Direct Photos from DirectFoto (Directfoto)

Member Name: Kukana

Product:	Directfoto
Date:	15/09/06 (966 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great quality, good prices, friendly helpline, secure website, online albums

Disadvantages: Takes a week or more to arrive, can lose uploads if not using online album option

When we first bought a digital camera, we assumed that we would make our own prints from those we wanted to put in albums or on walls. No more waste of films and processing pictures we didn't like. Or so we thought.

Unfortunately, our printer wasn't good enough, and the results were disappointing. They were also remarkably expensive: by the time we'd bought specialist photo paper, and replenished the ink cartridges, and made two or three prints before we got it right, the cost for a photo-sized print was two or three pounds. So much for the saving on buying film... particularly when the mail-order company we used, DirectFoto, offered a new film alongside full processing for 24 prints for under £3.

Then, a couple of years ago, I realised that DirectFoto were offering a service for digital prints. Send them a CD and they would produce the photos. We tried this, and were very pleased with the results and the price. A few months later, I discovered that they had a web-site where digital photos could be uploaded, so that the ordering could be done online. Since we're not in the UK, I opted to do this, despite (at the time) a rather unfriendly layout to the site, and slow uploading procedures.

Fast-forward, as they say, to 2006. The site has been redesigned. The upload process is easy to use, and while uploading large photos naturally takes some time, a whole directory can be uploaded at once so that I can continue doing other things on the computer while it's happening in the background. The quality continues to be good, the prices seem to get less every few months, and even the speed of dispatch isn't bad. We usually find prints are in our mailbox about ten days after the online order; if we were in the UK, it would be around a week. No good if you're terribly impatient and need your prints within an hour or two, but fine if - like me - you only want to make an order every couple of months.

The site is http://www.directfoto.co.uk/

It loads quickly; it looks professional and reasonably attractive without being garish or flashy. There's a basic menu down one side, a few special offers down the other, and the main part of the site is linked from the middle. At the top are two options for making prints, and one for gift ideas such as prints on tee-shirts, mugs or jigsaws. Lower down are links for the shop, which has items such as paper, memory sticks or batteries.

Now here's my one slight reservation about the site. Along the top of the screen, are three boxes: Digital prints, Online albums, and Photo Gifts. Which one would you expect to use for ordering prints? Well.. a friend of mine chose the first ('Digital Prints') option. It advertises prints from 6p each, with 15 free if your order is over £2.50, so it seemed the logical one to choose. Clicking the link leads to two possible ways of uploading the photos - and it's all very straightforward.

Unfortunately, this system doesn't store the photographs anywhere, so if there's a temporary lapse from the Internet provider, or if someone clicks away from the page before the order is copmlete, all uploads are lost. My friend spent about two hours trying to order 80 prints of a wedding, then - without thinking - went to a different site to check something else, without keeping the DirectFoto window open. She lost all her uploads and had to start again.

I have always used the second possibility for making prints: that of uploading my pictures to an online album (which can then be shared with anyone I wish) before ordering. I'm impressed that DirectFoto keeps the photos indefinitely, so I can make further orders if I wish. I wondered if they would delete albums that had not been viewed for a while, but on checking recently mine are all still there, including some I uploaded a year ago.

However, it's not immediately clear from the front page that prints can be ordered easily from online albums - hence why my friend did not choose this option. Possibly it's because they don't want to encourage people to store all their digital photos at their expense! But this is the option I would definitely recommend. You have to register to store prints in albums, but it's straightforward and free. As far as I know, there isn't even a limit to how many pictures can be uploaded and stored.

Slightly confusingly, you still click the 'register' button even on returning, then enter your email address and password afterwards. This page opens a new window on a separate part of the site, with the address http://directfoto.shareaphoto.com/index.jsp - so if you have a popup-blocker you may need to disable it for this site. I have never seen any advertising or other popups on the site, so it's not a problem.

Having logged in, the procedure is simple. I'm not particularly technically aware, but I had no trouble choosing 'Upload your photos' and then selecting the images from my hard drive which I wanted to print. If your computer has java installed, a whole directory can be uploaded at once; if not, there's a little 'click here' notice that leads to a basic upload tool, enabling just five pictures at a time to be sent to the site. This is a little tedious - but other things can be done at the same time. I've used both systems, and much prefer the java one, but for some reason it doesn't always work properly.

Obviously you can upload any size of photograph, but it's best to send the highest quality possible. Directfoto will warn you if something is too small to give a good quality print, although of course they can't check for things like blurring or camera-shake!

Having uploaded photos, they can be arranged in albums, or you can select the 'order' button and then select the ones you want to be printed. The checkout - which works much like any other online ordering site - gives thumbnails of everything in your basket, so you can choose more than one, or different sizes of print. You can also choose a basic cropping tool if the photo is not the right format; if you don't select that, the print may arrive with white bars down the sides.

Standard details - address, card number, etc - are entered securely after you've made your final selection, and you'l receive a confirmation page once you've submitted the order.

The last order I made was for 60 photos of size 15cm x 10cm. They were 10p each, but I was able to enter their promotion code '15free' which meant that I only paid for 45 of them. With £1.25 for postage, that means the entire cost was £5.75 - remarkable value, in my opinion. If I had ordered more than 100, I would have received a further discount.

There are, of course, several such sites available now, with similar prices and quality. However I have been very pleased with DirectFoto and see no reason to change. I was particularly impressed, a couple of months ago, when there was a problem with the 'worldbank' system they use for payment. This was nothing to do with DirectFoto as such, and there did not seem to be any problem with the order when I made it. However the following morning I received an apologetic email giving me their phone number, asking if I would give the details again.

I phoned, and spoke to a very friendly woman who said she had in front of her a list of all orders made during the problem period. She assured me that my order had gone through, and the only problem was that it wasn't yet paid for. The credit card details weren't visible to the company, apparently. She chatted while searching for my details, despite having had to spend a considerable amount of time dealing with other customers, sorting out someone else's problem! She took my details, and asked for my phone number in case there was any further problem (there wasn't).

Ironically, I felt happier about DirectFoto after this conversation. It's when something goes wrong that a company's true colours show, and it seemed to me that they handled it extremely well.

They still do regular film processing too. You can't order these online (obviously!) but their envelopes seem to appear fairly regularly in magazines or junk mail, with prices ranging from about £1.80 to £2.99 for any 35mm film, plus around 70p postage. Sometimes a free film is included in the offer, sometimes not. Having tried several companies over many years, we felt this was one of the most reliable and economical, producing excellent results every time. They also offer a full enlargement service. There are contact details on the website, so anyone unable to find a Directfoto envelope could ask the company to send one.

All in all, highly recommended.

Summary: Excellent photo processing, for prints from digital or film cameras