MPIX Assembled Album

[Raivyn]

Hi everyone,

I was curious to know if anyone has ever purchased an MPIX assembled album. This is NOT the photobook. They appear to be prints that are mounted to pages in a leather bound album with 1/16th of an inch, so they are quasi-matted/quasi-flush mount albums. You can get their E-surface paper, or their metallic paper, and you can get lustre coating on the E-surface paper. You can get a maximum of 40 pages.

They aren't inexpensive - a 8x8 40page album w/lustre coating is about $300. Has anyone purchased one of these? Thanks in advance!

[dou_b_14]

im curious about this also. I saw the album on their site last week and i was interested in it immediately

[bomzai]

Great question! I would like to know this one as well :)

[_aravena]

I'm trying to think, I'd have to go see, but I use Asuka books for weddings and their prices seemed better than that. Of course you have to design the pages...

[DeCeccoNET]

We purchased one, and the end result was beautiful. The software itself however is another matter entierly. You can download it on the site (and i think it has been updated since we used it, but at the time the interface was poorly designed, and it crashed several times (on a mac).

Recently I designed another book, but actually opted for Apple's service (through iPhoto) solely for the ease of layout creation, and was also very happy with the results.

Of the two however, the MPIX book was superior in that it's cover photos were printed directly onto the hardcover itself (as apposed to Apple's dustjacket). Also the apple book's inside back cover features a "made on a mac" logo which cannot be removed as far as I could tell.

[_aravena]

Hm...this could save me time from working on my wedding photos as a nice album. Hm....decisions decisions. These are nice.

De, do you have any photos of yours? Just curious to see what they really look like.

[DeCeccoNET]

PM me your email address, I'll try to post some shots on my mobile me site later tonight

[Raivyn]

Would you mind sharing photos of the album with me, too?

I have a budget bride friend who wants high quality, but doesn't understand that with albums, quality = price. I did a sample Shutterfly and Blurb book just as a comparison (hated the Shutterfly book). We're getting a Graphi book ourselves, but maybe she thinks she can save money by designing her own album.

Thanks for posting!

[DeCeccoNET]

Not a problem... the easiest thing for me to do right now is link you to my mobile me gallery. (http://gallery.me.com/jdececco3#100137)

The MPIX album was put together by my friend who felt their software was very tempremental to use. It crashed several times, but in the end, he got excellent results.

The album I put together was the apple one... I also had experiance using the mpix software for other orders and decided that I would rather use iphoto to create a book instead.

Aside from the dustjacket, the only other difference quality wise would be the "made on a mac logo" on the inside cover (which i just realized i dont have a picture of). Its not a deal-breaker for me, but I could see where such a logo may be unwanted...

[Raivyn]

I don't think that album is the album I was referring to in my original post. It looks more like a coffee table book or photo book.

With MPIX's assembled album, the pages actually lie flat. Here (http://www.mpix.com/Product.aspx/assembledalbums) is a link to the book I am referring to on MPIX's site.

[DeCeccoNET]

My apologies, I see what you were talking about now and what I ordered is more like the coffe table book.

What I can say though is both my friend and I have used the Mpix software for other projects as well, and the end product has always been excellent. The only drawback is that we find ourselves fighting the software, which seems to have been updated since I last used it anyway.

The software has always been a free download on their site as far as I know, so I would reccomend trying it out to see if you like it, before commiting to a job where you would need to use it.

[Raivyn]

I've used their regular uploader for photos, and that was a nightmare. Took FOREVER. I haven't used their software for designing books since I design them in photoshop and upload them that way.

Thanks for sharing your photobook, though. It turned out very nice and I like the cover.

I would do a tester MPIX album, but even the small 4x6 albums are pricey ($80). But by the same token, peel & stick albums you assemble yourself can be $300, so at least MPIX is saving you the labor involved, plus the cost of actually producing the prints.

I might just break down and send them an email inquiry about the product, though I was hopeful someone already took the plunge and could share (if you're out there, please post!) :)