Pixelpaint.co.nz A3 Photobook Review

UPDATED - Click here to see the review of the final product

A while back I did a review on a pixelpaint.co.nz canvas print. I was happy with the canvas and the service they provided so when they introduced their photobooks I thought I'd give them a crack as well. Today we got a book in the mail. While it looks great the Pixelpaint team weren't 100% happy with it yet as they thought they could do better. As a result the official review will be coming soon. Until we receive their final copy this will act as a fill in for anyone thinking about making a purchase before we get our final copy.

Overall:

So far it looks promising. While I noticed a few minor imperfections in the first book they sent through they did tell us that they were fixing them up (See the note in the picture above - click it to enlarge it). I look forward to receiving a book that is up to their standards in the days ahead.

Materials:

Cover:
The cover material is very nice and differentiates itself from the book's interior. The cover seems to be printed on a light fabric or canvas. The texture is nice to the touch and also to the eye.

Construction:
The book feels secure when vieiwing it on the table but a little wobbly when carrying it open. The glue in our book has spilt out a bit on the last page - I suspect this is an imperfection that they are looking to rectify in a subsequent copy.

Pages:
The pages have a nice feel to them. They are 170gsm with a slight glossiness to them. The whites are also nice and clean.

Ink:
The colours are vibrant and strong. In our current book some of the balck and white shots appear to have a minor green tinge to them. While most people wouldn't notice this it could be what they were talking about when they mentioned the imperfections.

Print Resolution:
The print resolution is solid. Some of our shots came up with a resolution warning, we suspected that these warnings were on the conservative side - aimed more at printing from point-and-shoot cameras than cameras and lenses with a higher image quality (dSLRs and the like) - and it looks like we were right. All of our images look great resolution wise but it should be noted that the quality of their printers will not make up for poor quality images, cameras, or lenses.

Service:

Pros
Their Zealous service came through in their detection of imperfections in our photobook. As a result they took the initiative and reprinted our book before we asked them to. As an added bonus they sent through the imperfect book so we had something to look at in the meantime.


Cons
When the books were first listed the turnaround time was listed as 15 days. In fact the turnaround time is 15 working days. This lead to a bit of dissappointment in that the book didn't arrive when we expected it to. That being said I have been in touch with the pixelpaint team and this error should be fixed soon.

The information in the my orders section still leaves a lot to be desired. While it does indicate whether your photobook order has been placed or is printing these labels don't seem to mean much. In fact your book will be in the printing phase from the moment your order is officially processed. As such it can be 'printing' for 15 working days. Furthermore our book needed to be reprinted - this was not indicated in the my orders section.