Which labs produce better digital prints?

Which labs in general produce better digital prints?


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robinchee

Member
Which labs in general produce better digital prints? Kodak, Fuji, Konica or others? I know that even amongst the same brands, the labs differ, but I trying to get a feel for which are better in general.
 

Just found out:

When I send for print through fotohub.com:-

If I choose 35mm colorlab (bt timah) it is fuji paper.
If I choose fotohub (OUB centre) it is kodak royal paper!!

And I the colour tone is different (same picture send to these 2 labs)
 

I love the digi prints I get from Colour Lab at Adelphi... and they use Fuji paper! Generally, places I've gone for digital prints that use Fuji paper have been good experiences for me. I tried some prints on Kodak paper at a diff shop once, and had the same set printed at Colour Lab. Despite the Kodak one being cheaper, I still liked the Colour Lab/Fuji print better...

Your mileage may vary. :p
 

Originally posted by Que Lynn
I love the digi prints I get from Colour Lab at Adelphi... and they use Fuji paper! Generally, places I've gone for digital prints that use Fuji paper have been good experiences for me. I tried some prints on Kodak paper at a diff shop once, and had the same set printed at Colour Lab. Despite the Kodak one being cheaper, I still liked the Colour Lab/Fuji print better...

Your mileage may vary. :p

What's the turnover time for colour lab?
 

i personally find the prints from colourlab to be better. they use better paper (fuji archive crystal supreme...or something like that), while, e.g. Soo Kee, uses the non-supreme paper.

Colourlab will also make adjustments to the prints so that they look better, esp for wedding shoots. they will take care to print the skin tones and white gown better.
And yes, colourlab is using Fuji ePic system.
 

Hiee....

I had a long chit chat with the one of the labs @ Adelpi branch and asked the difference between the two...kodak paper and Fuji. He showed me te name card of the shop pinted on the two different paper. Can be seen clearly the "black" is rally black for the Fuji and on the kodak, the black is not really black (reddish tinge).

He also enlightened me that both labs system use two technology to put the image on their photopaper one using - something like flourescent bla bla bla...to chim.....for me...

But the bottom line is, depends on your photo and your choice of output.....some macro work with pitch black background seem to look best on fuji.......and other type of landscapes like Bryce Canyon +grand canyon photos look better on Kodak....

Just a personal thought.......

regards,
me
 

so far colour lab have not fail me.....i print the 20x24 and i like the colour although saturated( may be my monitor not properly caliberated)...
 

Just developed my first digital shots from adelphi's colour lab...
it's GREAT! colour is exactly what i see on the monitor...
i told them not to do any editing... so it's the actual stuff!

only thing is they got their handling fee of 5 bucks...
but for this quality... i dun mind at all!
:D
 

i tried ee ming fuji one, already satisfied and dun think will try another one unless needed... ;)
 

i love fuji crystal archive supreme paper...
if you have the correct color profiles, any lab using fuji frontier machines are good...
i do mine at digipro in marine parade
 

I use 35mm Fotohub along Bukit Timah Road and am very happy with their service. And yes, they do use Fuji Crystal Archive paper.

Regarding why different labs produce different results, I think its more the operator than the machine used itself. While I agree about the difference between fuji and kodak paper, most of the "better" labs "colour-correct" each print and depending on the skill/preference of the person doing the correction, the prints will come out different - even from the same lab/machine... Just my two cents worth... :D
 

i do mine at KT color near hong lim....
 

kweehonjin said:
I use 35mm Fotohub along Bukit Timah Road and am very happy with their service. And yes, they do use Fuji Crystal Archive paper.

I did prints at Fotohub, Raffles Place and they used Kodak paper. :dunno: They did color adjustment for individual pics and the results are pretty good.

Have used KT too and the results on Fuji Crystal Archive supreme are good too.
 

Seem likes Fuji got better credits ... :)
 

mpenza said:
I did prints at Fotohub, Raffles Place and they used Kodak paper. :dunno: They did color adjustment for individual pics and the results are pretty good.


Fotohub at Raffles Place uses the Noritsu exlusively with Kodak Endura. 35mm uses the Fuji Frontier with Crystal Archive, but now they have a Noritsu installed (but use Fuji Crystal Archive with it) alongside the Frontier. You will need to specify which you want.
 

How come Agfa is not in the list?
 

BTW, has anyone compared prints from these labs with inkjet prints?

I had asked a fairly well-known Frontier lab to print some digicam images for me. I sent in a few images -- some were simply resized, while others were resized and enhanced slightly viz colours, sharpness & contrast. I also did a few inkjet prints on my own (using my Canon i950 using Canon Photo Paper Pro) of the same images.

Both my wife and I preferred the inkjet prints -- the colours seemed more natural, while sharpness was comparable to the Frontier prints. Furthermore, images that needed more personal white balance treatment (i.e. beyond a simple Auto Levels -- I suspect the Frontier machine does some form of Auto Levelling of source images), came out with very unnatural colours.

Of course, it's a lot slower and more costly to print using the inkjet, especially at 4R size. Furthermore, the i950 performs best on PPP while results on 3rd party paper are iffy.

But these days, because I enjoy printing pictures as much as taking them, I much prefer to print my own pics.

Well, different strokes for different folks! :)

MW
 

Hi everyone,
You guys shouldn't give fuji so much praise man.. haha
I work at d2 Digital Centre at Peninsula Plaza. It's an AGFA Digital Imaging Shop. Just beside it is Konota (Fuji Digital Imaging Lab).
Unknown to most customers, both of this shops actually belongs to the same boss. Haha..

We have tested the quality between the 2 machines. The Fuji Frontier and the Agfa dLab2.
Most of the time, the dLab2 produces better quality prints as compared to the Frontier. The main reason is that the Frontier always burns colour. It is most obvious is wedding gowns photos. Using the Frontier, all you see is one layer of white while for dLab2, you can get to see the crisps and folds.
As the boss is very particular about quality, he sometimes prints test photos at other labs in Singapore that are using other machines to ensure that his prints are up to standard.

And paper doesn't really come into consideration when using the machine. The AGFA machines uses the Sensatis paper that is quite comparable to the Fuji Crystal Archive superior paper.

If any of you guys would like to know more about the quality and the prices, feel free to email me @ d2_digital_centre@hotmail.com
 

BeN86 said:
Hi everyone,
You guys shouldn't give fuji so much praise man.. haha
I work at d2 Digital Centre at Peninsula Plaza. It's an AGFA Digital Imaging Shop. Just beside it is Konota (Fuji Digital Imaging Lab).
Unknown to most customers, both of this shops actually belongs to the same boss. Haha..

We have tested the quality between the 2 machines. The Fuji Frontier and the Agfa dLab2.
Most of the time, the dLab2 produces better quality prints as compared to the Frontier. The main reason is that the Frontier always burns colour. It is most obvious is wedding gowns photos. Using the Frontier, all you see is one layer of white while for dLab2, you can get to see the crisps and folds.
As the boss is very particular about quality, he sometimes prints test photos at other labs in Singapore that are using other machines to ensure that his prints are up to standard.

And paper doesn't really come into consideration when using the machine. The AGFA machines uses the Sensatis paper that is quite comparable to the Fuji Crystal Archive superior paper.

If any of you guys would like to know more about the quality and the prices, feel free to email me @ d2_digital_centre@hotmail.com

i think the wife is the boss of d2, and hubby, boss of konota - thats what mr kwek told me.

i've tried b&w printing at both places. both used fuji Fuji Crystal Archive superior paper. so far, the konota prints are better. i think it is the man behind the machine - mr kwek.
 

partly its the man behind the machine...and what the photog wants....there muz be a balance somewhere....

ask if the printer can give u a certain desired effect and if he knows his equipment well enough...he will be able to tell you if he/she is able to do it. when during an event someone asks me if i can do this or that, i will only answer YES or NO....there's no i'll try....haha

personally i like KT alot, great colours and good service...the crystal archival paper has given me good prints....juz did two albums there....great colours...i tink tt is due to the person.....and nice prints...from the machine....
 

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