> There are a lot of labs that will simply just charge more for the same
> thing you can get at Costco, but you can get a lot more if you're
> willing to pay more, but only at the right places. Unfortunately,
> they're getting increasingly more difficult to find. We closed our
> custom lab for good at the end of the year, R.I.P., so I can speak
> without having anything to gain or lose. As any of my former customers
> could tell you, there's a huge difference between labs and it has little
> to nothing to do with equipment or materials.
>
> If you really think a Costco or Sam's can do the same work as a top
> level lab you're just deluding yourself. Forget about wedding labs like
> Millers because they have a mind set that's perfected to one result and
> they can't think outside of that box. Mpix, which is their online
> offshoot, competes on the low end for the masses so it's very much what
> you're getting at Costco only at a higher price. There are others, so
> I'm not picking on Millers, they're just a convenient example. For
> something better, find a custom/commercial lab like Duggal or Laumont in
> New York or any similar lab that's used to doing work for top ad
> agencies and world class fine artists and you'll see what I mean.
> Unfortunately, labs like that only exist in major cities now because the
> push to mediocrity and places like Costco have wiped out the rest where
> there isn't a big enough volume of high end clientele.
>
> I understand that budgets are more of a consideration than ever these
> days, so I understand the need to get the most you can from a place like
> Costco, but never make the mistake of believing that it's all you can
> get.
Ok, fair enough. I definitely will not argue with you on the "not best you can get" point. And my local Sam's Club, while they use the Fuji for small stuff, they use an Epson R7800 Pro for 12x16 and larger (not a good thing as you point out). So MPix is no better than Sam's, anyone have any experience with Bay Photo? Are they just charging more for Sam's grade work (although more consistent results I would assume).
I live north of Baltimore Maryland. Do any of the "pro grade" print houses do online ordering? I will start looking into this on my own, but anyone else with experience on this can chime in, that would be great.
As for printing myself: 1) in order to get the proper Epson 2880 or ideally 3880 I need a lot more money and need more money to get into bigger art shows to support the lifestyle... its a catch-22 and 2) if these labs switching from chemical to "dry" inkjet processing, why would I want to do at home inkjet processing?
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