Printing my Vacation Pics!

This likely seems like a strangely titled post. Typically, not a noteworthy issue! However, to me the quality of photos has gone downhill since digital photography became the craze. All I have to do to prove my point is to look around my apartment at photos taken from my old non-digital Olympus camera vs. my digital camera. There's a difference but I've recently realized it's all about the printing of the pics that matters!

I have a friend of mine that is extremely into photography. In her spare time she works as an independent photographer doing jobs for numerous special occasions. She told me many years ago to never use Kodak film in my camera. I instantly switched to Fuji. Well, I would like to add something to her advice...never use Kodak photo printing machines.

Since becoming a digital camera owner I have gone to many Kodak photo printing machines at stores like Target, CVS, and Walmart. Sometimes I'm happy/ok with the results and sometimes I'm not at all happy. This past week I wanted to develop vacation pics. In the process of trying to get the best looking pics I discovered the photo processing machine I like the best is Walgreens!

Here in the Dallas area Walgreens has their own machine. It's not a Kodak affiliated machine or Fuji affiliated it's just Walgreens. You step up to the machine go through your pics, decide on your order, then place your order. Yes, placing your order to many people is likely seen as a negative. My prints were not ready in an instant like they would have been at a Kodak machine. I had to wait at least 30 minutes for my pics to be developed. I am certainly very happy to wait the 30 minutes or more if I can have better quality pics then what those silly little Kodak machines offer. The paper and machine that ended up producing my vacation pics were at a much higher standard. I think the only way I would try Kodak again is if Walgreens closes! I'm not sure it's just Walgreens that does it that way here or if there's other stores. But basically I have learned to use photo processing places that have their own photo lab on sight! That is the difference! Having the photo equipment on sight versus having a jiffy Kodak machine in the corner of a Target.

Below is a comparison of a pic. The first pic is from a jiffy little Kodak machine at a Target. The second pic is from Walgreens. Now understand these are scans so nothing is as good as the real pic but it's easy to notice Kodak's diluted colors. The mountain in the middle isn't clear at all from the Kodak pic.