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EOS R7 Should I buy a printer or have photos developed?

don10018897gam
Apprentice

I just bought an R7 and thinking about pictures I have taken, should I have the developed or buy a printer for pics?  thanks for any imput.  Also Lightroom seems to be pricey for a 12 month subscription, is it worth buying? Thanks again, Don

3 REPLIES 3

johnrmoyer
Whiz
Whiz

I hope some of this might help.

I no longer print photos very often so when I want a print I upload a file to a print service. Most of my photos are viewed on a screen.

The software that I use is Digital Photo professional which is a free download, and free software gimp, rawtherapee, and graphics magic. I have a macOS computer and the Apple photos.app that comes with it is good.

It is many years since I have used any Adobe software. So, the subscription is not worth buying for me, but others think it is worth the price.

When using a Canon lens, the Canon DPP software "digital lens optimizer" and DPRAW processing tool work very well and are available at no cost.

 

shadowsports
Legend
Legend

Greetings,

Agree with John,

DPP is a great (free tool).  I use it when I'm on the road, and DxO PhotoLab when I'm at home.  Adobe Lr is also popular.  At $10 a month its price is pretty reasonable as far as subscriptions go.  I don't care for subscriptions personally which is why I own photolab.  If you own 3rd party lenses, a solution like DxO or Lr makes sense.  Canon's DPP doesn't have lens profiles for non canon glass. 

If you need printed outputs, I would consider the volume.  If you are printing every photo you shoot a photo printer can make sense.  If not, a 3rd party service might be more practical.  

~Rick
Bay Area - CA


~R5 C (1.0.7.1) ~RF Trinity, ~RF 100 Macro, ~RF 100~400, ~RF 100~500, +RF 1.4x TC, +Canon Control Ring, BG-R10, 430EX III-RT ~DxO PhotoLab Elite ~DaVinci Resolve ~Windows11 Pro ~ImageClass MF644Cdw/MF656Cdw ~Pixel 8
~CarePaks Are Worth It

Tronhard
VIP
VIP

Further to my respected colleagues' comments, a question you should ask yourself is how you intend to look at your images in the future.   Given your terminology, I hazard a guess that you have a history with film - digital images are not 'developed' per se, they are processed in a digital darkroom to an output medium that can be by hardcopy or digital media.  I began my photography over 40 years ago, so I can relate to the transitional terminology  challenges. 🙂

There are several questions you might choose to consider:

Do you intend to put prints into traditional albums that you my review over time, create large detailed images that you will display as framed prints, or are you more likely to find it more convenient to look at the images on screens such as tablets, computers or digital displays?  Remember that printing involves a significant investment and on-going costs.  If you intend to print a lot, you are looking at the cost of the printer, it's ink and paper (larger costs more).

There are alternatives.  As an alternative to printing smaller prints and putting them in an album, you could consider making photobooks, which you can create on-line through various agencies.  These allow you to use easy to use templates to combine images of different sizes and dimensions, along with text, and have the whole thing printed, bound and sent to you or to others - they make great coffee table book that you may well put out on display.  These agencies also produce calendars, cards, canvas or acrylic prints and other media.  For individual prints, you can arrange for them on a case-by-case basis.

How do you intend to share your images, if you intend to do so?  By far the most popular method is via the web, and social media in particular.  Be aware that preparing images for digital display or social media needs to be different from that for hardcopy prints - which need to be lighter in tonal quality as you are looking at reflected light.

Like John, I no longer print.  The cost of doing so for the number of hardcopy images I create, especially those I would print and frame was not cost-effective - framing itself is not cheap.  I chose to get a couple of digital photo displays.  These are screens that look just like framed prints that you can put on your wall and to which you upload your images from your computer.  These devices project an image that have significantly more punch and intensity than prints, as the former project light, and they can be changed for no cost, or do rotating image displays that change at various frequencies.  There are two such large frames that I am aware of and they can be quite large.  The Meural by Netgear, (which I own - see sample image) and The Frame by Samsung - this latter is actually also a TV and they come in a range up to 55".  Both give excellent results.  Thus, after purchase of the device, images can be changed at will for no further cost.

Meural Photo Frame: 15.6" imageMeural Photo Frame: 15.6" image

As to post processing software.  As my colleagues have alluded to, you can get DPP4 for no cost from Canon.  If you want a more sophisticated solution for no significant cost, Gimp has already been recommended, and to that I shall add Photopea, which is also free (from the same large corporations that support Open Office and Ubuntu free software that is highly respected).  It is not actually downloaded to your computer, but you access via a link and use if as a remote service, although your images are still stored on your computer.  There is extensive training material for both.

Be aware that post production is a learning curve in itself, so again you may produce a bunch of dud prints before you can produce acceptable results.  That said, some folks still enjoy the process and the the physical presence of a print.


cheers, TREVOR

The mark of good photographer is less what they hold in their hand, it's more what they hold in their head;
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris
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