Since going digital, I have little to no experience with getting my prints made by photo labs since I do all this myself.
Recently I decided to try farming-out some 3x,4x & 5x prints to a local lab for convenience.
The color was very good and matched my own prints very well, but the image clarity and focus looked soft.
Has anybody else noticed this? Is this a lab-specific problem?
Would comparing my prints to a premium lab like Bay Photo, Miller's or WHCC be worthwhile? They all use pretty much the same machines.

I send all my prints to a pro lab..and never get soft prints. I would suggest trying another lab.

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I would try another lab. Though we do use the same printers in terms of equipment, workflow and maintenance are HUGELY different.

Sharpness can be ruined by a bad rendering or wrong printer settings.

Give another lab a chance at your files.

I know Millers will do some test prints for you if you set up an account. We LOVE them!!! to pieces

...agreed, it is likely the printer itself.
Coincidently, I used to work at this lab and for Noritsu (Pre-digital)

I expect that they do take good care of their systems & do have regular QC checks.
I dunno what's up as I never worked on their digital printers, but I will give WHCC, Miller's & Bay Photo a try.

Thanks

Could be a strange rendering by the machine, but it is most likely software that is feeding the images to the printer.

We operate many Noritsus, but don't let any of them do anything other than printing, no color, profiling or sharpening, everything else is handled way before the images hits the printers.

I would be interested in seeing the files as well, drop me an email or check out the site.

Jeff

Thanks for the offer, Jeff.Thats very kind of you.It seems that my suspicions were true. In my days as a Noritsu tech in the analog days, the lenses were tweaked a littlse softer from Sharp to produce more appealing images when printing for the general public. It seems that this practice still lives with digital labs...I E-mailed the lab with this question & here is their reply: "Yes. You are right that Noritsu printer has the setting slightly more out offocus!We can change the customized settings on your prints to be sharper if youwant. I've got a scale from 0 to 10 and right now it sits at 0.Just put it in the notes (Write: increase sharpness to 3) when you send yourorder in the future. " The lab owner does weddings, but the lab itself is a 1-hour lab. I can either provide the special instructions or find a lab that has no pre-settings in place.The odd thing is, I asked for no corrections when I made the order, I had no idea that focus would be anything bu sharp...or that sharpness had to be requested.I may still work with them for quick, short print runs as I do trust them, but I'll definately identify a true pro-level lab for getting me proper prints.Hey Jeff, I used to be a tech for Chromira. Did I meet you at one of their user group meetings?