Coffee Table or Flush Mount Albums?

[sito]

As I see, more and more photographers as well as groom & brides are opting for coffee table style albums. Why is that? What advantages do you see over Flush Mount Albums (I understand albums with hard nearly seamless pages)?

[Storybook Pages]

Sito, since the terminology can be confusing...(flush mount, magazine-style, coffee table style...), how do you define/differentiate coffee table style vs flush mount?

There seems to be no concensus on the differences in all these products in the digital album world. For example, many people imply that a coffee table book is thinner, has bendable paper pages and usually comes with a thin photo cover - often with a dust jacket. That definition would seem to fit an Asuka Book...but how would you classify a VisionArt album? Similar cover but thincker, lay-flat pages? And Leather Craftsmen calls their 3500 album (thick, stiff pages, and heavy leather cover) a Coffee Table album.

Very confusing. What's your viewpoint?

[sito]

When I say Flush Album I am referring to stiff pages and heavy leather/leatherette cover. That is what I read in the INternet. For me coffee table style albums are made with bendable pages. But I am not a specialist, so I would appreciate your comments. My question is actually if clients prefer soft pages or had ones.

[randplaty]

I prefer "flush mount" albums (leather cover, thicker pages) because they seem to be built to last and the less expensive companies don't cost much more than "coffee table" books (based on the price list asuka books sent me).

[Croasdail]

I absolutely love the coffee table books. There is so much flexibility with them, size, layout, types of paper.... the options are almost endless, as well as their cost. But ultimately I like them because they do exactly what you call them, you can leave them out on the coffee table anytime. The formal albums tend to sit in their little box shrines and are seldom viewed. I can't remember the last time I had my own out... or where it is for that fact. Just my opinion.

[tim]

If the pages can be bent it's a book, not an album. I don't do books any more, I trust Queensberry albums to last many decades, I don't trust even Asuka to last a decade.