Whether one is a professional photographer or a hobby one, getting photos printed has become rarer with every passing day thanks to the advent and increasing popularity of digital cameras. But even with a digital camera, getting a print for framing can be nice. Unfortunately, many are unsure how to do that and what’s the best way to get the print made.

The ideal solution for many would obviously be if they could get this done online. Since most digital photos do end up on the computer, it is only logical. But investing in a printer of photo quality may not be everyone’s cup of tea. So a big (although slightly premature) welcome to Zoomin!

Zoomin is perhaps India’s second chance for an online photo delivery system. There were some abandoned efforts by Kodak to launch Ofoto about four years ago but that amounted to nothing. Whether Zoomin works will also depend on how easy the interface and transaction processes are but more importantly, can users do more than just order prints? Yes they can and I think this will be one of the biggest advantages that Zoomin offers. In fact, you can import your photos from a couple of the most popular services like Flickr and Picasa and order prints!

As is the trouble with most online entities, people won’t sign up for the same service in ten places (unless it’s social networking we are talking about!) and the import function that Zoomin offers therefore becomes all the more important. It’s simple and you just need to ignore Flickr’s warning that it may be unwise to allow Zoomin access!

Once imported, you can also edit the photos and place your order. I was quite impressed with the range of editing features on offer and the buying process was quite simple as well. And there are other photosharing options as well which means you won’t really miss Flickr too much. Nah, we didn’t mean that!

While no launch date has been specified, and the site still seems to be in internal beta, it does seem like they will offer 15 free 4×6” prints with the first order. This, however, may change as the launch date approaches. Costs are now available on the site and a 4×6” print will cost Rs 4, while a 5×7” will cost Rs 7, an 8×10” Rs 40 and four 2×3” Rs 20. The prices for the first two items are really competitive but for the 8×10”, they seem a little steep. There is no indication yet as to where the photos are going to be printed.

The good part is that Zoomin will deliver even one photo (they didn’t object to me not including more in my order) but it’s best if you have more than that in your order since the shipping (courier) charges are Rs 25 and my order for one photo was coming up to Rs 28.12. Same cost of shipping for 20 prints too! You can do the math.

This was a long-overdue service for India and can perhaps make it easier for people to own and use digital cameras while also giving them the advantages of traditional photography thanks to the prints.

Tags: Zoomin, online photo printing, photosharing, order prints