Kevin & Beth Remhof
06-18-2004, 06:00 PM
<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-0.jpg" /><br /><br />We reviewed three of the most popular online photo processors to try and choose a winner. All three sites have plenty of features, but the print quality was not the same. We found two great services and one that was a distant third. Read on for the full review!<br /><!><br /><span><b>Our Approach</b></span><br />For this review, we chose three online photo processors and sent off the same set of 10 prints to each. Our first thought when we decided to do this review was to offer a thorough description of each site, including the services offered, the process for ordering, and the quality of the prints. After doing the orders and surveying all of the features of each site, we came to the conclusion that the sites are similar enough that no one stands out as the "best." When it comes right down to it, what matters most in the end is photo quality. We came up with one winner (Shutterfly), a close second (Snapfish), and an obvious third (Ofoto). <br /><br /><span><b>Ground Rules</b></span><br />To test these sites out, we came up with a batch of 10 pictures. These were all taken with our Canon A80 at superfine resolution. All pictures were 2272x1704 pixels and in JPG format. The only editing we made prior to uploading was red-eye reduction in a couple of shots. We placed our orders on a Tuesday night around 9 PM EST. We live in Ohio and had all of the prints shipped directly to our home.<br /><br />Although both Ofoto and Shutterfly have downloadable software to help you upload prints, we did not test those out. Those are advanced features that have no impact on the overall quality of prints.<br /><br /><span><b>General Web site Features</b></span><br />All three of the sites offer the same basic services: <br /><br />• Uploading to an album;<br />• Online sharing;<br />• Choosing prints;<br />• Editing and enhancing;<br />• Cards, gifts, albums, and calendars.<br /><br />We found each of them to be easy to use. To order prints, you first have to upload your pictures into an album. You give the album a name and off you go. Our <a href="http://powershot.com/powershot2/a80/index.html">camera</a> is 4MP so the pictures are quite large, usually around 2MB. Uploading these pictures, even over a cable modem, is slow.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-border.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 1: A border around our little boy.</i> <br /><br />Once your pictures are uploaded, it's time to get creative. Each site lets you resize, rotate, enhance, and add neat borders. These are great features. You can make some really interesting photos. It's amazing how a simple border can make a good photo look great. You can also add filters or change your photos to black & white. Some of these features are overkill. All digital cameras should come with some photo editing software. Some isn't great (yes, Canon, we mean you). But with so many great photo editing programs on the market, you can find one that suits your needs and price range. Editing the photos yourself before uploading gives you greater control and flexibility. If you're looking for a quick border change though, try out these features.<br /><br />Pricing between the three sites is similar. All offer new users at least 10 free prints. Once you order, you periodically get e-mailed offers on prints, cards, and other items. Shipping costs are also similar between the three - it's also what really drives up the cost. An order of 10 prints at $0.29 USD rings up to a total of $4.39 USD. That comes out to about $0.44 USD a print. Not quite the deal we'd hoped for. But the convenience of uploading pictures and having them delivered to our door a few days later is still great.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Snapfish Details</b></span><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-snapfish.gif" /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.snapfish.com">Snapfish</a> was the fastest to deliver our prints. We received them on Friday (three days after ordering the prints). The pictures shipped from Maryland so the journey was short. They arrived in a paper envelope much like you get at your local photo developer. The prints were in a paper envelope made of the same material. The prints did not include an index print. The lightweight package would not hold up to much abuse from the postal service or inclement weather. This was the least impressive packaging of the three services. <br /><br />Our favorite feature of Snapfish is that we were able to get a matte finish on our 4x6 prints. Naturally, we chose it. At the time, they were the only one of the three that offered matte on 4x6s. <br /><br />The Snapfish prints were good but not great. We tried to scan in the pictures to show the flaws but they didn't show up on the scan. A couple of the prints look like they were printed on a printer. There are some lines that didn't show up with either Ofoto or Shutterfly's prints. This may have been due to the matte finish, but we can't be sure. Our other gripe with Snapfish is that each picture had a slight border on the right hand side plus a small notch. The border was white and about 1/2mm, and the notch was about 1mm. We sent Snapfish an e-mail inquiring about this. Here was the reply: "Please note that this is fairly rare occurrence at Snapfish and this has happened with you. We assure you that this will not happen again and you won't get any extra edge with either matte or glossy paper." We have a hard time looking past these flaws since they occurred on all 10 of our pictures. There was no offer to reprint the pictures or for a couple free prints on our next order. Strange, considering they have a “110% Guarantee.” <br /><br />The Snapfish prints otherwise looked good. Skin tones were natural and they all looked like they had been sharpened just a touch. Our camera does take very smooth pictures. The sharpening is very slight and we only noticed it when comparing the prints side-by-side with those from Ofoto and Shutterfly. They were printed on plain Kodak paper. As with all three developers, the prints felt a little thin compared to traditional 35mm prints. You can upgrade to Kodak Royal for an extra $0.05 USD. A great feature of Snapfish is that you can choose 4x5.3 instead of 4x6. This is the ratio of a standard digital print. When you choose 4x6, the pictures are cropped and zoomed.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Ofoto Details</b></span><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-ofoto.gif" /><br /><br />We received our prints from <a href="http://www.ofoto.com">Ofoto</a> the Monday after ordering them. That was three days after the Snapfish photos but only two "postal days". Plus, they came from California. They arrived in a sturdy paperboard envelope with an inner card stock envelope for the prints. Along with the prints was an index print, coupons, and an insert describing the zoom & crop techniques used by Ofoto. This was the best packaging of the three.<br /><br />The Ofoto prints were a letdown. Even without comparing them to other pictures, they looked bad. The pictures have a green-gray cast to them, almost like a filter was applied to the pictures. They were printed on Kodak DuraLife paper and felt thinner than 35mm prints. Besides the color, the prints looked very good. They were clear and looked just like 35mm prints. All of the advertising, Web site, and prints tout that they are "A Kodak Company". They don't live up to that name. <br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Shutterfly Details</b></span><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-shutter.gif" /><br /><br />Our prints from <a href="http://www.shutterfly.com">Shutterfly</a> arrived on Monday, the same day as Ofoto. They also came from California. The envelope was sturdy paperboard and the picture envelope made of card-stock, much like those from Ofoto. What was strange, though, is that there were no inserts. Just the pictures and an index print. We were surprised at the lack of advertising.<br /><br />We did encounter a glitch while uploading our pictures. Kevin uploaded the pictures and called the album "Kevin's Test Album". The apostrophe got encoded and the title became "Kevin &amp;s Test Album". It was simple to rename the album and the apostrophe then worked the second time. The site uses some very slick Dynamic HTML in its interface, and it looks and works great. <br /><br />The Shutterfly prints were the best of the three. They looked excellent. Skin tones were natural, colors were bright, and the flowers jumped off the page. There were printed on FUJIcolor CrystalArchive paper and felt a bit thinner than 35mm prints. We feel that the pictures from Shutterfly were the most natural, and looked just like we had dropped off a 35mm roll to be developed at a photo shop.<br /><br />In the weeks since we ordered our prints, Shutterfly began offering matte finish for all print sizes. <br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Comparison Pictures</b></span><br />It's hard to show the difference between prints in an online review. We scanned in a few samples to show the differences. Also, you can see our original prints (resized, of course).<br /><br />The first picture is of our a plant we saw on a hike. It was a beautiful day and the colors were just jumping out in this picture... except from Ofoto.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-orig-1.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 2: Sample 1-Original.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-1-snapfish.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 3: Sample 1-Snapfish.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-1-ofoto.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 4: Sample 1-Ofoto.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-1-shutter.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 5: Sample 1-Shutterfly.</i> <br /><br />The second is a picture of our son with his grandpa. What a cute pair!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-orig-2.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 6: Sample 2-Original.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-2-snapfish.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 7: Sample 2-Snapfish.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-2-ofoto.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 8: Sample 2-Ofoto.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-2-shutter.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 9: Sample 2-Shutterfly.</i> <br /><br />The third is of some tulips in our backyard. It shows the color differences between the three services.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-orig-3.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 10: Sample 3-Original.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-3-snapfish.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 11: Sample 3-Snapfish.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-3-ofoto.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 12: Sample 3-Ofoto.</i> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/remhof-photo-3-shutter.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 13: Sample 3-Shutterfly.</i> <br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Kevin's Take</b></span><br />I'm a Mozilla Firefox user. Because of that, I had one major gripe with Shutterfly. It does not support Mozilla as a browser. You can use Mozilla but there are some issues with it. Shutterfly does <a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/error/browser.jsp?from=%2Faccount%2Finit.jsp">spell these</a> out upfront (unlike most sites). But the prints from Shutterfly were so great that I'll look past this and use IE if I need a feature that doesn't work in Mozilla.<br /><br /><span><b>Beth's Take</b></span><br />I'm the one who really likes matte finish. I was disappointed when Snapfish was the only service that offered it in 4x6 prints, and then thrilled when Shutterfly started to offer it. Just icing on the cake for me. <br /><br />I'm also enjoying playing with gift ideas. It's fun to see the wide range of possibilities using one of the online services opens up. Snapfish is the standout when it comes to variety of gifts. They have a dozen different items, from notepaper and stickers to baseballs and coasters. Shutterfly carries all of the expected gifts, like photo greeting cards, calendars, and memory books, but nothing too extraordinary. Ofoto is nothing short of a total disappointment. They only offer notecards, calendars, and greeting cards. They will have custom hardcover albums coming soon, starting at the bargain price of $29.99 for 20 pages. The equivalent softcover "Snap Book" from Shutterfly or "Flip Book" from Snapfish come in $9.99 USD and $10.96 USD, respectively.<br /><br /><span><b>Prices</b></span><br />As far as pricing, the three services are fairly similar. A 4x6 print will cost anywhere from $0.18 USD to $0.29 USD, not including shipping. Snapfish and Shutterfly both offer options to pre-pay for your prints at a lower price. All of the services regularly offer sales and specials, so you should be able to find a good deal at any given time. <br /><br />It's a real treat to be able to order enlargements right from the computer, without having to fiddle with negatives. A 5x7 print is a nice deal, at only about a dollar each from each site, and an 8x10 is about $4.00 USD. Ordering enlargements from the online services is so convenient that we may start ordering them regularly. A 2 megapixel camera can produce an 8x10 with no problem, so even a casual digital user will be able to move his or her photography to a new level. <br /><br />One silly option all of the services offer is wallet prints. These are just four smaller images printed on a single 5x7 sheet. A regular 5x7 is priced at $0.99 USD. However, the wallet prints are $1.79 USD. It's the exact same sheet of paper! Anyone with some decent photo editing software can copy and paste an image three times and create their own wallet prints. <br /><br />Shipping adds between $0.05 USD and $0.20 USD per print, more for enlargements. Not surprisingly, the more your order, the better the price on shipping. The pricing schedules discourage small orders. If you only need a handful of prints, you're better off paying a premium at a local shop. The sites will run specials for free shipping if your spend over a certain amount, so keep an eye out for those to really stretch your photofinishing dollar. <br /><br /><span><b>Conclusion</b></span><br />When it comes right down to it, you just want good photos. The photo quality of Snapfish and Shutterfly was comparable, but the email response from Snapfish about the border and notch left a bad taste in our mouths. Ofoto is not up to par with the other two services. Our pictures were unsatisfactory and therefore we cannot recommend them. Take a look at the bells and whistles from Snapfish and Shutterfly and you can be sure one of them will fit your needs. Our favorite: Shutterfly. We liked it so much that we just placed a $20 USD order.<br /><br /><i>Kevin and Beth Remhof write "tag team" reviews where they share their thoughts as a couple on technology in the digital media realm. They live in Ohio, USA and have two wonderful kids. They are avid rollercoaster fans and are members of the <a href="http://www.aceonline.org">American Coaster Enthusiasts</a>. Kevin is also a reviewer for <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com">Pocket PC Thoughts</a>.</i>