Photo Lab Shop.

[thai4u]

I thought to go and learn this subject and run a photo lab shop.

Is it worth it?

Cost of equipment?

Second hand prices?

Personal experience?

Low price media supplier? (china town)?

Please tell me your opinion and if have most wellcome-personal experience.

[steveromagnino]

I thought to go and learn this subject and run a photo lab shop.

Is it worth it?

Cost of equipment?

Second hand prices?

Personal experience?

Low price media supplier? (china town)?

Please tell me your opinion and if have most wellcome-personal experience.

THis is producing 35mm photos from film??? Are you sure you want to enter a market that is dying thanks to digital film? AFAIK this is a dying industry, and kodak etc are exiting as fast as they can.

If you mean moving camera film, well maybe there is still some demand for production of this for movie theatres; PM me and I'll set up you with some contacts in that industry; however we are talking massive capital costs, and I cannot see anyone coming onto a webboard and asking, how do I set myself up to compete with/supply Technicolor?

[thai4u]

steveromagnino. thank you for your reply.

I'm talking about DIGITAL print out.

Not dealing with films as its going out from the industry as you mentioned.

Well,I agree with you about that but I think.and correct me if I'm wrong,that still people own digital cameras want to print out the photos.

I want to get some info about this industry/costs in thailand.

Best regards.

[A_Traveller]

steveromagnino. thank you for your reply.

I'm talking about DIGITAL print out.

Not dealing with films as its going out from the industry as you mentioned.

Well,I agree with you about that but I think.and correct me if I'm wrong,that still people own digital cameras want to print out the photos.

I want to get some info about this industry/costs in thailand.

Best regards.

Looked at this originally a few years ago, but the location costs militate against it {This business is very location dependent}. Review Fuji's offerings in this area.

Also the growth in PC usage reduces the market place, with Brother among others offering card slots directly on the printer, for example.

Regards

PS Several of those in this market-place are doing this as a hobby for the significant other, which has a profitably impact.

/edit add PS//

Edited March 28, 2007 by A_Traveller

[Chang_paarp]

The photo industry has gone through a few changes in the last few years.

What do want to operate?

A full service photo lab, with digital printing capabilities?

These are expensive to set up, the better labs come from Fuji, their Frontier series are great labs with a lot of interesting facilities depending on which market you are going into. Noritsu have a range of labs, unfortunately my experience with them has not been a positive one in Australia. There are some old labs from Agfa and Konica-Minolta, the konica on is good, but support for these labs is limited as the companies are no longer in the industry.. KISS has re-invented themselves with a new range of labs, they have not been known for their support. You are looking about 2-3mil baht for this equipment new, depending on configuration and not a lot less used.

Do you want to include film?

Film is a reducing market, the processing equipment needs a minimum quantity of throughput to maintain chemical balance, although is all the opposition has gone out of film you can develop a niche.

Are you looking at a wet lab or a dye sub based system?

The above information is about a wet lab, more up-front costs but cheaper to run once it is in place. It is also better quality output. The dye-sublimation printers such as the Copal and Sony are good for what they do and the consumables have come down in price noticeably over the last couple of years, however they are limited to the size paper loaded and it is not easy to change the paper size.

Are you familiar with printing photos?

If you are planing on offering a full service lab you will need to understand the nuances of printing colour, or hire someone who does. While the auto button on many systems works OK, you will not be offering anything different from the pharmacy or shop down the road. To gather some support from the customers you need to be able to do better than the untrained people.

Do you have any experience in the industry?

It really helps when you start dealing with the reps who want your business. It also shows when you deal with your customers. My replacement in the lab I just left is a little hesitant, in-spite of 10 years experience in the industry and the customers are not sure about him.

[thai4u]

Well, I saw a used one Fuji minilab frontier series for 3000-5000 $.

Also another option is to add to an existing business a semi Kodak express photo Kiosk.(have also Ehrlich brand).

Is it worth it ? whats the best option and according to my research it will cost for minilab with all equipment about 400K baht.

For Kodak kiosk (or ehrlich) - 250K-350K baht.

Is it a profitable business in today digital generation cameras?

(I will focus only on digital format).

Please ur kind and profesional advice.

[Prudent_rabbit]

The Fuji Photo shop near me in the llast 2 years added the following

sold booze

Sold Ciggies

Now sells snacks

Has an internet side

Now has some machines put aside for Gaming

oh and still does some printing of photos, but its very diversified now

opens every day from 8 till 9

tough work me thinks

[Gary A]

Speaking for myself, on the rare occasion that I want prints, I print them on my Canon home printer. I have had friends ask me to burn their photos on CD's for them. I think prints are pretty much a thing of the past.