Picturemate Deluxe - grainy faces?

[Cashcow]

I've been very pleased with my Picturemate. I would agree that the colors are a little less vivid (green grass in particular) than what you get at a Kodak self service machine at CVS, Walgreen's, etc...

For the record I tried a Canon Pixma 6600 and returned it. The color reproduction was way too vivid and very unnatural looking to me.

 

[safetymom]

The Picture Mate is NOT dye sub. It is pigmented inks. It's an entirely different process. The color gamut is not quite as wide with pigmented inks as it is with dye based inks.

Just a thought but are you using the paper that comes in the printer pak? You aren't using another brand of paper?

I will print the image later and I will print it on my 8 color Epson. I will send you the results.

 

[Tiger926]

Yes, SafetyMom, I am printing with Picturemate paper as my printer is new - I am an OEM girl all the way! I am also a member of Scrapshare as lots of other scrappin' consultants use Picturemate (us scrappers love printing our own photos!) and although most of them don't have problems, one of them did just respond that she notices graininess on flesh tones too. It's still perplexing, but thanks so much for your help!

Tiger

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Tiger926, I've sent you PM with my findings. (or is was it e-mail?, check your junk-mail box too, just in case)

 

[Tiger926]

Hi Kelly - It was my email, but I had to come back upstairs as my DD needed immediate assistance with her popsicle - thank God we have 3 computers around here - LOL! Anyway, I am still perplexed at what the problem could be as I am definitely seeing grainy issues on flesh tones. In regards to the compression issue, this camera is set to Superfine, as is my new Panasonic FZ-30, but I was told with that camera as well that the files weren't large enough either.

What does this mean if my compression settings are set for best (my Canon of which I sent you the file is 2mps, whereas my new Panasonic is 8mp) but the files are coming out smaller than what is normally seen? My hubby and I definitely feel as if there is a photo ghost possessing our cameras/printer - LOL!

Thanks again, Tiger

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Dunno, the file I received is 653 kb. But even with that small size, the picture came out pretty smooth.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

If your camera is 8MP, then 2 Mb file means a low-res or highly compressed picture. A 8 MP camera should yield approx 5 Mb file.

Maybe you use Superfine (in terms of compression) but use low resolution (some cameras allow you to choose lower than the maximum MP; such as my 300D allow me to choose 6MP, 3MP and 1MP, and on top of that allow me to choose various levels of compressions)

 

[Tiger926]

The photo I sent you is from our Canon, 2mp, so how much should that file have been, since it was only 653?

My new Panosonic is set for 8MP as it does allow us to change the resolution, plus superfine compression - is there something else I should be looking out for?

Thanks, Tiger

 

[Kelly Grannell]

to answer your first question, the size should be around 1.2 Mb to 1.5 Mb

your second question, the answer is a resounding yes.

Hope it helps.

 

[Tiger926]

I'm so sorry to keep bugging you, but what else should I be looking out for besides resolution and compression?

As for the Canon, we are stumped as it's set for superfine and it's 2MP (no way to change it). I am going to do a search right now to find out what the issue could be. Would this have anything to do with our Picturemate though since you printed it off just fine? I'm going to wait until Safetymom informs me of her result from printing on her Picturemate and then go from there as we just can't believe that our photos should have noticeable grain at all.

Tiger

 

[Kelly Grannell]

If your camera is a 2 MP camera, then you can't change it because it's a hardware limitation.

 

[Tiger926]

Thanks, I knew that, I mentioned it so you would know that I knew it couldn't be changed - sorry for the confusion.

Tiger

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Oh, I see now. BUt still it doesn't make sense that your image size is only 600+ kb. It's only about 50% where it should be (regardless the fact that your pic doesn't look grainy printed on my printer.)

 

[safetymom]

I printed the image on my Picture Mate and Epson R800. I wasn't seeing grain with either printer but the image itself isn't the best in terms of detail.

If you would like I can send you a picture that I took and printed on the Picture Mate.

 

[Tiger926]

I am perplexed as that image came from our Canon A60 - 2MP camera. Set for Auto with lowest compression at Superfine detail setting. How else can we make the details better when we have it set for the best setting - do you think it was a lighting issue? We have never had a problem with this camera at all - the photos are great!! When I printed on Picturemate we saw tons of grain in my daughter's arms, face & neck, as well as my neck. It's very noticeable on first glance.

We only upgraded to a Panasonic FZ-30 in order to expand and grow in our photography skills - nothing is wrong with this Canon at all! I seriously feel as if our cameras/printers are possessed since I have the best settings on them, and stuff isn't printing out properly. What do you suggest we do? I was going to take it to Costco and see how it prints out on their printer - do you think that's a good comparison or not?

Thanks so much, Tiger

 

[Tiger926]

Update:

My hubby went and purchased a brand new Picturemate Deluxe from Costco as Epson still hasn't gotten back to us, this was suggested as none of the stores in our city do test prints, so this was the only way to do a direct comparison of this printer since no one we know has one.

I printed a bunch of photos on this printer from the memory card and USB thumb drive taken from computer as I just wanted to print from printer so as not to disturb anything in the box, etc. I got the same results with this new printer as well - I see grainy images and I can notice like faint lines on the photo. Nozzle check is fine just like other one. I printed out some photos that I had printed at Costco as well that came out very well, but not here.

I have come to the conclusion that either: 1) My photography equipment is possessed, 2) Picturemates just aren't as clear as I thought they were going to be and 3) Something is off with both my cameras - not sure about this as I have printed hundreds of photos from both cameras from Costco and they look great! and 4) We are too picky about our photos.

I want to thank everyone for their help - especially Safetymom and Kelly Grannel. My hubby is saying both printers have to go back and wants us to buy the Epson r1800, but it's a lot of money (almost $800.00 in Canada and $500.00 USD plus tax). I also have a $65.00 USD Picturemate pack ink and paper (270 photos) that I bought at Circuit City to use with Picturemate that I had to open in order to do all of these test photos, so now I'm also out that money as well. Very frustrating, indeed!!

At this point I believe that I'm not meant to print out photos at home at since things just haven't gone right from the start.

Thanks again, Tiger

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Dumb dumb dumb. I forgot to ask. Just before you print, did you go to printr properties and do the followings:

1. Choose the right type of paper
2. Choose the right type of print (usually they give you the options such as :draft, normal, high, and/or superhigh/photo -- something along that line --)
3. Then click OK or APPLY
4. THEN you print.

 

[Tiger926]

Thanks, but Picturemate already has the paper option set when you print. We decided we are going to keep the printer as there is an issue with our camera for inside photos as I just printed the same photos on my old Canon i450, and although the colours were better than the Picturemate, we could still see a bit of grain in the same spots. It's funny that a $90.00 printer did a better job than the $300.00 printer!

Anyway, we are going to take a bunch of photos inside our home on different settings with our new camera and then print them out. We can't think of any other way of doing this, so hopefully we'll have better results this way on our Picturemate.

Thanks again for all of your help, Tina