On Friday I dropped by the Ferry Sabak photo shop at Equine Park to drop a digital photo for printing. It’s for a birthday present we planned for our sister – a family photo. Since A4 is not a standard photo paper size I asked the guy to print out a 9R size (8″ x 12″) which should fit fine in the frame we bought.
The price was RM15. The time taken was considerably alright, but when he called me out and said the photo was ready, I was stumped. There were grime and stain from the roller inside the machines! It’s either he thought that I was blind, or he was blind. Go figure. I asked him to reprint and the next print out was also stained. I argued with the fact on how can I frame this? His answer was that I can use Zippo lighter fluid to clean that up? What?
I asked him, “Why should I go buy Zippo lighter fluid to clean this up? It should come out flawless.” and he asked, “So you don’t want these photos?”. Since I am very strict about privacy I took both of the printouts for the price of one.
On Saturday I decided to visit the MyKamera.com shop in Jusco Equine. Although the girl on duty was not very technical, she explained to me that the price is RM12 and the photo would be ready by Tuesday. When I asked whether there is any express service, she said I would need to add RM3. Okay, cool! So the RM15 price is the standard price for an express service. I received the photo the same day and was happy with the result. I noticed that Ferry Sabak used “Kodak Professional” digital paper while MyKamera.com used “Kodak Gold” digital paper. The difference is that the Kodak Gold is not glossy and would not leave a finger print when touched. I am not sure whether that’s the effect of the printer or the paper.
Also, I noticed that Ferry Sabak may have not color calibrated the old machine because their photo came out too turquoise and the whites are not pure as you can see below. Skin color was affected too. Maybe they didn’t realize that I have already converted the JPG to CMYK?
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Left – original JPG, middle – Ferry Sabak, right – MyKamera.com. Circled are are the stain from the printer at Ferry Sabak. The photos above were scanned after printed so the brightness might differ a little and should be ignored.
That will be the last time I visit the Ferry Sabak photo shop.
unfortunately, printing a digital picture is always a hit and miss occasion. always good to start with 4R, or 3R in a few shops before commiting a 9R 🙂
Once you find a good shop, that match your taste and calibration setting, hold to them for next bulk print.
Perhaps next time I will buy digital papers and print them myself. My printer supports borderless printing (many does these days) and can print up to 1440dpi. I don’t think there is much difference in the cost 😉
Thanks Fadzli for your help with paper size on Friday!
But I guess you mean colors, right? What about the roller stain – is that normal?
The very idea of Ferry Sabak suggesting to you to use lighter fluid is very distasteful. Why do customers have to do an additional step when they are not at fault.
Plus the stain is just too obvious
Exactly 🙂 Welcome to Malaysia, a country where retail service sucks.
And since I do have Zippo lighter fluid at home, I tried – the stain didn’t go away.