Done With Inkjets, Done with Dektol for B&W Printing - Winkflash, A Review

NickTrop

NickTrop

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Recently I posted a thread about one of the lesser-known online printing services, Winkflash. I posted this to alert members of a pretty (read "too good to be true") terrific deal - $0.08 prints (6x4) and the first 50 prints free with a new account. I made over 80 prints, 2/3rds of which were black and white on matte paper (6x4, plus one 5x7, which are $0.25 apiece) for a grand total of $6.19, including shipping.

I had not received my prints back when I posted and despite this initial thread (http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94314&highlight=Winkflash) sinking like a rock, now that I received my prints, I feel compelled to write a review if anyone is interested in this service.

Winkflash - Review

Overall Rating **** 1/2 out of *****

Summary: This service is so good and so inexpensive, I can't imagine printing any other way... I'll never own another inkjet and I'll hold on to my enlarger if I ever restart wet printing medium format black and white.

Quality ****-1/2
Black and Whites
Online reviews I've read stated that Winkflash did B&W's better than the other services out there. The others were acceptable but had a faint color cast. The prints I received from Winkflash are - in a word, perfect. The Winkflash prints are far better than services I used that process traditional black and white, which disappointed when I used them. The Winkflash prints look exactly as they did on my screen. This includes cyanotype and sepia prints. There is no color cast whatsoever (except where I wanted one...). The pics are sharp, no roller marks or other flaws. 1/2 star off for not offering luster or pearl, only matte.
Color *****
Likewise, color glossies were perfect.

Shipping ****
Rates were reasonable, prints were well-packaged, and the service was reasonably fast. Turn around was five days. Very good, but I wasn't "blown away".

Website ***1/2
Decidedly not as glitzy as the others, a wee bit less clear on how to use some of the options with "meh" navigation. Once you figure it out/get used to it, who cares? Unlike some other services, the photos you post aren't deleted after a period and posting is free.

Bottom Line
This is a great service and an outstanding value for making prints. Period. Their normal prices for prints at $0.08 a pop (6x4) is the best deal out there, far cheaper than home printing with an inkjet. I love the fact that they don't gouge you on larger print sizes. $0.25 for 5x7's is a more than fair price relative to just about everywhere elsewhere else and indicative of an honest company that isn't into nickle and diming their customers.

Making black and white prints off an inkjet as a hobbiest is a dicey proposition that's also costly. They look great when you get them up and running? But keeping them going for any stretch has eluded me, despite repeated trys. Take it from a person who has made numerous attempts at black and white inkjet printing - including using a continuous flow system that I never could get up and running. I've gone through two Epsons that were dedicated to making black and white prints. Those failed. One kept clogging, another decided one day to refuse to recognize third-party MIS ink carts. I have an HP designed to do black and whites setting in the corner of my bedroom as we "speak" - that one started banding on me. I'd all but given up. This is why I'm excited about this service. Not only are the black and whites perfect, the cost per print is simply outstanding. Hallelujah!!! (Kicks heels...)

Winkflash's 50FREE coupon deal makes giving this service a shot a no-brainer. It's a great strategy. They know they have the best deal out there and provide a great service. They know that no sane person would futz around with expensive inks and inkjet printers for photos again - it makes absolutely no sense. So, they're expecting repeat business and word of mouth.

They got it on both counts - at least from me. Simply put, as a hobbiest who likes black and white prints, it makes zero sense to futz around with finicky inkjet technology and expensive inks and not use this service.

I am NOT affiliated with Winkflash in any way. Just a happy camper spreading the good news ;)

http://www.winkflash.com/
 
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Very excellent info, Nick. Looks easy as well as inexpensive.

Thanks so much... I have a Canon i9900 that snorts ink like a coke whore.

And then when I add the expense of paper?....... my name's Jack but it makes me feel like a John. :eek:
 
@Jack - LOL@ "coke whore" reference - so true. I know the feelin' brother. I hate giving recommendations to stuff, typically. Ever do that for a restaurant, and the people go and hate it? But I can't see how anyone could complain about this one, especially with that ridiculous coupon deal. I know others have to hate - literally hate, inkjet technology as much as I do. - Especially for black and whites.

Now, I'll print out my black and whites with wreckless abandon.
 
Well, good for you, but personally I do not print anything smaller than 8x10, and I often have to do a second print to fine tune the brightness or some other aspect of the image that eluded me on screen, so waiting 5 days for the result is a bit long in the tooth... I also print mainly on Ilford Gallery Gold Fiber Silk, which resembles a lot normal photographic paper and is great with warm or sepia toning. I believe that an 8x10 print costs me on average 1 EUR. I have been using Epson R2400 for 3 years, and apart from one maintenance service worth 50 EUR, it has given me no problem whatsoever.
 
mfogiel said:
Well, good for you, but personally I do not print anything smaller than 8x10
Click to expand...

Then it's not for you... what can I say? As always YMMV ;) You can make any size prints with this service, incidentally. This is a high value proposition option for people who don't own or don't want to own a professional-level printer and don't mind a reasonable wait time for processing and delivery.
 
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80 cents per 6x4?

80 cents per 6x4?

$0.8 per print had me worried so I went to their site. Wow, $.08 per 6x4, more like it.:)
 
I think you mean $0.08 per 4x6 print, not $0.8. Looks like it is $0.05 until the end of Aug. I can't tell yet if they process international orders.

Steve.
 
ully said:
$0.8 per print had me worried so I went to their site. Wow, $.08 per 6x4, more like it.:)
Click to expand...

Gah!!! LOL Thank you. Will correct :) Damed decimals. And don't tell my boss... I teach the occasional algebra class, including scientific notation :)
 
I share your grief w/ inkjets. They're ink and paper hogs, not consistent, and I haven't see one yet that beats a true optical B&W resin print, never mind a fiber print. They may look as good on rare occasions, but they look different.

Don't get me wrong, I have some B&W inkjets on my wall that I really like and look very nice, and I love all the editing you can do digitally, but you could spend the rest of your life in front of a computer digitally printing film negatives, what w/ the scanning, dust spotting, multiple inkjet proofs, ink clogs, head cleanings etc.

6x4 is too small for me as well, but I may try them for larger sizes. My one try at sending out B&W files to be printed by another online service on real B&W paper didn't turn out so hot, so maybe this might work for the occasional print. I've even had disappointing results sending out negs to be enlarger printed to the B&W Lab, and it wasn't their fault. They're an excellent custom lab. But no one really knows how I like things to look in a print but me, which is why I finally bought an enlarger some time ago. It really felt great to ship that film scanner and printer out to the people who bought them!
 
Nick: Out of curiosity, which HP inkjet do you have? Most have the printheads built into the carts themselves, so if banding/clogging occurs, just switch out the offending cart. (Haven't had that problem in five years' use of my HP 8750.)

like mfogiel, the majority of my printing is 8 x 10" and larger, so services like Winkflash won't do much for me unless I got a sudden itch to print a boatload of small snaps for a particular purpose (which could happen, so I'm bookmarking their site anyway...thanks for the heads-up!) For me, however, when I need a few 5 x 7" prints, I usually need 'em pronto, so having a reliable, large-ish inkjet printer around for quick turnaround isn't just nice, it's necessary for me.


- Barrett
 
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What are they printing on? What is the paper and printer technology? Do you have a scan of the print and the original file you sent them? I'm curious how close it really is...
 
@All - seems they don't ship outside the US, unfotunately...

@Steve - Yes. The big print on an enlarger thing is a whole 'nother deal, and - yes, it has a whole 'nother look having done both. I would agree. I've gotten less picky in my old age. I would use them for a big print. I'm not obsessing over such things like I used to.

@Barrett - as with Steve, I agree with much of what you say. I still like small prints, black and white and otherwise. I think of these like proofs. At this price, they're still nice to have. There are several that I will likely enlarge and I'll give Winkflash a go. I'm a reformed "wonker-arounder" with prints as I am a reformed inkjet user. Good enough is good enough. If they look as good as the 6x4's, enlarged, I'm fine with that. I appreciate the tip on the HP. I'm at work and forget what model it is... It's been mothballed for so long, I'm afraid it might have other issues now, though. But, still, thanks again. It was a good printer while it lasted. But even if I get it up and running, it's still way less economical than Winkflash for making "a boat load of prints" as you say. - just the ink and paper costs alone.

@dfoo... I know they use Fuji Crystal Archive paper and Fuji Frontier printers. Don't know the rest...
 
$1.49 for an 8x10 print seems like a pretty good deal to me if it actually looks like the image on my monitor.
In fact that would be fantastic since it usually takes me three or more tries to get one decent print what with dribbling or lines or poor contrast or especially something I just plain set up wrong.

But what really gets me about my printer is, "I swear on a stack of Cub Scout Manuals that she wakes up at night while I'm asleep and secretly dumps ink out of the more expensive cartridges onto the sponge tray below. And I think those sneaky corporate bean counter *******s designed the harlot to do that." lol...
 
@Jack - at a buck 50, what the heck do you have to lose? And I agree, ink prices are outrageous. Even if it's 90% of what's on my monitor, I'm fine with that. I ain't a pro. I ain't being paid. I've always enjoyed photograhy as a hobby but one must be realistic. Photography can be a long dark money tunnel - especially if one obsesses about gear, control, perfection. The first expensive and painful lesson came with getting hammered too often - how many hangovers do I have to endure with crinkled up $6.72 in my pocket where there was five $20's? Learned that one a while back but it took 100's(?) of lessons. The next lesson is photography - printing, gear, ink, etc. I'm not a pro. I don't need every focal length. I don't need to own every camera. (A handfull will do...) Average gear is better gear than I am a photographer, the more expensive stuff won't make my pics look any better. I don't need to get every print perfect. Good enough is good enough. (And much less expensive...) Winkflash is good enough - even (I'm assuming) for large prints.
 
Nick, I raise this borrowed garden hose in a toast of solidarity. :D

And again, I always appreciate folks who post informative threads.
 
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