Nations Photo Lab Photo Prints

Extremely annoying that it seems this app does not work with uploading iPhone RAW files. I think it has something to do probably with with the file type but there’s little info online. It only gives an error that something went wrong and to try again later. Just tell me I uploaded an incompatible file so I don’t wonder what’s wrong for a month. Otherwise, I like the app. It is a little buggy, previews sometimes disappear. Zoom is a little granular and makes big step changes when trying to move the image in the crop window. I wish it would display printing dpi based on the image and printing size. I also wish it wouldn’t group the photos by size but I understand if you are ordering 100s it probably necessary.

The app closing down any time you try to do anything is really frustrating. Honestly, without getting the free 5x7’s, I would not have continued to fight the app (you wouldn’t believe what I would do for a Klondike bar). There are a lot of thing you need to go to the browser for, even on your phone works better than the app. Each screen really needs a search function, and you should be able to go to the cart from any screen. It can be difficult to navigate to specific products. Somehow, I ended up with cc on 5 of my images, even though I was very careful to deselect it on every item added. I hope they work out; not only did I waste the funds on it, my monitor has been calibrated to NPL prints, and I can’t afford the time to reorder if they are bad. These are the mistakes made when you spend 2 hours on a task that should take 15 minutes.

I've ordered through Nations before, so I wanted to give the app a shot. (Getting 10 free 5"x7" prints definitely enticed me!) I felt the app worked fine for what it was. But as it is with many apps, you're getting a "dumbed down" version of what you can do with desktop. For example, I could only figure out how to change print size. There was no apparent way to change paper type to glossy or metallic, you just got "lustre" (known as matte anywhere else.) Nor could you turn off color correction (conveniently an extra charge), add borders, etc. I had to go into the main website via laptop for that. And you can obviously select pics from your phone. The app also allows integration with Instagram/Facebook and Google. But there's no way to directly add pics from Flickr, SmugMug, or other more photo-dedicated social media. Instagram images are notoriously lo-res, so there's no way I'd want to use them as a template for a 5"x7" (or larger) photo. So I had to first download images from Flickr to upload to the app. Not the end of the world, but Flickr integration would make things a lot easier. And when I got to check-out, the only payment option was PayPal, which seemed pretty bizarre. The app was easy enough to use, but I doubt I'd use it again, unless I wanted to quickly upload iPhone shot images.