Phanfare.com

wmoore · January 30, 2007

I was just had a look at Phanfare.com...What a rip off of Smugmug. Have a look at both home pages. Even the whole feel of Phanfare is very smugmug.

Comments

darryl · May 18, 2007

wmoore wrote:

I was just had a look at Phanfare.com...What a rip off of Smugmug. Have a look at both home pages. Even the whole feel of Phanfare is very smugmug.

Comments

Yeah, except Phanfare's UI is slower on old computers and slow connections. :-{

They also don't have the myriad layout options that Smugmug offers. Nor do they offer customization of headers/footers like Pro accounts have.

On the upside, they support video in formats other than MPEG-1, and encode it with bitrates higher than YouTube or Google Video, so it looks better.

Also, their uploading tool (Windows or OS X) is a lot more feature-rich, allowing for cropping, brightness adjustments, etc. using your computer's UI instead of a web browser. Also, you can make all those changes while uploads happen in the background.

I've had a Smugmug Pro account for 3 years, Phanfare for less than a year. I hope they both stick around for a while.

jfriend · May 18, 2007

wmoore wrote:

I was just had a look at Phanfare.com...What a rip off of Smugmug. Have a look at both home pages. Even the whole feel of Phanfare is very smugmug.

Comments

There are a lot of similarties, but man their (flash-based) slideshow is awesome! I'd kill to have that kind of slideshow for Smugmug. Way better than anything I've seen with just JavaScript. It even does Ken Burns kinds of effects.

peestandingup · May 18, 2007

jfriend wrote:

There are a lot of similarties, but man their (flash-based) slideshow is awesome! I'd kill to have that kind of slideshow for Smugmug. Way better than anything I've seen with just JavaScript. It even does Ken Burns kinds of effects.

Im not impressed with that site at all. Im OK with flash based videos, but for photo slideshows & such, it just ends up being slow & clunky. Plus, the overall page designs are chaotic.

I guess the slideshow "looks" better than SM's, but the function is poo poo.

jfriend · May 18, 2007

peestandingup wrote:

Im not impressed with that site at all. Im OK with flash based videos, but for photo slideshows & such, it just ends up being slow & clunky. Plus, the overall page designs are chaotic.

I guess the slideshow "looks" better than SM's, but the function is poo poo.

I only meant to comment on their slideshow functionality. I'm not offering an opinion on the site overall. The slideshows looked awesome to me and I'd love for Smugmug's to be even close to what I saw. Smugmug's slideshows are the ones that seem so clunky and slow that I never use them or recommend any of my viewers use them and the few times I try them, I'm always waiting for the next image to download or trying to change the transition time in between slides.

The slideshow I looked at on Phanfare came up instantly, offered nice smooth transitions, did Ken Burns effects and just looked really, really professional. Maybe they aren't all that way, but the one I saw in a demo gallery sure was nice.

I'm just making these comments to provide feedback to Smugmug not on their site overall, but on how nice their slideshows are and as something for Smugmug to aim at (since I've heard rumors that they are working on better slideshows). The flash-based animation worked great.

I Simonius · May 19, 2007

jfriend wrote:

There are a lot of similarties, but man their (flash-based) slideshow is awesome! I'd kill to have that kind of slideshow for Smugmug. Way better than anything I've seen with just JavaScript. It even does Ken Burns kinds of effects.

tum tee tum tee tum..

Flash presentation is someting I mentioned ages ago... I think it can look VERY professional, I don't think phanfare looks that good though

rainforest1155 · May 19, 2007

Simon King wrote:

tum tee tum tee tum..

Flash presentation is someting I mentioned ages ago... I think it can look VERY professional, I don't think phanfare looks that good though

Yeah, while it may look cool in the beginning with the shuffleling of the photo it get's quite annoying as you never see the full photo.

Sebastian

jfriend · May 19, 2007

rainforest1155 wrote:

Yeah, while it may look cool in the beginning with the shuffleling of the photo it get's quite annoying as you never see the full photo.

Sebastian

That's the Ken Burns effects. Presumably it's an option on the slideshows (or should be). For most kinds of pictures, I like it and often use that effect in my PC generated slideshows. I think it works better for people pictures than landscape pictures.

rainforest1155 · May 19, 2007

jfriend wrote:

That's the Ken Burns effects. Presumably it's an option on the slideshows (or should be). For most kinds of pictures, I like it and often use that effect in my PC generated slideshows. I think it works better for people pictures than landscape pictures.

Ah, thanks John. I heard you referring to that effect, but didn't make the connection to the swirrling around.

Sebastian