Online photo printing services

Hey guys, what online printing services have you had good experiences with? I need to print some photos in high quality and big size (about 3 feet wide), and there is nothing locally here that can do it.

Also, I am about to buy a monitor calibrating system. From what I read the Spyder 3 system is pretty good, does anybody have good (or bad) experiences with it?

Cheers,

Luiz

For big prints, I'm liking mpix.com thee days.

myphotopipe.com

Love Fuji Crystal Archive Pearl

2nd for mpix, their service has always been great.

I have used the Spyder express for calibration, but have never really been that impressed with it, when I calibrate and print I have to do a lot of adjustments to get it anywhere reasonable and this is costly and time consuming. I am still in 2 minds whether it is worth it!

Hi Luiz,

I will second the rec. for Mpix.com. I love their metallic paper and their finishing is great - I usually get my prints mounted on double-weight matte-board.

The only thing I don't like about Mpix is that they remove your files from their server after 30 days or so if you don't order them.

Cheers

James

Just used Mpix.com

Prints should be getting here today so I will chime in.

Anyone use Smugmug Bay Photo (not the standard EZ Prints)?

Mpix isn't bad but their printers have more limited gamut it seems. I got pixelization on a couple of prints I did with them. White House Custom Color is a bit more expensive but I know of some folks who swear by their prints as being better than Mpix. I know my HP 3100 prints out better than the Mpix product, same file, no pixelization.

I am on a calibrated system using the Eye1 puck and HP APS software.

Stu

Thanks for all the input guys, I think what I will do is try a couple of different ones and see which I like better. I also heard good things about this one:

http://www.nationsphotolab.com/

Any of you guys used it before?

http://www.millerslab.com

I really like the big prints I get made at Millers, good quality and fast reliable service. Not the cheapest but sometimes they have a sale and I tend to print in batches so a lot of times I will get a lot of stuff ready to print then wait for a sale.

i live in nashville, tn and we are fortunate to have chromatics here in town. most of their clients are out of town i believe, and they've done work for nat geo and other big time photographers. they do it all! i'm always amazed at how my prints turn out when i go to pick them up.

http://www.chromatics.com/

I have just had 2 prints done 18" x 10" on Fuji Crystal Archive Pearl and I must say that the quality of the printing was better than I had expected. The paper seems to give a really nice finish and the blacks look great. Mine were ordered online through Fuji in the UK.

Stew