... On two occasions I have had trouble with the machines the first time was when I used a machine in my local shopping precinct to begin with I found the machine very old and shabby with all the instructions rubbed off the buttons and no indications of cost which I thought was bad but wouldn’t ... Read review
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Advantages: Easy to use, easy to locate & excellent customer service Disadvantages: Things do not always turn out how you hoped
INTRODUCTION
Photo-me are big in the world of passport photos but I don’t know any other companies that do this type of thing so there isn’t much competition. They have over 25,000 booths worldwide and apparently making in excess of £160,000 a day would you believe all in instant photograph processing. They have been around for as long as I remember and have at least 50 years experience in the industry.
HOW THEY WORK
... ...because they are quite large in size and normally blue in colour you have examples of photos you can have done on the outside and a big gap with a tell tell black curtain. Once that curtain is closed you are in! The instructions are quite simple some have a voice over telling you what to do, which can be a bit annoying as it is quite slow and doesn’t catch up with how quick you are pressing through the buttons. To begin with you take a seat in front ... more
INTRODUCTION Photo-me are big in the world of passport photos but I don’t know any other companies that do this type of thing so there isn’t much competition. They have over 25,000 booths worldwide and apparently making in excess of £160,000 a day would you believe all in instant photograph processing. They have been around for as long as I remember and have at least 50 years experience in the industry.
HOW THEY WORK You can notice a photo booth from a mile away because they are quite large in size and normally blue in colour you have examples of photos you can have done on the outside and a big gap with a tell tell black curtain. Once that curtain is closed you are in! The instructions are quite simple some have a voice over telling you what to do, which can be a bit annoying as it is quite slow and doesn’t catch up with how quick you are pressing through the buttons. To begin with you take a seat in front of a bright white background the seat is either a bench that cannot be moved a circular stool that can be twisted one way to go down and the other way to go up so you are at the right height for the perfect pic. On the right hand side you have a money slot, which accepts 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins you have to fill the machine up to the value of £4. You then need to decide if you are having your photo taken for fund or for a formal document such as passport, work id, driving license etc. Once your money is in you need to start using the arrow keys in the centre of the machine underneath the screen in front of you. You have up down, left and right with a green button in the middle. Once you have scrolled through the option of passport photos 4 or 6 for an extra £1 which are all identical and measure 172cm(W) x 100cm(D) x 192cm(H) or fun photos which are basically 154mm X 110 mm and have a selection of backgrounds you can choose from to appear in. You then pose for your photo. You are given instructions on where to look and are given 3 attempts at a decent photo. Once your 3 goes are gone you have to pick the best of a bad bunch and click the green button. Once you have made your choice the wait is normally 30 to 60 seconds and the photos pop up either in the inside of the photo booth or the outside depending on the model.
WHERE THE PHOTO BOOTHS ARE NORMALLY SITUATED Normally the photo booths are situated in places such as supermarkets, post offices, airports, shopping centres, railway stations and leisure centres. I personally hate all these places because there is always so much noise and it’s never a private environment, which totally puts me off, but then I suppose where would you keep them? I think the best ones are in busy shopping centres because no one really takes too much notice of what your doing. Well not unless you take that long a queue starts to form (yes unfortunately I am someone who has done that) and the worst place for me has to be outside because of a recent experience in a photo booth outside my local Sainsburys store it was around 7pm and just minding my own business I slipped into the photo booth hoping no one had notice but as soon as I placed my money in the slot a bunch of spotty skateboarders thought it highly amusing to start skating past, peering in the curtain crack and generally just messing around which I found rude and really unnecessary. After that I wouldn’t use an outdoor booth again unless no one was around.
WHAT I THINK TO PHOTO BOOTHS I have used these booths lots throughout life because they seem to be a necessary evil passport photos, driving license photos, works id photos etc you always seem to have to have to part with £4 for a dreadful mug shot that stays with you for an average of 10 years! They used to be cool when I was younger as people didn’t have computers and digital cameras then so you and all your friends used to cram into the nearest photo booth and take lots of cheesy photos for fun. I think these days they aren’t so popular and costing £4 a time its not cheap especially if you make a mess of your 3 shots I have done this on occasions and ended up having to fork out £8 just to apply for a passport which was an added cost I didn’t really need but I suppose if you try your best you should get a decent shot but for some reason I always look dreadful I definitely do not believe in the phrase “the camera never lies” it must do because in normal photos I some how manage to look half decent.
CUSTOMER SERVICE I have to say the customer service these machines offer is second to none. On two occasions I have had trouble with the machines the first time was when I used a machine in my local shopping precinct to begin with I found the machine very old and shabby with all the instructions rubbed off the buttons and no indications of cost which I thought was bad but wouldn’t give me cause to complain however once my 3 shots had been taken the machine recognised that none of them were up to passport standard but it wouldn’t allow you to take another which I think is crazy because if a machine can interrupt a photo why cannot it not allow you to take another! I emailed them on info@photo-me.co.uk and advised them off my problems and they refunded my £4 without hesitation, which I thought, was brilliant. The second occasion was when I was at the outdoor booth outside Sainsburys everything went well this time ok photos and easy instructions however after waiting the full 60 seconds my photos dropped out and an error message appeared on the screen saying “apologises that we are unable to deliver your order at this stage please call 08451004000 for a full refund” I couldn’t understand what the problem was until I had a good look at the photos and realised there was a big circle cut of out of the top which encroached on one of the photos! I don’t know how or why it happened maybe I am just not meant for passport photos!
OTHER SERVICES THEY OFFER Apart from the average photo booth photo-me also are the people behind kids rides coin operated rides, business card machines, digital media kiosks and fun machines that allow you to make stickers and caricature portraits.
Advantages: Perfect mini pocket size,stunning quality photos, very easy to use - simply wonderful! Disadvantages: The price (but it is totally worth it in the end)
take my camera into clubs and parties and taken stunning, memorable pictures of me and my friends that I will treasure. The size of this camera is what separates it from the rest of the big bulky cameras on the market. The quality of the photos are impeccable and the camcorder facility is amazing. The range and quality of features on this baby are great, you can do anything with it!
I found the manual so easy to use, especially for someone like me who is awful with technology!). The battery life is really unbelieveable. I have gone for weeks without charging it and taking it out al the time and it still works.
Since buying this camera it has enabled me to use ebay.co.uk and take photos of things and sell them on the net, so I've made myself a bit of money at the same time! So although this camera is a bit pricey its certainly worth ...
which clicks into place. This allows you to store much more photos, I bought a 512mb memory card for a reasonable price from mymemory.co.uk, and that has lasted me over a year and is not full yet.
You can turn automatic flash on or off, when it is on the pictures never seem to be blurry, whereas when you turn it off sometimes they can be. There is a warning to tell you if you are holding the camera steadily though.
All in all I have found this a great little camera for taking to events/parties/holidays etc, and for day to day use it is excellent. There is no view finder so if you are used to a normal camera may take a minute to get used to. It is easy to use, stylish and small. I would particularly recommend it to young women, and people who like attractive looking products. ...
Advantages: Easy to use, excellent quality pictures Disadvantages: primitive zoom function
little brother and sister eating through Easter Eggs! The good thing is that you can use a 3V adaptor when in the home, and bung in some batteries when you are going out. So far it has served me well, and I have yet to run out of battery life in the middle of taking a photo.
**Price**
Dixons.co.uk – £99.89
This is the only place I found that sold it. I also looked in Amazon.co.uk, but they do not have it.
I think you get good value for money. I know there are cheaper ones around, that probably do the same things, but I didn’t buy it for its specifications! ...
