The modern era of digital photography is great in that you get some truly fabulous photos, because you instantly see any photos that didn't come out as you hoped and take them again (you no longer get stuck with photos where people closed their eyes or someone walked in front of you or you put your finger over the lens) and you can take several photos at once to select the best of the bunch. The downside, however, is that it is too easy to just leave all your photos on your hard drive or on CD's where you never bother going to look at them. Well, when Pixum asked us if we'd like to review one of their photo albums, I knew it would be the perfect chance to get a hard copy of our last holiday's photos so that the kids (and grown ups come to that !) could have fun flicking through them whenever they want.
I did have a few technical issues with the software but I think that was our computer (which travels between the UK and France) not knowing which country we were in and whether it should be downloading the French or English photo album builder. Once I'd doublechecked that we had the right version installed, it was really quick and simple to create the album.
If you're a perfectionist, you can spend hours deciding which photos should go where on each page, adjusting the size and adding captions. However, if you're stretched for time - and let's face it, most of us are - they have a very handy assistant which does it all for you. That's what I used and I think you'll agree, the resulting book looks great, despite taking just a few minutes to create.
The only thing that takes a bit of time is deciding which photos to use and uploading them to your Pixum account. I would recommend creating a "Pixum" folder on your desktop and copying all the photos you want to use into that, just in case there's a problem and you have to start all over again. This also helps with keeping count of how many photos you've already chosen.
The quality of the photos in the book is very good. It's never quite as good as the prints you get on glossy paper but they're not blurry or fuzzy and the colours are quite realistic. The paper is quite thick and has put up with a lot of page-turning by all of the Mini-Testers, even 2-year-old Pierre who is a bit over-enthusiastic at times.
Everyone who has been to The Madhouse has had a look through and they have all said it makes them want to start creating their own photobooks because it's much more convivial and enjoyable than dragging out the CD's every time you want to look at the holiday snaps.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : see here for the price list - http://www.pixum.co.uk/photo-book/pricelist
for more information : www.pixum.co.uk
Disclaimer : we received a £25 code to use at Pixum which was enough for a hardcover, 26 page photo book and delivery.
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looks good!
ReplyDeleteI love these photo books, I have a few and really enjoy flicking through them.
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