Canvas Prints

troy

Got mine today, very pleased with it. Highly recommend it.

quilmore

troy wrote: »

Got mine today, very pleased with it. Highly recommend it.

did you go for matt or gloss finish?

troy

Matte finish. Here is a picture of it:



It's a big size, 30" x 24". Got stung for import tax of €28. :mad: There is an option of the value on the customs form. I think if I am ordering again I will say $20.

troy

It is for a christmas present for my sister in law (on the right). I took a picture of her and her buddy and warholised them.

Here is the original:


I used PS and the instructions from this page (a long with a bit of ad-libbing).http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-warholphoto.html

P.S. I hope she doen't look at boards or she may know what she is getting for christmas!!

thedarkroom

I have been following this thread and decided to take the plunge as everyone has been giving excellent reviews. I have ordered a 38x26 canvas print at a total cost of $43 and that includes the delivery charge. Amazing price and I find it hard to believe that there is no mistake. Submitting the image was a bit confusing as it was hard to tell after hitting the submit button whether or not anything was happening. I decided to wait and after a while my photo eventually appeared on the menu.
For anyone considering using this site for the first time,
after you have uploaded your photograph in section ' 1 upload and choose image ',
you click on the image to get to the next stage, don't click on the panel marked ' 2 edit medium and stretch options'.
After this it is straight forward. I await my print with enthusiasm.

Fireman

I have order two canvas prints also, Can't wait to see them. The price is excellent!!!

darkman7

I just ordered one to compare to www.photo-canvas.com who won the Digital Photo mag aware recently. It should arrive this week. It was only a small one so only cost 20USD.

I've heard people say that no duty/vat is charge if the amount is less than 30 Euro. Does anyone have examples of amounts that were charged? I'm just wondering if the shippers convert the currancy to Euro first. Also from looking at the customs site you can tell if something should be duty free. It would be interesting to see how they clasify the canvas prints. What customs rate and waht vat rate are they applying. I presume they add their own handling fee too.

I used to import a lot of electronic gear and found that very often the shippers clasify the item incorrectly adding 20% to the cost.

Anyone any more info on this?

Thanks, J

the_viper2kie

I'm trying to order a photo from updone.com. I'm having a problem though, Firstly I can upload the file and it appears on the list but in firefox I cant click on it to proceed to step two. So I used Internet explorer and I can click on and go to all the following steps however the picture just appears with that small white box with the red x in it(picture cannot be displayed). Anyone any suggestions? I just want to make sure that it looks ok before I submit it for printing, was everyone else able to see theirs?

Cheers

kjt

Wow these lads look good. I might work on a photo over the weekend and get it printed. I got a 10x10 printed in reads this week for €40, the canvas looks great but it's quite pricey.

m_stan

Can someone state how long delivery actually took in practice ? Very tempted by this

dade

I've ordered some and they cam within 2 weeks. when ordering you have a section to declare the value for customs so i kept it under €45, no problem what so ever with them coming in.

Thirdfox

...I was reading the tax and duties legislation and policy and I had assumed that only *gifts* could be tax free if under €45?

and that commercial products had to be under €22 to be exempt?

Here's the link:
http://www.revenue.ie/index.htm?/leaflets/pn1179.htm

edit: specifically
"2. Consignments of Negligible Value

Consignments not exceeding a total value of €22 may be imported without payment of Customs Duty and VAT. However, there is no relief for importations of tobacco, tobacco products, alcoholic products, perfumes or toilet waters irrespective of their value."

and

"3. Gift Consignments

Relief from payment of Customs Duty and VAT is allowed on gift consignments from outside of the E.C. where the following conditions are met:

1. The value of the gift does not exceed €45."

PaulieC

m_stan, it took 6 days for mine from order to delivery.

Covey

Do they enclose an invoice/receipt?

That should be sufficient for customs purposes.

t.

PaulieC

Covey wrote: »

Do they enclose an invoice/receipt?

That should be sufficient for customs purposes.

t.

as far as I remeber they did, but there was no monetary value listed. It was listed as art! (I was delighted - "I'm an artist!")

Scobius90

cambo_gueno wrote: »

m_stan, it took 6 days for mine from order to delivery.

it seems this can be variable ..... read from bottom up. looks like it'll be lil bit more than six days for me :o
Thu Dec 06 04:22:11 EST 2007
Payment $27.591248 was paid successfully. Order will be shipped soon.
Fri Nov 30 21:13:11 EST 2007
Payment $27.59 was held successfully. Order has been processed well so far. Thank you.
Fri Nov 30 20:49:30 EST 2007
Order items' availability has been checked. In three days, order will be shipped.
Fri Nov 30 04:20:25 EST 2007
Order has been placed, pending for process.

majiktripp

Gotr mine yesterday at 10pm (god bless thehard working UPS guy) and it was very well packaged.
Once opened I was very pleased with the results bar one little water mark (like a drop of rain had hit it) but other than that it was very very good for €20 delivered.
They marked the invoice as $20 so no tax/vat to pay so to sum up I will definitely be using them again with a larger print (this one was 12"x18"), highly recommended!

majiktripp

Scobius90 wrote: »

it seems this can be variable ..... read from bottom up. looks like it'll be lil bit more than six days for me :o
Thu Dec 06 04:22:11 EST 2007
Payment $27.591248 was paid successfully. Order will be shipped soon.
Fri Nov 30 21:13:11 EST 2007
Payment $27.59 was held successfully. Order has been processed well so far. Thank you.
Fri Nov 30 20:49:30 EST 2007
Order items' availability has been checked. In three days, order will be shipped.
Fri Nov 30 04:20:25 EST 2007
Order has been placed, pending for process.

Mine was very similar, ordered on the 26th November, arrived yesterday 5th December. Their UPS tracking is very good so you'll always have a heads up when its on its way too you.

quilmore

I just finished a chat with their CS
they said it will be delivered today
I've paid for 2 day delivery on 29/10
I wonder if they have forgotten about my order up to now and it will now be done on a rush only because I complained about it
I was expecting to have them for the weekend but I'll have to wait

Scobius90

Cheers majiktripp, i can't wait to see what its like. I have one or two photos that would suit this kind of treatment and could find their way into an xmas stocking this year

beans

Took 9 days from clicking 'upload' to prising the staples out of the box with a screwdriver for me. Happy with the results, but it's so cheap you'd have to wonder do they have a load of 5-year olds working in 16-hour shifts..?

stcstc

or its so cheap you wonder if they are gonna fade or change colour after 6 months

majiktripp

stcstc wrote: »

or its so cheap you wonder if they are gonna fade or change colour after 6 months

Being only €20 for a 12"x18" canvas print, it doesn't really matter if they fade or not after 6 months!

darkman7

As regards uploading it worked fine with IE and FF, no problems at all other than it does appear to do nothing for a min, though from what you said the issue was after the upload.

Re delivery I was on to CS today and they are having a few issues with assembly so if you wanted yours pre assembled then there is a day or two delay and this may increase as we get nearer Christmas. Mine was ordered on Sunday and it said it would ship in three days but it wil take 4.

By the way if you are emailing them their CS emails come from servicetank.com and their IP is listed by spamhaus at the moment so most spam filters will block them.

On tax, my interest is with the value but lso the classification, I think art is duty free but you would need to pay VAT, but for things like photos VAT is sometimes added as a service at the lower rate. UPS tend to just charge the full whack for everything so if anyone does get charged I'd be interested to see the breakdown if you have the patience to get an invoice from UPS...

AnCatDubh

I can vouch for the 6 month mark so scratch that idea - i promise to post though if it begins to fade tomorrow

Although with a little research the text below shows their credentials. I guess 200 years aint bad really. If it fades after 150 years though i'd be sure to look for a full refund and give them a stern letter of rebuke!

"Hewlett-Packard Printers & Inks
We use Hewlett-Packard Z series photo printers and HP Vivera inks to print canvas. Vivera pigment inks are water resistant. Vivera ink prints resist fading for over 200 years. HP 70 Vivera pigment inks with an HP printing system achieve a unique combination of consistently outstanding image quality. Your photos, posters, presentations and maps will be water-resistant and will resist fading for over 200 years. We only use genuine HP Vivera pigment inks to print."

Kali

Mine came last week.. unfortunaly I must have missed the option to have it pre-mounted so ended up having to buy a heavy duty staplegun
Looks good though once it was up, again for next to nothing price-wise you can't complain (cost me £12 sterling delivered) ..!

stcstc

actually those inks are the longest lasting


but they have use a little bit of poetic license with the terms.

200 years is for B&W, 100 for colour i think

and that is based on using HP papers, and particular ones. the matt fine art ones

canvas doesnt last as long, i would be suprised if they are using an expensive canvas on those prices as i buy it for 150 euro for 12 metres ok they gonna get it cheaper on volume, but not cheap enough to do it at their costs.


i suspect they are using a less expensive canvas, and therefore the longevity will actually drop significantly

kjt

I'm thinking of getting a few canvas over the weekend from updone. Just wondering is it much hassle to get the 'assemble yourself' one's?... can you go far wrong popping it together yourself?

Thanks

AnCatDubh

I had mine preassembled (eh... wouldn't trust myself at DIY!) but see post from Kali above. If you've a heavy duty staple gun and trust yourself at the DIY, then seems quite possible. They show pictures of how its done one their web site. Cheers.

stcstc

one small tip

if you are streching a canvas

if your fingers are not hurting after doing it, then you havent streched it tight enough.

AnneRyan

Have been following the thread about canvass prints - very informative!
My question: Have any of you geniuses made a photobook online ?
My daughter is getting married after christmas and I would love some advice as to whose site is easiest and best to use

majiktripp

My colleague used PHotobox to make one and as far as I know it was a pretty painless process, seemingly good value too for a nice sturdy looking photobook/album. I've always found them pretty good price wise and I can't fault their service either.

alleepally

I placed an order last Monday (3rd) with updone.com - no update on the account details of when it will ship. I emailed them as well and no reply. I previously used www.finerworks.com - and they always ship within 4 days. I've ordered upwards of 100 from them.

Bit worried that the order placed with updone.com isn't going to get here in time for Christmas now.

quilmore

AnneRyan wrote: »

My question: Have any of you geniuses made a photobook online ?
My daughter is getting married after christmas and I would love some advice as to whose site is easiest and best to use

I've done the one from aldi photos with this year's pictures of my son
I'm really happy with the final product given that only set me back €30
HINT: if you make each page in high res and then use them as full page background for the aldi photo book is better than if you leave their program to resize the pictures

alleepally

AnneRyan wrote: »

Have been following the thread about canvass prints - very informative!
My question: Have any of you geniuses made a photobook online ?
My daughter is getting married after christmas and I would love some advice as to whose site is easiest and best to use

The majority of sites in Europe all use the same company to make the photobooks, as well as other photo products like calendars. They provide the photobook software to the websites - so useability is pretty much the same for all of them.

Scobius90

Got my canvas today. actually i was lucky i was home for lunch as I had no warning to expect UPS.
The pic came out really well on my 12x18 but i can make out the inner edge of the frame ie. there is a "crease"
Do you think that as the canvas comes back up to room temp that it will tighten? If not ...... :mad:

stcstc

does it have wedges in the frame

is so you can tighten them to tighten the frame

but some of the cheaper frames have a sharp edge where the canvas wraps, this will show the crease

good quality frames have a curved edge, this means the canvas does not crease

AnCatDubh

AnneRyan wrote: »

My question: Have any of you geniuses made a photobook online ?

// Deleting the *geniuses* tag //

Hi Anne,

I have done an albumfactory.co.uk photo book. You download their designer software - create the album offline, do your layouts, etc.. All ok to use and setup the book. Upload your 'book' to them - part with a few euros, actually for about 40 pages i think with delivery i paid about €80.

To be honest i was disappointed with the end result. It just left me uninspired about the photos i took. I think i was expecting a high gloss reproduction perhaps something of the quality of a glossy mag but with better quality paper. I didn't like the colouring they achieved. I was expecting the faux leather hard cover to be substantial but it was underwhelming to say the least.

To be fair, everyone that we showed the book to was blown away by it and really surprised that it only cost €80. Then again these comments came from non-photographers and they definitely were doing a C&C job on it.

I haven't done one since up to now but as it turns out i'm looking to do one at the moment. I can't vouch for it but i've found foto.com have such a facility. Their designer software is far better with what i think are far better layouts for the pages. No idea what the quality of the finished product is like (anyone else care to offer an opinion if they've used it). Cost wise - it was looking like about €40 for 54 pages, hard cover - i think post and packaging may be extra.

Anyhow, that's my experience. I hope that's of interest to you.

darkman7

First off according to updone they have been a tad busier than expected and they reckon any orders placed from yesterday onwards won't make Christmas. They should really put a note on their website saying that their 3 day lead time is now two weeks. Anyhow if so many people hadn't received theirs then I'd be getting very worried.

Photobooks:

I've used photobox.ie and they produce a nice book but quite basic looking. I've found http://www.yophoto.co.uk/ to have a better editor and better quality.

One thing to remember is that books aren't printed to as high a standard as photos.

Anyhow the one that seems to receive the most praise is blurb. They have very good software if it works on your machine. I moved mine to a new machine recently and it now takes 5 mins to add a photo. That said their tech support (after an initial delay) have been very helpful. Anyway if the software works it's excellent. Blurb ( http://www.blurb.com/) do all kinds of books, not just photobooks. You can even get an isbn number and bar code.

Anyhow very good review of self publishing books here:

http://mikedelgaudio.com/wordpress/2006/12/28/pricing-showdown-for-self-publishing-photobooks/

J

Hugh_C

darkman7 wrote: »

Anyhow the one that seems to receive the most praise is blurb. They have very good software if it works on your machine

Up to now I've done five books on blurb and I'm very plesed with the quality and results. I suppose what I'm critical of is my own design, which has a reasonably steep learning curve - not using the software, that's easy - the design itself is a tough thing to do.

I haven't seen stuff from their competitors yet ...

thedarkroom

I got my canvas prints from Updone.com and I am very impressed. I got a large 30x40 inch print and a 38x26 and the results are very impressive, particularly considering that the cost was $43 and $34 respectively. That included delivery by UPS and I didn't get stung for any VAT, tax or duty. $43 for a 30x40 inch! That's about €30. A while back I got a 40x30 print done here and it cost me €130 plus delivery charges and that was not a canvas print. I'll be back to Updone for a lot more. Well recommended amd it only took a week.
On the subject of photobooks, I have used Apple's iPhoto a few times and have found them very good. The current one I am waiting for delivery on is A4 in landscape format with about 50 pages, printed both sides and it is costing €62. Delivery usually takes about two weeks or so. The printing is four-colour off-set rather than on photographic paper, which has it's limitations regarding tonal range and colour depth but I have always found it very good and the layout options for the iPhoto application are good. The only problem I don't like is that you cannot deviate from the page options available and use your own design ideas but I can live with it. I will be trying the blurb.com to see how the layout compares. Very few of the providers seem to offer Mac compatible application, from what I can see Blurb seem to be the only one. Anyone know different? Does anyone know of anyone who provides extra layout options for iPhoto or if the can be customized? I'm sure there has to be a way of doing it.

thedarkroom

quilmore

thedarkroom wrote: »

I got my canvas prints from Updone.com and I am very impressed.

when did you ordered?
I've ordered 2 18x12 on the 29/11 and just yesterday I've got my tracking number (delivered from China!)

darkman7

Well a friend of mine just had word that hers has shipped and she ordered a week after me.

I've been on to them again and still no sign of mine shipping.

So we have a max for tax of 43USD (Incl postage?) without incurring duty/vat. Anybody manage any higher than that?

JP

quilmore

darkman7 wrote: »

I've been on to them again and still no sign of mine shipping.
JP

try the online chat, Sarah was very friendly and sort my order (or at least she made me believe that)

AnCatDubh

darkman7 wrote: »

So we have a max for tax of 43USD (Incl postage?) without incurring duty/vat. Anybody manage any higher than that?

From another thread in a different forum, http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055185979&page=2 , a boards poster got caught for the duty on 60 euro for the tune of 25 euro. Even with the duty it still appeared to be way cheaper than getting it done locally.

I had a strange experience recently where a courier company FedEx or UPS or one of them, delivered the goods and subsequently (months later) invoiced me the duty - just thought it strange, but i did wonder would it be possible that people here might get a 'duty invoice' in a month or so???? I don't want to be scare mongering - it can happen on anything purchased outside EU borders (mine was on a external flash unit) and even with duty to be paid on the canvas prints i think the prices 'boards' people appear to be paying still make it a very good deal for people.

darkman7 - i hope yours turns up ok for you. it doesn't appear to be the general experience. It does appear peculiar if your friends ordered a week later has been shipped.

At this stage (12th of December) - anyone else considering purchasing should be careful where you are hoping / expecting delivery before Christmas. Perhaps attempt to confirm a delivery - as other posters have indicated 'Sarah' the online chat agent is very helpful. That way there will be no disappointments.

Kali

Scobius90 wrote: »

Got my canvas today. actually i was lucky i was home for lunch as I had no warning to expect UPS.

Actually that's another thing; I only noticed mine had been delivered when I went to put my wheelie bin out (four days after delivery!) UPS had just dropped the parcel over the side fence!! .. so I'm glad I went for the self-assembly option (canvas itself was extremely well protected, but the wood was a wee bit damp).

No tax for me, as in the UK you only get import tax charged if the product is over £40.

alleepally

I've had well over 100 canvas prints in from the states (finerworks.com) over the past year and think I got caught for duty on 2 or 3 shipments (and they were only the ones that had 3 or 4 canvases in one shipment.

Bit worried about 2 orders I placed with updone last week. I'm hoping they will get here for Christmas.

stcstc

hey guys


if anyone is stuck and needs canvas prints done for christmas, i can do them.

I will be more expensive than updone, but will give boards members a decent amount of discount if it helps.


Just trying to be helpful, not trying to capitalize or anything


steve

thedarkroom

It took a week from time of ordering to when the prints arrived at my door and there was no duty charged. What I paid at the time of ordering was the only amount due, great value and very happy with the results. I'll be a regular from now on.

darkman7

I have chated to Sarah a few times and she does seem to be sincere. Anyhow a week after I was told it would ship (3 days after the origional date) they have taken payment so fingers crossed.

Interestingly I had an expert over last night who examined the one I got from http://www.photo-canvas.com/ and he was very impressed so it will be interesting to see his impression of the updone ones.

Don't get me wrong at this price I wouldn't expect the same quality but just curious. Once they deliver they are fantasic value and I'd hope to replace mine every few months.

stcstc - nice one for offering to help those that didn't get orders in in time. I hope people appreciate it at this time of year. Have you ordered an updone one yourself yet?

J