Retail Photofinishing Courting Digital Customers

By Greg Scoblete On Feb 21 2005 - 8:00am

On the heels of an uptake in retail digital photo printing, retail suppliers sought to cement gains by improving the speed and connectivity of new digital minilabs and printing kiosks.

AgfaPhoto announced two new minilabs equipped to make prints from online orders: the AgfaPhoto netlab.1 allrounder and netlab.2plus. The two units have an hourly capacity of up to 900 and 1,700 prints from digital image data on photographic paper, respectively.

The AgfaPhoto netlab.1 allrounder, which is available immediately, is equipped with two paper magazines and a new sorter. The AgfaPhoto netlab.2plus will ship in the second quarter and produces prints up to 12 inches by 18 inches. It comes with a sorter to accommodate print sizes up to 10 inches by 12 inches.

Kodak expanded its Picture Maker G3 kiosk line to include the Picture Kiosk, a new digital order station aimed at “non-traditional” retail outlets. The self-service kiosk features a pedestal monitor connected to the G3 Photo Printer 6800. The unit lets users preview, edit, select and print their digital images from digital media.

The Picture Maker's G3 printer will also get an upgrade to offer quicker enlargement printing. The new 6850 will replace the 6800 in the third quarter of 2005. The new unit sports a faster speed capable of producing a 4-inch by 6-inch print in eight seconds with the same print capacity (750 prints per roll) and sizes — up to 6-inch by 8-inch borderless — as its predecessor.

Fujifilm introduced two new Frontier digital minilabs, the 550 and 570. According to Fujifilm, the 550 delivers up to 1,200 prints per hour while the 570 cranks out up to 1,800 prints per hour. The new models are the company's first Frontiers to produce 12-inch-wide prints for a maximum print size of 12 inches by 18 inches.

The units sport a footprint of 13 square feet and offer automatic scratch and dust elimination through the company's Image Intelligence software. According to Fujifilm, a single order of 24 prints (4R) can be completed in 2 minutes and 24 seconds when using the company's new Crystal Archive Paper Type II and the new CP-49E Chemical System.