Who has the best online photo's part 1

So we had a fair few photos to get developed. Yes I'm still partially analog especially when it comes to photos's. More importantly so is Granny and a host of others. So with a plenty of photo's to develop and I decided to give online developing a try. Its kind of a gradual progression, since Xtravision shut up shop locally its been Screenclick.com.

I ended up trying 3 different providers. Snapfish, Photobox and Aldi

I wanted 6x4 prints. Aldi don't do 6x4 but the others do. So I divided my 150 snaps in 3 and went ahead. The experience was interesting to say the least. Photobox and Snapfish use java tools to help you upload as well as a local tool you install. Aldi gets you to download an application. I found the Aldi application a pain. It was incredibly user unfriendly and I ended up downloading two differnet applications and visiting the site at least 3 times to figure out what was going on. That said once it was installed and running it seemed quite straighforward to use. Oh they offer a discount on the first set of orders but unlike the others the cupon comes via email after you register so I missed out on that for the first order. Like all of them it depends as to whether I will order again or not.

The process is very similar in the case of all three. Upload, review, order the size and go ahead.

Estimated 1-2 days to process and a few more days to deliver. Sounds OK. All confirmed the order and all confirmed the processing within 24 hours (one at 4am in the morning).

Anyway I was delighted to see the Snapfish envelope when I arrived home the other day. First through the door. Delighted until I opened the envelope. The first disappointment was the size. Not 6x4 as ordered but 5.something x4 and the slightly smaller size (which is what Aldi will deliver is not great). What was worse was the quality of the photos. They were universally dreadful. Lets be blunt. This is the worst set of photos I have ever received with a digital camera. They all had a terribly washed out look to them.  Its very hard to put my finger on but there is a serious quality problem. My wife agrees. They are not the same as the original digital prints and my only conclusion is that I will not be using Snapfish again. For comparison purposes I'm going to get the set of 50 reprinted using foto.com to see if there is a noticable difference (particularly as they both use Kodak paper).

So we await the Aldi and Photobox prints with baited breath.

The photos were created with a Canon Powershot S5IS in case anyone is interested