 36-38 exposures for
both 533x800 and 2000x3000 pixel scans of very good quality. I could
scan them myself at 2720dpi instead of 2000, but that's time consuming
and not worth the tiny difference for the web or prints up to 8x10 for
almost all images.
Of course, I still have the negatives for long term storage and possible
future scanning at higher resolutions.
Moose
Scott Gomez wrote:
I'll stick by my assessment. For the record, I was comparing home printing of a
series of prints from negatives on a home inkjet to the cost of getting that
same series of prints produced on regular photographic paper at a place like
Costco. See here for an article that might clarify:
http://www.popularphotography.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=487
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