Easy Photo Slideshow Creation

The FOTOBOX Plus (wwww.honestech.com, $79.99) is not much larger than some thumb drives, but don’t let its size fool you--it’s filled with plenty of features to make it easy to create a slideshow and more. FOTOBOX Plus downloads photos directly from your camera’s memory card and automatically or manually produces a slick slideshow ready to burn onto a DVD or CD or save in formats suitable for iPods, Smart phones, PSPs and other video players. You can also upload your slideshow directly to FaceBook or YouTube.

To use FOTOBOX just swing it out of its cool protective case, plug your memory card (SD, SDHC, MMC, Mini or Micro SD) into one end, and plug the other end into a USB port on your computer (PCs only). The software starts automatically from FOTOBOX and loads the photos from the memory card into the program. You can also import photo files from your hard drive, disk or thumb drive. At this point you’ll choose the Easy or Advanced Mode and then select a theme (such as funky, classical, ceremony) from those included. If you’re using the Easy Mode, all you need to do is watch the completed show to make sure you’re satisfied with it. If not, you can rearrange the order of the photos or change the timing. Then just burn to disk or save in a selected format. That quick and that easy.

If you chose Advanced Mode, you have creative control over most aspects of your show. This includes rearranging slide order and also changing backgrounds, adding music and narration, editing for red-eye, cropping, adjusting brightness and contrast, adding titles and photo captions and fun effects such as slide motion or changing one or more of the slides to a sepia tone for an old-fashioned look. If you’re burning a DVD you can create a menu for your show, allowing you to jump to a specific point in the show. FOTOBOX can also load video clips as one or more of the slides. For a cool look, these video clips are shown in motion in the DVD menu. If you add music and narration, you can create a more professional effect by adjusting the volumes of each.

The program randomly puts in various transitions between slides. We didn’t think these were always appropriate, but we were able to easily change them by selecting a different transition or a simple fade. You can also change the length of time each slide is shown and the duration for each transition.

We found FOTOBOX to be a fun, fast and easy way to create a slideshow and share digital photos. And, the device can act as a card reader as well.