Cheap and nasty canvas prints from Wollies
Tropical Treat
and canvas print business so it was with some concern I saw Big W offering
600mm wide Canvas photo enlargements - on stretcher frames and delivered to
your home for $138.
I pay more than that for Giclée quality materials. Then I discovered they
are straight from China. You upload a file to a distribution server in Oz
and the Chinese printer downloads it and does the deed, sending it back to
Australia a week later. Seems too good to be true, eh?
To find out I uploaded an image to their server and about 8 days later got a
cardboard box delivered with the print in it.
What's it like?
The image is cropped to 4/3rd format so an essential part of the picture is
missing. It makes me think the service is aimed at P&S camera owners.
The interpolation routine used is pretty antique stuff and lacks any edge
definition. The picture itself is the right colour but no attenuation which
makes for washy colours. It's the sort of thing I'd expect to see on sale in
Crazy Clarks or Target. Hardly exhibition quality. But then, not everyone
needs the best possible prints, I suppose.
The canvas is not "stretched" onto the frame, it is attached like a
flyscreen with a rubber spine pushed into a groove with the canvas under it.
The canvas is more like linen. It is thin - It has to be to fold under the
spline, and it flops around like a sheet of linen would if you did the same
with it.
All in all, it might suit people not looking to exhibit their work. I have
some reservation about how they handle the enlargement process. The
specifications of minimum file size of 1.2 megabyte to get a 600x800mm
enlargement are at the bottom of barely acceptable in my opinion but may be
a way to get a canvas print without paying someone like me or the Art house
nearly twice the price for exhibition quality prints. Has anybody else had
canvas print from BigW?
Links below.
http://www.artspeed.com.au/rtorder/SelectProduct.aspx?ProductGroupNo=1
peteZ
Mike N
"Tropical Treat" <no...@4.group> wrote in message
news:hWpOf.1799$z03....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> I'm always watching the opposition to see developments in the big picture
> and canvas print business so it was with some concern I saw Big W offering
> 600mm wide Canvas photo enlargements - on stretcher frames and delivered
to
> your home for $138.
>
.... anybody have any experience with these ?
Tropical Treat
Yeah. Harvey Norman Mt Gravatt in Queensland. They use Epson printers and
God only know what canvas but the emulsion comes off. They don't seem to
coat the prints. Rabbit are the same. No coating.
You can't fault Epson prints but the software used to enlarge the image is
certainly a big issue in what you get as is the coating. All canvas prints
need to be coated with an emulsion after they are printed or the surface
will absorb moisture and bugger up the canvas.
HN gave a refund, no questions asked. I can only wonder if Big W would too.
The thing about HN is the face to face part. You could enlarge the picture
yourself and just deliver a CD to them. Not like BigW where you have to
upload a small file and hope for the best.