Shutters pricing

[RealMickeysGirl]

We will be going on a 7 day eastern cruise in April. My friend and I plan to make surprise scrapbooks for some other friends traveling with us. (My husband doesn't even know we are planning to do this and I don't think her husband does either so hopefully neither one will read this post or they may kill the project on $$ grounds. )
My question is about Shutters. If you take your own photos, how much is it to have the film developed and prints made at Shutters? I have been wondering if it would be cheeper to buy a portable photo printer for about $200, get extra ink cartridges and paper for about another $200 and go digital with a laptop or direct from the cameras. Or - if they can make prints from your digital media (flash card, disk, memory stick), how much do they charge for regular 4 x 6 prints.
We take a lot of photos - I could see us easily having 4 rolls a day to have processed and printed (and we want to make 4 identical scrapbooks). That would be conservatively 25 rolls of film with 24 exposures each (say -modestly - 10 good photos per roll) and 4 copies of each good photo - not to mention the copies of photos done by CM that we will buy at Shutters.
If we are going to end up spending more than $400 at Shutters - which I can't tell not knowing their pricing - then I would rather print in the room.

 

[missmulan]

Since you are on the Eastern you might find a photo/electronics shop in St. Thomas. There might be a one hour photo shop that can serve you and save you $$.

 

[anlashokna]

Let me add a question. How much to have prints made from a disk? I normally transfer pics nightly to the laptop and back up on a disk.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

are you using digital or regular film? You say 4 rolls a day, but then talk about computers and printer? Are you trying to do this and have it completed by the time you are done with the cruise? If not, I would download the pics to shutterfly.com or something like that and you would have the pics back within a week at the most. You could probably download them from the ship to the website? And they would be home by the time you get home. Or have them all put to a disk at Shutters, and then bring the disk to Costco or something.

 

[d'Isigny]

intresting queston...can you use SD cards (specifcally) or other media type cards at the Internet Cafe to transfer digital photos from a card to your e-mail address?

anyone...yes, you...plz reply..........k

 

[mamalle]

I took over 200 pics and paid .16 for 4x6 prints at winkflash.com and $1.00 in shipping. I ordered them last thursday night and they shipped them out priority mail and got them on monday

I stil ordered the package deal at shutters for the 6x8 and 8x10's though

 

[RealMickeysGirl]

I usually use film and have it developed at a local pharmacy where I get double prints and a cd for about $14 for a roll of 24 prints. I file away a set of prints, negatives and cd and use the other set in my scrapbooks. If I need more prints or enlargements, I print them on my home computer from the cd. I have a digital camera that has a media card (like a small disk looks kind of like a tiny floppy disk about the size of a large postage stamp) that comes out of the camera and plugs into my home printer and I can print directly from the disk that way or I can upload the photos to the mac and print them through photo shop. (to answer someone's question: Cameras can come with removable cards (floppy disks, memory stick - I think memory stick is the sony version, memory card, data card, etc. depending on the manufacturer's terms) or with out removable memory so you have to connect your camera to your computer with a cord or docking station.)

If I use my film camera - which I usually do because I seem to be emotionally attached to having negatives - I would need to have the rolls developed and prints made for the 4 books. We (My friend and I) are planning on giving these books - or at least as many pages as we can get finished during the trip - as parting gifts when we return from the cruise. We all live different places (Alabama, Missouri, Virginia). The last couple of days worth of pages will probably have to be done after the cruise due to time constraints.

I am just wondering if it would be more cost effective to have roughly 20 - 25 rolls of film developed at shutters with 1 set of prints (and a cd if they can do that there) then pick the photos we are going to use and have the necessary number of copies made at shutters OR if it would be better to get a small portable - but good quality - printer and make the prints ourselves from digital cameras. I figure we will need extra ink cartridges and photo paper so we will probably end up spending a good deal on supplies. It may be cheeper to have it done at shutters.

I still don't think that your average digital camera photos are up to standard film print quality as far as color and crispness are concerned. I can usually tell the difference when the original was digital as apposed to film (unless the camera was one of those several thousand doller models with high megapixel resolution - and i don't own one of those).

Has anyone used one hour film services on the islands - do you get good quality developing and printing? I hate to admit it but i am quite picky when it comes to photos. (Could have something to do with being married to a photojournalist .)

Anyone have any thoughts or remember what the prices were like at shutters.

Thanks.

 

[RealMickeysGirl]

Does anyone know what shutters charges to develop and print 35mm film? Also how much their reprints cost? If there is a website I could check, just give me the link and I will look there.
Thanks

 

[DrCavin]

I cant remember seeing a post mentioning that Shutters will develop 35mm film. They will download your pics from a memory card to cd.

 

[scrapperjill]

I think your best bet would be to...go digital..seeing that your making sooo many prints. It's the more economical way to go. If you take a whole roll of pics...but only a handfull turn out...due to light, flash error, camera shake..or what not...you could be paying big $$$$ to have all those (4 sets) of blurry or dud photos.

Also JMO...but do you really want to spend your time onboard the ship scrappbooking?...not to mention ALL the extra supplies, tools and what nots that your going to have to pack along. Don't get me wrong....I'm a total scrap addict..and love to spend hours on my albums....but there is SOOOO much to do onboard, I just couldn't see spending my time scrapping...but making more memories to scrap when I get home. Especialy if I was with a group of friends from around the US..who I hardly get to see...If it were me...I would be photo happy all cruise long...taking pics of anything and everything...(with my digital camera)...down load my media cards to my laptop and burn my own cd's in my stateroom...then when I got home take my disks to a photoprocesser or upload to snapfish or like service and pick and choose all my prints..have them made..then go Scrapbook happy and scrap, scrap, scrap...Until I finished my album....and the other "gift" albums...then I'd send my friends a nice scrapbook care package...just in time to bring a big rush of cruise memories back....Not to soon after the cruise..but just long enough after that the albums mean that much more.

But again that's JMO

Also I haven't heard that shutters will do 35mm film...and I beleive they will print from media cards (digital cameras)...but I think they end up being very pricey (for single prints). The photos they take on the ship are $10-$20. 6x8's are $10 and the 8x10's are $20. So shutters photos really add up. We that was our highest costing souviners on the ship.

 

[scrapperjill]

Oh...just reading the passporter...they say shutters will do your rolls of film.."Drop off your film before 11am and it'll be ready the same day by 5pm." and "For every roll that you have Shutters develop, you get a free photo of the ship and a trading pin (as of press time). Developing cost are about $5 for 12- 4x6 prints...or $10 for 24 (doubles are .35 each)...Shutters processes 35mm, Advantix film as well as prints from underwater, single use cameras and Digital."

So if my calculations are corrects it going to be about $35 for each roll of 24 exp. (developing with 4 prints)....So doing four rolls of 24exp a day..would be close to $140 per day...in photo processing.

 

[turtle51]

Dont make the same mistake i did. I thoguht that it would be to expensive to go digital on my trip to disneyworld and on the wonder. Boy was i wrong. I must have spend at least 100 on film. Then since i wanted doubles i spent at least another 100 or more. And then half of them didnt come out. Now if you use your digital especially at the deck parties you can take more and more until you get what you like. Im going to be bringing my laptop on my next cruise.

 

[RealMickeysGirl]

That is just the kind of information I was looking for.

I hadn't planned on getting 4 sets of prints at developing time - just getting reprints of the photos we decide to use - should cut the costs down some. Looking at printing from digital - if I get a portable printer - I expect costs will be about $400 . Of course, I will have a portable printer to use later if I go that way but I don't need a portable printer very often.

We actually discussed the books (via email) in detail and what we intend to cover - this won't be detailed coverage - just good souvineers of what we did together. We are doing 8 x 8 books and plan to only to about 4 pages per day (2 two page spreads of the highlights) unless there is some special event we want to do separate coverage of (like pirate night ).

I am doing borders and pagelayouts before the trip so all we have to do is decide what to use where and slap the photos and journaling on. Since all the books will be the same, we don't have to come up with that many layouts - just come up with it one time and copy it 3 more times. We both used to be CM consultants so we can whip up pages pretty fast once we have our ideas down. We actually discussed some quiet time each day where we set up in one of the calmer areas of the ship for an hour or so and do the pages for the previous day. Also gives us a chance to talk .

I do appreciate all the information. It helps to know what other people did and how things worked out for them.
:thewave:
Everyone here is so nice.
Thanks,
Sandy