Rating: 
Summary: A Beginners Point of View....
Review: This review is strictly for people like me...beginners in the field of digital photography...who love digital photography so much, you want more and more stuff associated with it! But do you need this much photo software?If you're like me, you already of course have photo software on your computer...I already had the MY PICTURES XP software, the Dell photo software, the ArcSoft photo software that came with my Canon scanner, the HP photo software that came with my HP printer, the PictureIt! photo software that came with MSN 9 internet service, and the Kodak EasyShare software that came with my camera. Oh, and just today I got the Ofoto photo software that came with my first Ofoto archive CD, which contains my film photos. So, what in the world did I buy this for? Well, I got it half price, and I guess I was thinking the Digital Image would become the Almighty photo software, which would allow me to discard all the others. Wrong! It has not worked out that way. This software has a great library, but so does the PictureIt! that comes with MSN 9. It's actually like the same Microsoft library. The Kodak software also has a great album library...only many time the photos are there only in thumbnail, and the files are in some other software library...at which time I must go find the photo file, right click, and open it with the Kodak software to get it back there. But why would I want it back there, you ask...well, as it turns out, the Kodak software is the only one that flawlessly controls my Iomega external CD burner. The Kodak software also seems to make better prints, than when I use the HP software, which is what I must use with the Digital Image. Moreover, the Kodak software is simply easier and less time consuming. Of course, the Digital Image has tons more editing features and such. So, what you need to ask yourself, if you are a beginner like me, is do you have the time and interest in exploring massive photo software? If you do, this is an excellent program to get. If you do not, you may want to save your money, and just use one of the easier, less costly softwares...such as one you already have. This does come with a huge manual, which I was so pleased about, since I am an avid reader of manuals. Yet, I'm afraid the manual is not that detailed! It's odd--it even devotes lots of pages to a photographer who discusses her adventures with digital photography. Gee, if I wanted to read such stories, I would have gotten a photography book! This was suppose to be a detailed manual, but in my opinion, it fell short. Also, all the "auto-fix" editing devices have fallen short--the Kodak software does just as well in fixing photos. I intend to come back and edit this in the future, if I discover I can't live without this Digital Iamge software. But right now, I could. Easily.
Rating:
Summary: Slight Incremental Improvements
Review: Well, Microsoft has done a good job of bundling to great solutions for editing and managing images. But for users of prior versions of the product may find the new features to Digital Image Pro 9, not all that needed and may not find there money's worth upgrading. The Digital Image Library program is very nice it does a good job at organizing, managing and finding images. But the cost is not justified and I can recommend a superior easy to use Photo-editing and image management bundle that surpasses Image Pro 9 in usability and quality and also offers all the image management features with much more organization and management tools and procedures. This program is Adobe Photoshop Elements plus Adobe PhotoAlbum 2.0. Photoshop Elements has all the necessary tools from the highend version of Photoshop with superior ease of use and perfect quality results. Photoshop Albums management tools is so amazing, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. You organize images by day, year, month, groups, such as family and friends. You can also create your own category. You can create a simple slide show to view your images and it has simple Photo editing features but Photoshop Elements gives you all you need. But if you liked earlier versions of Image Pro such as the excellent Image Pro 7, stick with it, the incremental features are only needed for people who are probably looking to stick on the Microsoft path who were using previous version such as Picture It! version 1 up to 6. So if you want true tools and worth the value with great results, take a really close look at Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 plus Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0
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