Happy New Year and welcome to the January issue of the Digital Photos 101 Newsletter. I hope you had wonderful Christmas and New Year celebrations with your family and friends.

A number of you probably received a new digital camera for Christmas, since next to the iPod it was one of the most popular gifts of the season. You may be wondering whether to take the next step and buy a photo printer to print photos at home. Is it worth the cost? We'll take a look.

Another popular gift was the camera phone. But many people are disappointed by the quality of the photos. While they'll never compare to the quality of a good digital camera, you can improve them. I'll give you a few tips on how to get better pictures out of your camera phone.

Should You Buy Your Own Photo Printer?
Top Rated Digital Photo Printers
Tips on Taking Better Camera Phone Pictures
Photo Software Best Current Prices
Digital Photo Service Promos

Should You Buy Your Own Digital Photo Printer?

A whopping two thirds of digital prints are made from the comfort of home. Should you print at home too? Price is a factor, yet it is not the only consideration.

The obvious benefit of printing at home is the immediate gratification of seeing your photos practically instantly. Depending on your printer, you can print directly from your camera or from your memory card in most cases. Or if you want to touch up your photos first you can copy them to your computer, use your photo editing software and then print right from your graphics program. You don't have to make an extra stop to drop off your photo memory card at the photofinisher or drugstore and then return to pick up your prints, and you save the shipping fees the online photo services charge. However, if you have a hundred photos to print, and each one takes 30 seconds to over a minute to print -- and in some cases you have to hand-feed the paper -- it can be a bit time-consuming. You may not mind this if you really want your photos NOW. And if you take photos frequently, you can get your prints any time you want, which is a big plus.

Now for some cost comparisons.

According to the IDC, a market research company, it costs an average of 27 cents per 4x6 print to print digital photos at home, factoring in the photo paper and ink and excluding the cost of the printer. You can get a decent inkjet printer for as little as $99, or a better one for between $149-$249. If you print at home, experts strongly suggest you use the same brand photo paper as your printer in order to get better results. See below for current top rated photo printers.

The average cost of printing photos at a retail store such as Walgreens or Longs is about 22 cents per print. However, if you need to make any edits such as redeye removal or cropping, you will have to do it at home first and put your edited images on a disk to take in, unless you can upload them to the retailer's website. If you just plan to have prints made straight from your memory card with no editing, it is pretty fast and easy.

In comparison, using an online photo service ranges from 12 cents (Snapfish) to 19 cents (Shutterfly) per print without shipping, per the photo companies' web sites. According to the IDC, the average per print cost with shipping is 30 cents. However, I think this estimate may be a little high.

For example, Snapfish charges 12 cents a print (10 cents if you purchase a bulk print plan). For 25 prints that is $3.00. Shipping for 16-25 prints is $1.97, for a total of $4.97. Divide that by 25 and the average cost per print is a little over 19 cents. I think that is still a good deal.

For every 10 prints over 25, Snapfish says to add 49 cents to the shipping cost. So for 100 prints, the total cost with shipping works out to an average per print cost of less than 18 cents. An even better deal.

The key with using an online service is to wait until you have a sufficient number of photos to print at one time, so you are not wasting money on multiple shipping costs. The downside is you may not want to wait. It is, however, a great convenience to have your photos delivered to your door in a couple of days, plus you can order all kinds of photo gifts from calendars to mugs, T-shirts and tote bags. Photo services are in heavy competition for your dollars, so they all offer frequent discounts and sales. It is fairly easy to get a good deal.

Top Rated Digital Photo Printers

Here are the current top rated digital photo printers, according to the December 27, 2005 issue of PC Magazine:

Canon i9900 Photo Printer (approx. $499) - Fast printing with true photo-quality output. Can be used as an all-purpose inkjet printer. Outputs a 4x 6 print in 30 seconds. Can print direct from PicBridge cameras. Drawback: no memory card slot.

Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer (approx. $249) - High quality photo output from computers, memory cards, PicBridge cameras, USB drives. Has color LCD preview. Max photo size 4x6. Outputs 4x6 print in 1:30.

HP Photosmart 8250 (approx. $199) - Fast photo printing and very good quality. LCD preview screen. Direct printing from memory cards and computer. 4x6 photo prints in 1:07. Text quality is good but not great, yet it is still a good all-purpose printer.

TIP: According to M. David Stone, lead analyst at PC Magazine: When researching printers, keep in mind there is no industry standard for "cost per page." Therefore, claims from different manufacturers aren't comparable to one another. Claimed costs can be helpful, though, when comparing printers from the same manufacturer.

Where to buy photo printers:

Amazon is my favorite resource for cameras, printers and software because they have a great selection, excellent prices, free shipping and no sales tax (most states). Their prices on the printers mentioned above are much better than the listed prices. Currently the Epson is only $174.99; the Canon $400.99 and the HP is $165.

Wal-Mart sells photo printers as well as digital cameras at very competitive prices. You can order online and pick up at a local store, or have your order delivered to your home.

Circuit City carries all the top brands of photo printers. Web only: save 15% on select printers. Get free shipping and no sales tax, or order online and pick up at local store.

Tips for Taking Better Camera Phone Pictures

If you have a camera phone, chances are you are disappointed with the photos it produces. While camera phones have improved, they still have mediocre lenses and light meters. Colors get skewed, images can be blurred and daytime pictures often come out looking overexposed. So what can you do to get decent photos?

- Adjust your camera phone's quality level to "superfine." This will produce the largest possible images with less compression and will help avoid jagged lines.

- Many camera phones have lousy light meters that cause overexposed daylight shots. If you reduce the brightness or exposure setting, you should get better results. The flash function tends to be very weak on camera phones. So for night shots, use your camera's "night mode" if it has one. This uses a long exposure which means you have to hold the camera steady, but you should get better results with this than with the flash.

- If you are in the market for a camera phone, look for one with a removable media card so you can upload and email from your PC. If you have a camera without a removable memory card, use your phone service's photo album feature to post photos. On most camera phones it is easier to do this than to go through the steps to send a photo to someone's email address.

Digital Photo Software - Sales, Rebates

Here are the current sales/promos on digital photo editing and organizing software. LOTS OF REBATES STILL AVAILABLE and lots of good sales. Note: prices are as of 1/3/06; they can change at any time.

ACDSee 8 PHOTO MANAGER is $49.99 direct. Download a free trial

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 is $59.99 at Amazon after a $20 rebate and free shipping.

Adobe Photoshop Album 2 is $44.99 with free shipping at Amazon.

Corel Paintshop Pro X is $69.99 after rebate and free shipping at Amazon.

Corel Photo Album 6 Deluxe is $19.99 at Amazon after special rebates and free shipping.

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 is on sale at Amazon for $87.99 with free shipping. PLUS get a $30 rebate, bringing your final cost down to $57.99.

PhotoImpact 11 - photo editing software is $49.99. Download a free 30-day trial. This is an excellent photo editing program and easy to learn. With your purchase, get FREE Pixmantec RawShooter essentials 2005, an award-winning package that lets you preview, adjust and covert RAW image files from your high-end digital camera.

Digital Photo Printing Services - Promos and Discounts

SNAPFISH: 12 cent prints all the time.

- Special New Customer Offer - Get 30 FREE prints at Snapfish.com thru Jan 31.

- Ship up to 25 prints for FREE with the coupon code SHIPPING. This expires on Jan 15th.

- Photo Calendars are all the rage right now, especially with the new year! Save 20% on photo calendars though January 31st, 2006. Use coupon code CALENDARAFF20.

- Save 10% on everything, including prints through Jan 31st 2006. Use coupon code DECAFF10 .

- Memory Books - save 15% using coupon code MEMAFF15 through January 31st 2006

Go to Snapfish.

SHUTTERFLY: prints are 19 cents

New Years Sale: Get up to 20 free prints - thru January 17:

order 40-59 4x6 prints -get 10 free on future order
order 60-79 4x6 prints - get 15 free on future order
order 80+ 4x6 prints - get 20 free on future order

Go to Shutterfly

PHOTOWORKS: 15 cent 4x6 prints every day, through 1/31/06. Enter discount code: C375-38-5103-31

Save 20% on personalized Photo Calendars and Photo Books. Enter code:C489-38-5182-91 during checkout

Go to PhotoWorks.com

KODAK EASYSHARE GALLERY: has 15 cent 4 x 6 prints every day.

New Years Savings 15-25% on Photo Calendars, albums, frames or Photo Books thru Jan 11:

Spend $20 - save 15% - use coupon code RESOLUTION15
Spend $30 - save 20% - use coupon code RESOLUTION20
Spend $40 - save 25% - use coupon RESOLUTION25

Photo Collages - Choose 4 to 100 photos for your collage, which can be printed 5 x 7", 8 x 10", 16 x 20" or 20 x 30". Arrange in ordered columns or overlapping. Choice of black, white or gray borders. From $2.99 to $29.99.

Go to Kodak EasyShare Gallery

That's it for now. Happy New Year!

Valerie Goettsch
www.digitalphotos101.com
How to get the best from your digital camera

To access prior newsletters: Click on this link.