Kodak Gallery Reviewer's Comments

Kodak is one of the oldest and most respected names in the photo industry. The Kodak EasyShare Gallery is available online, or you can download the application to your computer and organize your photos without an Internet connection. The application works seamlessly with the online service, making orders as easy as pie.

Additionally, Kodak handled our delivery problem quickly and professionally. However, we found that Kodak’s more expensive pricing and less than excellent photo quality is what kept them out of one of our top spots.

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Ease of Use - Ordering Process:  

Online digital photo developer Kodak Gallery has one of the most organized and easy-to-use sites we've seen, uploading pictures and ordering prints is almost a pleasure. Even a computer novice should be able to walk through this process without problems.

Quality of Prints:  

To test for quality, we sent the same digital photos to all of the online photo developers we reviewed.

• Sunset: Our photograph on the beach came out darker than expected. We would have liked to see our models illuminated better and the overall picture to have been a little more crisp.
• Black and White: Alone the print looks fine. But comparatively it seemed dark and not as crisp as it should be.
• Aerial: Our Aerial shot was taken on a cloudy day in London. Kodak was able to clean up the overcast, but again it seem that some other developers were able to capture a clean and crispness that Kodak seemed to miss.

Note: To check quality, we took each set of prints received from the online photo developer and laid them down, side-by-side for comparison.

Pricing:  

Kodak Gallery is moderately priced at $.15 per print, it falls dead center on our pricing scale. Although the price isn’t the best we’ve seen, we felt that essentially you are paying for a brand name. Unfortunately, they do not offer any volume discounts and the prices of their larger print sizes like 5x7 and 8x10 are more expensive most of the other services we reviewed.

They also offer subscription options that include discounted prints, a personal webpage sharing site, unlimited high-resolution downloads and more. You can also pick-up your pictures at your local CVS or Ritz; however, prices are subject  to change.

Service and Site Features:  

One of the best features in the Kodak Gallery is perhaps their free photo organizing application. This software is installed on your computer’s hard drive and integrates into your online account. It allows you to manage your digital photographs without having to be online. They offer this software for Windows and MAC computers.

Editing tools are available online and in the software application. They also include free album sharing and online storage. Accounts inactive for a year will be deleted, which means you have to buy something at least once a year to keep your account open and fully functional.

Perhaps one of the best reasons to choose Kodak Gallery is that they work with many local developers an are able to ship your prints to a variety of locations for same-day pick-up, including Target, CVS or Ritz Camera.

The Kodak Gallery has several photo gift options including cards, calendars, mugs, apparel and more. They also include editing tools.

Shipping Costs/ Turn Around Time:  

Unfortunately, we found that Kodak charged more for shipping than most services we reviewed. Four prints cost us $.60 and $1.51 in shipping and handling. It cost Kodak .$97 to ship the photos, leaving $.54 for handling. This was a little more expensive than most of the services we reviewed. They charge $1.39 to ship one print and $.04 for each additional.

Our prints arrived in a lightweight, cardboard sleeve, wrapped inside a similarly lightweight, cardboard envelope.

We did encounter some difficulty with shipping. Our prints were lost in the mail, but when we contacted Kodak by email they responded promptly informing us they will reprint our pictures and ship them FedEx for free. Our prints arrived in two days. We felt that although the shipping problem was an issue beyond Kodak’s control, they handled the situation perfectly.

Summary:  

Kodak has been in the photo business for more than 100 years and have continued to change with the times, without compromising their integrity. Most wouldn’t complain about prints we received, but next to others it just doesn’t seem like Kodak lives up to it’s reputation.