Interesting experiment with unexpected results

Having seen a few threads on here bemoaning the fact the quality of Photobox prints appear to be going downhill and others praising One Vision Imaging (nee Colab) I thought I'd send some prints away for a comparison test.

I chose five colour wedding images which were in RGB format for Colab and I used the custom profile that I've been using for Photobox. All images were ordered in 9x6 with Photobox working out at £0.37 each whilst Colab were a whopping £2.14 each including VAT. P&P was an extra £1.50 for Photobox and £2.29 for Colab. So a total of £3.35 for Photobox and £12.98 for Colab. Hmmm.

The prints arrived and I was eager to compare them expecting much better from the Colab offering given the recommendations and price. You know what, I could hardly tell them apart and if I mixed them up I would not be able to tell you which was which, both sets were excellent in reproduction, colour and clarity.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement so I did a straw poll of family and friends and out of the six people I asked five of them preferred the Photobox prints - all of them. :shrug: They couldn't give any specific reason why and the general consensus was that they just looked better.

Considering the reputation of both of these companies I was expecting more from the Colab set and had not set high expectations for the prints from Photobox. I am just glad I did not order a full set of 60-70 prints for an album which would have cost 4-5 times the amount had I gone the Colab route.

I realise this was not an exhaustive test but I thought it was worth sharing.

Worth sharing indeed Colin, many thanks for that insight

Thanks for the comparison Colin, I was made up with the quality of my Photobox prints tbh & won't be looking elsewhere for the time being
I was considering Colab for some upcoming prints but will stick with Photobox for now, think you've just saved me quite a bit

Thanks, certainly worth sharing your experiences. To be honest I have been using photobox for years and have had only one or two issues - and when I have mentioned these they have been rectified to my satisfaction instantly.

very interested to read this.

I have some prints I'm needing to get done and was going to go with photobox but then read a fair bit of negative stuff about them on here.

I'm going to give them a bash and see how they come out.

I was pleased with the large ones I had done at Photobox as part of their Bank Holiday promotion and it was the first time I had used them,

Never had any problems with photobox myself. Always a quick turn around and can't fault the prices.

I have just had one of my tiger shots from Chester zoo done A3 from Photobox to try them out. Never used anything like this and I was very impressed with the results.
Their packaging of the print was very good.

I will be sorting more out over the weekend, using their 30 free print offer. So I will see how they come back.

Cheerz

Never had any problems so far with photobox, so will keep using them for now. Thanks Colin.

Big fan of photobox, to me, the best out there.

Thanks for sharing that Colin. When I first chose photobox earlier this year, I sent the same shots to 4 different places but not 'professional' labs such as colab, and photbox were best by a country mile, but I have never used anyone that 'should' in theory be better, so glad to know that Colab couldnt do any better.

Why don't you give http://www.proamimaging.com a try.

They don't have a web uploading service and it's slightly more involved preparing prints for them, but their prices can't be beat.

16x12 or 18x12 £1 printed on Fuji archive paper (heavier paper than photobox uses)

fast turnaround, usually in a couple of days once they receive your cd.

I am not connected with them in any way apart from being a very happy customer. I have used them 5 or 6 times and results have been great.