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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

AdoramaPix Photo Book Review

Hi everyone! As I've mentioned several times before on the blog, I am a huge fan of photo books. I love being able to preserve memories in such a fun way. I love the feeling of getting pictures off of my hard drive and into a real, substantial, hand-held book. I love getting them in the mail and cracking them open for the first time, and I love pulling them off of my shelf time and time again.

I decided that I'm going to review the different companies I've used (Shutterfly, MyPublisher, AdoramaPix, and Blurb) and the different kinds of products I've made (photo books, greeting cards, and calendars).

I started last week with my Shutterfly Calendar Review, and today I want to show you the photo book I recently made with AdoramaPix. It was also a Christmas gift, one for my sister and her husband of their engagement photos.


As I've mentioned before, I've made most of my photo books with Shutterfly. I was excited to branch out and try a new company with AdoramaPix. They're different from Shutterfly in that they use real photo paper for their pages (resulting in very nice pictures and really thick, sturdy pages) and they sell only layflat photo books. (A layflat book is just that - a book that lays flat when open. There's no "page curl" in the middle of the book. (This picture illustrates it nicely.)) So, here's what I thought of AdoramaPix!

Cover:

I really liked the cover. It was very thick and sturdy and had a cool metallic sheen to it.


Front end pages:

A lot of the different reviews of AdoramaPix that I read said that there were no end pages in the photobooks, and that if you wanted endpages you'd have to leave a blank spread. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the book and there were nice black end pages in both the front and back of the book. They must have changed it at some point due to demand. So, to repeat: you do not have to leave any blank spreads to get end pages in an AdoramaPix photobook. The end pages are already there.


Here's one of the spreads, and a different view of the layflat pages:


Notice that there's no gutter; the pages (and pictures) are continuous. This allows you to do some really cool, unique spreads with pictures stretching over both pages.


Another spread:


Here's an up-close shot of the layflat pages. AdoramaPix recommends not putting something important like a person's face in the fold, and I can see why. I probably wouldn't do it again, although it's really not too distracting:

 
Here's a couple of shots that illustrate how thick the pages are:


This page is standing up on its own. It's so thick that it can just balance there. That's pretty impressive!


Here's a comparison of Shutterfly page thickness (on the left) and AdoramaPix page thickness (on the right):


Another view of how flat the book lays:


Another spread:


Back end pages:


Notice that there are fingerprints on the left page:


I've never had Shutterfly pages pick up or show fingerprints, but as AdoramaPix is real photo paper it is going to pick up fingerprints, especially on darker pages. So, expect that, and handle pages carefully.

And finally, the back cover:


A Shutterfly book on the left, with the AdoramaPix book on the right:


I like that there's no bar code on the AdoramaPix back cover.

Here's a comparison shot of a Shutterfly book (on top) and the AdoramaPix book (on bottom:


You can really see how thick the AdoramaPix book is here. That's a standard 8x8 twenty-page Shutterfly book on top, while the AdoramaPix book has only fourteen pages and is still a lot thicker than the Shutterfly book.


So:

AdoramaPix

Website: www.adoramapix.com

Book stats: 8"x8", 14 pages
Software: Very good, very easy to use. They have good layouts to choose from, and the layouts are also fully customizable.
Paper quality: Top notch. The pages were extremely thick and sturdy, and had a nice sheen to them. They also had a kind of texture to them, though, which seemed to blur fine picture detail.
Print quality: Really good, although some of the detail of the pictures was lost in the sheen and texture of the page. The pictures were also darker than they appear on my computer screen; if I were to make another book with AdoramaPix, I would brighten the images before putting them in the photo book.
Cover quality: Again, really good. The cover was very thick and had a cool metallic sheen. Again, though, some of the photo detail was lost in the texture and the sheen.
Prices: Much higher than some other companies, and AdoramaPix runs fewer deals. A 14-page 8"x8"AdoramaPix book (without shipping) costs $25.95, a 26-page 8"x8" book (without shipping) costs $41.95. I bought the 14-page 8"x8" book on sale for $14.95. By comparison, a 20-page 8"x8" Shutterfly book costs $29.99 without shipping, and they very often have sales where you can get anywhere from 30-50% off.

Overall thoughts: The book was obviously high quality. The thick cover and pages with the sheen and the real photo paper look nice. However, I did wish that the pictures looked a bit sharper - fine picture details were lost in the texture of the page. I was considering making my wedding photo album with AdoramaPix, but for this reason, I think I'll make it with another company. I really want my wedding pictures to look nice and crisp. But, this book was very nice and made an excellent gift.

Another imporant side note: Because of the way they bind their layflat pages, AdoramaPix offers very specific page counts in their photo books. For example, in the 8"x8" size you can choose 14 pages, 26 pages, 38 pages, 50 pages, or 76 pages - but nothing in between. That's another reason I'm going to do my wedding photo album with a different company; although AdoramaPix would lend a nice gravitas to the book, I really want to use more pictures than I can fit in 76 pages.

And that's what I thought of AdoramaPix!

To check out more of my photo book reviews, check out these posts:

Shutterfly Photobook Review
Shutterfly Premium Leather Layflat Photo Book Review
Shutterfly Calendar Review 
York Photo Photo Book Review
MyPublisher Photo Book Review 
Collage.com Photo Book Review
Photo Book Comparisons

18 comments:

  1. That is so lovely! What a sweet treasure:)

    Hopping by and following your lovely blog's FB and Pinterest. I blog @ Getting Healthy with Essential Oils

    I am also inviting you to join Tiddle Diddle Handmade Shoppe's first giveaway event.

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    1. Thank you! :) And thanks for the invite, I'll check it out!

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  2. What wonderful pictures! I haven't tried this company before, but I buy a lot of photo books.

    I host a link party every Thursday - I'd love you have you join and share this.

    Thank you for the great post!

    -Angie
    www.easylivingmom.com

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    1. Thank you! I know, aren't photo books the best?

      I'd be delighted to join your link party, thanks for inviting me!

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  3. Thanks for the review! I've tried many companies, but not this one. Appreciate the side by side review. My problem with shutterfly is the colors are sometimes faded.

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    1. Yes, that can happen. I've also had variations in the color from Shutterfly - one time I ordered two copies of the same book, and one whole book was very slightly yellow-er than the other book. Weird!

      Thank you for stopping by! :)

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  4. I've never heard of this company! I use Shutterfly for just about everything. How do prices compare?? Off to check it out...

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    1. Yeah, they're a lot less well known. Shutterfly's still my main go-to photo company. :) AdoramaPix is definitely more expensive in general; I just updated the post to put in some price comparisons.

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  5. I have never done a photo book before. Looks like a really fun way to preserve some memories. I'm your newest facebook fan and gfc follower. I wanted to thank you for stopping by Posed Perfection tonight and leaving me a sweet comment on my Girly Birthday Party Themes post. I hope you'll visit again and maybe even follow me back. Have a great weekend!
    Blessings,
    Nici

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    1. Thanks Nici! I'm following you now on Facebook. Your blog is really cute and I look forward to seeing your new posts in the future!

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  6. I love making photo books, they make the best gifts. I am a new follower! I found your link on Flamingo Toes. I would love for you to link up to my weekly linky party Fluster Muster on Wednesday’s @ http://www.FlusterBuster.com.

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    1. Yeah, they are so fun. :) And thanks! I will definitely link to your linky party; thanks for the invite!

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  7.  Hi, great post. I found you through the blog hop. Please stop  by and say hi when you get a chance.  .Be sure and check out my new Blog Hop that started. It's Weekly Goals Link Up. It's a great way to stay on track. Have a great day. :) Now following you.  Here's the link for it if you would like to check it out.
    http://lenettacarnes.blogspot.com/2013/01/weekly-goals-linkup.html
    Lenetta

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    1. A goal linkup sounds great! I just started some resolutions (along with a lot of other people, I'm sure) and it would be fun to share them. Thanks for the invitation!

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  8. Hi,
    Thanks for the review! Everything sounded great until the end.... What do you mean that the pictures weren't "sharp"? They really weren't crisp? I've been planning on making my wedding album through them, because they're one of the cheapest lay flats in the market, and also because I've made my spreads already and some of them have faces in the middle - something that would never fly if there's even a teeny gutter, like a lot of the other lay flats and flushmounts in the market have. I do really care about quality though. A lot. I don't have the budget for a flush mount so adoramapix seemed like the best option - layflat and quality, but in my price range.... But if the pictures don't print crisply that really makes me double think using them! :(
    Who did you end up using for your wedding album? What would you recommend?

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    1. I replied to this and your other comment on the Shutterfly Layflat Review page. :)

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  9. Which photo book software did you end up using for your wedding album? I'm currently trying to decide which company to use. Thank you!

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    1. Hi! I ended up using Shutterfly. You can check out my review of the wedding album here: http://jocelynandjason.blogspot.com/2013/12/shutterfly-layflat-photo-book-review.html :)

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