iPhoto Prices

[kangaroo]

iPhoto provides commerical printing services via Kodak. Kodak provides its own printing services via ofoto.com (a Kodak comapny). (To get your digital pictures to ofoto.com you must first use an upload utility which is Free and PC-only).

A 4x6 print on ofoto is .29.

A 4x6 print on iPhoto is .49 (~70% increase!)

What gives?

[iMeowbot]

Originally posted by kangaroo
(To get your digital pictures to ofoto.com you must first use an upload utility which is Free and PC-only).
You can use ofoto from any operating system, but right now you have to upload pictures one at a time (http://www.ofoto.com/HelpUpload.jsp#singlephoto). Kodak say they want to get batch uploading working on the Mac too.

[kangaroo]

EasyShare is Kodak's OS X alternatvie to iPhoto. At this time, unfortunately, it's not Panther compatible--only Jaguar. I'm not sure, but I think that EasyShare includes batch uploading to ofoto.com. If and when EasyShare becomes Panther compatible--I'll just switch over and move on. In any event, it's the iPhoto .49 vs. ofoto .29 price diff I'm questioning.

[ftaok]

Originally posted by kangaroo
EasyShare is Kodak's OS X alternatvie to iPhoto. At this time, unfortunately, it's not Panther compatible--only Jaguar. I'm not sure, but I think that EasyShare includes batch uploading to ofoto.com. If and when EasyShare becomes Panther compatible--I'll just switch over and move on. In any event, it's the iPhoto .49 vs. ofoto .29 price diff I'm questioning. Walmart offers .26 per photo and if you live near a Walmart, you can save on the shipping. For what it's worth, Walmart uses Fuji paper.

[kangaroo]

Originally posted by ftaok
Walmart offers .26 per photo and if you live near a Walmart, you can save on the shipping. For what it's worth, Walmart uses Fuji paper.

I'm not sure if you're kidding or not but, if you're not...

I wouldn't be interested in going to Walmart because that would obviate the convenience/cost of using a web service for print services. :eek:

[ftaok]

Originally posted by kangaroo
I'm not sure if you're kidding or not but, if you're not...

I wouldn't be interested in going to Walmart because that would obviate the convenience/cost of using a web service for print services. :eek: No, I wasn't kidding. Picking it up there would be an option. You could always have them ship it to you, but you have to pay shipping.

I guess my previous post was ambiguous.

Walmart's service is web-based. You upload your photos and select what you want printed. 4x6 prints are 26 cents. If you want them shipped to you, you pay about $1.50 extra. Takes about a week.

If you have the option, you can designate a Walmart store for you pictures to be shipped to (at no charge). And you pick them up there. For some people, it works out fine since they live nearby or work nearby. Perhaps you drive by it on the way home or something.

[Le Big Mac]

Originally posted by kangaroo


A 4x6 print on ofoto is .29.

A 4x6 print on iPhoto is .49 (~70% increase!)

What gives?

Isn't the ofoto price a limited-time promotion? Or have they made it permanent? It was .49 for a long time.

But, yeah, iPhoto needs to drop to .29 to meet the competition.

[jxyama]

integration and convenience...

it's a premium for people who don't want to bother figuring out the alternatives. if you have your apple ID in iPhoto, it's pretty much mindless ordering pictures.

[kangaroo]

ftaok, Thanks for the Walmart suggestion.

Le Big Mac, You may be right about the promotion but it's been .29 for a while now.


Originally posted by jxyama
integration and convenience...

it's a premium for people who don't want to bother figuring out the alternatives. if you have your apple ID in iPhoto, it's pretty much mindless ordering pictures.

I use iPhoto and ofoto (on a PC) and ofoto is no less convenient--it's just less expensive to purchase a 4x6 print.

The pricing is interesting because, except for the 4x6 (which is probably the most popular print size), iPhoto is either the same or less expensive than ofoto:

ofoto: .29, .99, 1.79, 3.99, 17.99, 22.99
iPhoto: .49, .99, 1.79, 3.99, 14.99, 19.99

[LimeLite]

On a side note...I could have sworn that iPhoto books were originally about $60, and recently I saw them for $49.99, but now they're down to $29.99. 30 bucks for one of those books isn't a bad deal at all.

[Le Big Mac]

Originally posted by kangaroo


Le Big Mac, You may be right about the promotion but it's been .29 for a while now.



looks like they've made it permanent. when I ordered back in Oct. it was still calling it a "limited time offer" expiring in early Nov. guess they havent' gone back to the old prices.

[acj]

Sams club is 20 cents, and it uses the same Fuji lightjet 4000 that Wal Mart uses, which offers great quality.

[ftaok]

Originally posted by LimeLite
On a side note...I could have sworn that iPhoto books were originally about $60, and recently I saw them for $49.99, but now they're down to $29.99. 30 bucks for one of those books isn't a bad deal at all. Nope,

iPhoto Books have always been $30. Each additional page (in excess of 10) costs $3.

[Inkmonkey]

Can the books be bought from an external vendor directly? Something cheaper than iPhoto...

[ftaok]

Originally posted by Inkmonkey
Can the books be bought from an external vendor directly? Something cheaper than iPhoto... I don't believe that the books can be bought from anywhere but iPhoto.

However, there are alternatives to the iPhoto book. Sony's Imagestation has some options, but they are comparable in price. And it's probably not as easy to use as iPhoto.

[SilentPanda]

I tried to make a book that was around 100 pages or so to see if they would print a book that thick and to laugh at the cost... iPhoto crashed while it was trying to figure it all out... I'm thinking that's a "no". :)

[TyleRomeo]

Originally posted by ftaok
Walmart offers .26 per photo and if you live near a Walmart, you can save on the shipping. For what it's worth, Walmart uses Fuji paper.

try Price Club/Costco, i get 4x6 prints for $.19 a piece.

Tyler

[blue&whiteman]

saving up and getting a good photo printer would save you money in the long run it you're going to use it a lot. I have seen some digi cams that come with one.

[ftaok]

Originally posted by TyleRomeo
try Price Club/Costco, i get 4x6 prints for $.19 a piece.

Tyler Wow. That's pretty good. I'll have to see if I can borrow someone's club card. Thanks for the head's up.

[AllanMarcus]

http://www.mypublisher.com/ also prints books just like iPhoto (I think this is where iPhoto book are printed). Their software is Windows only and runs painfully slow in VPC, but their prices are as as much as half of iPhoto. You also get more control over the layout of each page.

-Allan

[ftaok]

Originally posted by AllanMarcus
http://www.mypublisher.com/ also prints books just like iPhoto (I think this is where iPhoto book are printed). Their software is Windows only and runs painfully slow in VPC, but their prices are as as much as half of iPhoto. You also get more control over the layout of each page.

-Allan Allan,

I don't see where this is half as much as iPhoto's books. iPhoto is $30 for the first 10 pages and $3 per page afterwards.

MyPub is $29.95 and $2.95/page. Sounds like the same price to me.

[aldo]

I'm hoping that:

a) iPhoto is made international.

b) iPhoto is priced reasonably for international users. Here in the UK, Boots (high street chemist/photo developer/optician, etc) does 50 6x4 prints for £5, which is 10p a photo, which is about 18cents a print. You just take your memory card in and they print them out while you are there. While not as convenient as printing off the net, for that sort of price you can't go wrong. Also, remember that UK prices include VAT which is sales tax set at 17.5%.
Personally I think a reasonable rate for a print would be around 15-20p a print max.

However, I doubt Apple will price it reasonably. They never do for international users....

[AllanMarcus]

From their pricing page: Special Introductory offer for MyPublisher BookMaker users: Save 25% on all orders over $50 and save 50% on all orders over $100.

This is how it can be less than iPhoto book prices. I would love to see Apple match that offer.

[ftaok]

Originally posted by AllanMarcus
From their pricing page: Special Introductory offer for MyPublisher BookMaker users: Save 25% on all orders over $50 and save 50% on all orders over $100.

This is how it can be less than iPhoto book prices. I would love to see Apple match that offer. I guess I misinterpreted your previous message. You made it sound like it was always 50% less than Apple's price.

My bad.

[AllanMarcus]

hey, I can see how you might have thought I was implying that the service was always half of Apple's price! :-)

At less than $400 for a new Dell, I could use myPublisher.com for just a few books and cover the price of the PC. Sad.

-Allan

[vwcruisn]

walmart sucks.. dont spend money there.

[ftaok]

Originally posted by vwcruisn
walmart sucks.. dont spend money there. whoa! where did that come from?

[Dahl]

Originally posted by ftaok
whoa! where did that come from?
Well, they do.
Walmart is an evil company, that people shouldn't support.

Anyways, now imagestation have prints for $.19, I would like to hear if anybody have tried to make books though them. You can print on both sides of the paper, something you can't do right now with iPhoto.
I hope we get an iPhoto upgrade one of the next days with better and more book printing options.

[kangaroo]

FWIW, Kodak has released a Panther compatible version of EasyShare. So far, I've only checked it out to see if you can access ofoto (and it's pricing) and the answer is Yes.