I admit, for years now, despite being basically a do-it-yourselfer, I have just been getting prints from ofoto/Kodak Easyshare. A number of years ago Consumer Reports did an analysis pointing out that print-it-yourself prints came in (at the time) at almost $.50 per print when you included the paper, ink, and printer wear and tear, while at the time the services were charging $.30/print (less during sales). In addition, you didn’t have the hassle of fighting with your printer! Since then, prices at the services have come down to ~$.15/print, and though I bet home-printing prices have come down too, they still probably don’t beat the services’ prices.

I also don’t really trust the home-ink-based processes to be as high-quality or last as long as the photo-chemical based processes the labs use.

Being able to print the occasional snapshot is nice, especially when our kids come home from gan with a note “please bring in a picture tomorrow” — now I don’t need to raid the albums, I can take a picture and print it on the spot, without caring so much about quality. We still order from Easyshare — with a big enough order it is still even worth it having them shipped abroad, and with a smaller order, if a relative is coming to visit, we have them schlep it.

I know there must be Israeli services we could use, but inertia is a heavy thing to overcome…