As I recently discussed, I’ve recently
acquired a camera for improving my family photography (and maybe also indulging
in some hobbyist photography as well). My original motivation for purchasing that
camera was not just to have better quality digital photos, but especially to have
beautiful photos which I can frame or put into family albums.
Now that I’ve been shooting for a little while, I decided to order some prints
online. Although my father (and significant photography influencer) uses AdoramaPix,
I heard good things about Mpix and decided to give them a go.
All in all, I ended up ordering the following items from them in two orders:
I was generally quite pleased with the results. All of the prints, the portraits,
and the gallery wrap came out beautifully. I would definitely recommend those.
On the other hand, I was a bit less enthusiastic about the
photo album printed on stock paper. The contrast, tonality, and dynamic range of
the images printed onto the stock paper were far less than what I naively expected.
While the album doesn’t look bad, per se, I’d probably either splurge for proper
photo paper or go to another vendor next time.
Prices were reasonable for quality of photos received, although not a steal by
any means. I ordered the more expensive glossy finish and lustre coatings on quite
a few photos out of curiosity. The gloss and B&W treatments cost about 20% more
than the typical prints, while the lustre finish adds about 45 cents (or more)
on top of the choice of photo print paper. For next time I’ll know that the
glossy finish is mostly useful for either prints which are very saturated and
could benefit from increased contrast and brightness, or for classical portraits
with soft, neutral backgrounds. (The B&W paper is self-explanatory.)
I did have a couple of snafus with my orders. On my first order, for which I
purchased two framed portraits, one of the frame’s glass broke somewhat in transit.
Although the package was extremely well wrapped and insulated, the frame backing’s
tabs were not fully depressed; it seems like during transit the backing shook loose
of the frame and had enough slack left for the glass to break. (On the second
order they accidentally shipped me some prints from someone else; all of my own
prints were accounted for.)
Both times I reached out to customer service around 9pm EST, and on both occasions
I received email support within minutes. For my broken portrait, Mpix was able
to ship me a replacement frame order and shipped it to me at no charge.
Therefore, although I’m a bit puzzled by what appears to be minor sloppiness
in the shipping, the customer support has been solid enough for me to reserve
further judgment.
Overall I’d say that Mpix generally (with the possible exception of the stock paper
photo album) delivers on their quality and customer service reputation. I’ll
definitely be listening for stories of others using Mpix, though, because I’m
curious whether others have had similar mishaps with their shipments/orders.
(My apologies for not posting any pictures of the goods; the photos I printed
are of a more intimate family nature, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable posting
scans of those photos.)