Wal-Mart Photo Centre Review
- Product:
- Wal-Mart Canada PhotoCentre (company site)
- What’s Good:
- Easy to use, Good Price, Fast
- What’s Bad:
- Large orders are a pain, Sometimes unexpected results
I tend to take photos in high quantities but I'm perfectly content with viewing them on my computer and posting some of the better ones to an online gallery. Others, including mothers, sisters, girlfriends etc would prefer to spend the money and get them printed.
In the past I have sent small batches to Shutterfly, Prism-Digital and Wal-Mart but with a recent trip to Florida, I really put Wal-Mart to the test with an order in the hundreds.
Uploading Images
Wal-Mart claims to have a 60MB maximum per upload (6MB maximum per single photo) with 3 ways to get your photos uploaded to the Wal-Mart website.
- Their online tool built into the website allows you to select one photo at a time. This works perfectly fine on smaller orders between 5-10 photos. Even 30 is not overly repetitive.
- They offer downloadable software called PCUploader. Similar to the way windows explorer would work, you select groups of files and upload them to the server similar to using a ftp client.
- The 3rd way is for XP users. I have not tried this myself, but you can add Wal-Mart as an option to Windows XP's built in "Order prints online" feature
Shipping
You do not have the option to have your photos shipped to your house but shipping is free to your local store for pickup and payment. My order of 200 photos was placed on Monday Sept 20th, shipped on Wednesday Sept 22nd and the photos were at the Wal-Mart in Summerside, PEI by that Friday Sept 24th.
Payment/Prices
Payment is accepted not when you place the order but when you pick them up at your local store. Pricing is very competitive at $0.25 Canadian for a 4x6 print. From my own experience, I have Shutterfly ($0.37 CND + shipping) and Prism-digital ($0.69 CND) to compare with.
Results
This is my 3rd order from using Walmartsphotocentre.ca and I have had mixed results. My second order consisted of the identical pictures of the first order but turned out much differently in color. I even received a photo I did not take or order so I have to wonder how many of my photos were mixed up and sent to others.
This weeks order had much better results in color but did not have smooth cuts. Nothing major that affected the quality but it did look like it was cut with a blade that needed to be sharper leaving small paper artifacts along the ends.
Image CD
Having your images copied on CD is more of a benefit if you are having film developed but it is still an option for digital orders. I ordered a CD from a disposable film camera and photos were at a resolution of 1486x1024 (about a 1MB jpg).
Other
- For what ever reason you would want to do this, you can archive your photos with Wal-Mart's site for $0.47 per MB
- Besides regular prints, you can also get photos printed on everything from mugs, towels, hockey pucks, tin cans, clothing, calenders and much more
- Wal-Mart's myPhotoSite allows you to create your own personal photo website to post your photos & shows for sharing with family & friend
Conclusion
Overall you get what you pay for. This is by no means a professional solution but perfect for those just looking for cheap vacation prints.
