Monday 3 February 2014

Purikura Review: Fotoroom

This is a new machine with seats! Perfect if you feel a bit tired, it also has an ice-cream campaign at the moment. But what about the rest?

P1060942

The theme of this purikura is old photo booths, the slogan on the side is “Go back to foto roots.” I can see how that works with the seats.

The first screen is on the outside of the machine.

P1060886

From this screen you choose your course “Edgy feminine” or “Modern Feminine” I’m not really sure how different these courses actually are. I wish they would use the exact same picture to show you how different the courses really are. I think we chose modern feminine in the end.

P1060888

Then you choose the backgrounds, there are normal plain colours and some quite different looking designs. Lots of text on this machine.

Sets:

P1060889

Designs:

P1060891

P1060892

You choose four normal and then four longer ones, these are not full-length ones though which I’ll show you later on.

P1060893

Once you’ve chosen your backgrounds you move inside. The lights are reminiscent of photo studio reflectors like Lady By Tokyo. There is quite a lot of light (They use 820 watt bulbs) but the surroundings are black to balance it out.

P1060895

There are two non-adjustable seats in the booth, they are fixed to the floor too.

P1060898

P1060905

An example of taking purikura with the chairs.

fotoroom

The first thing you choose inside is whether you are a group of two people or three or more people. I couldn’t find any examples, but I assume the extra people would stand/crouch behind the two on the seats.

P1060899

Then you take the pictures. There were red squares on the screen to show you where to put your head. It took a little while to get used to the seats, but it was a little nicer than crouching!

P1060900

First you take four regular shots, then it’s the long shot. This is not a full length shot and the machine warns you not to stand up! It just means that the design can be seen better.

P1060901

Once you have taken your six there’s a bonus shot too. You can choose between one with graffiti already on it or a filtered one. It said “This time the designs are…” so I assume they change.

P1060903

On the inside screen you choose your eye and skin tone options with previews, which is always nice!

P1060904

Then we move to the outside decoration screen.

The tabs are Foto Room (actually Foto Rooooooom), special, pen, stamp, message and change. Foto Room is quite random, some with the name of the machine, shoes and dogs.

P1060906

Props. This is all the hipster stuff you might find on sticks in photo booths abroad.

P1060907

Props messages:

P1060908

‘Deka’ Items. Dekai? Big? Not sure but there’s ears and other sketch-like things.

P1060909

The Special menu has names, dates, seasons and one-touch decorations.

P1060910

P1060911

P1060912

P1060914

Pen sample:

P1060916

Stamps sample:

P1060917

There’s a lot of really good but random English messages, I think some of them are great. I wonder what Japanese girls who can’t read them think?!

i_006698

P1060918

i_006694

P1060919

b_005592

P1060921

There’s a good selection of fonts, but some more colours wouldn’t go amiss!

P1060922

Change samples:

P1060923

P1060924

Now here’s a really good function. A lot of the machines have a section where you can make extra blog banners and things. But someone has put a lot of thought into this one, there’s a section where you can make cover banners specifically for Facebook, Twitter and Line. The dimensions are right for each one and they have thought about the placement of the profile pictures. I made one for Line, I’m quite tempted to use this machine on my own just to make banners! You can also make regular collages in this section if you’d prefer.

P1060926

P1060927

P1060928

P1060930

As well as the collage you can make another profile pic. So between two members you will get (digitally) six purikura, a bonus shot, a collage/banner and a profile pic. Not too shabby!

In terms of layouts you can get fancy layouts or the more usual ones. I occasionally get the fancy ones but I like to chop up the pics so I got a regular set. My friend chose a cute layout that looks like an old fashioned photobooth strip.

P1060941

I was pretty impressed with this machine but then we noticed something even better- the machine is running a campaign where the first 1000 people to upload their purikura get a free Haagen Daz ice-cream!

P1060940

I’m already a member so it was really easy to do. When you are getting your pictures in the usual way there’s a button underneath to submit your purikura. I decided the message on this one is appropriate.

b_005579

IMG_8527

Then you get sent to the information page, tap the red button in the middle.

IMG_8528

Then you have to choose a title, a category and a comment (if you want)

IMG_8529

IMG_8530

Tap the pink button to continue.

IMG_8531

Then tap the red button and it will upload your picture and send you to a barcode page.

IMG_8532

Uploaded purikura.

IMG_8536

The barcode is valid for a small vanilla tub at 7-11 convenience stores. Yay! Free ice-cream!

IMG_8542

And here are the pictures! I think this machine takes very nice pictures the skin tone is great and it’s a nice print as well. Some of the background designs on the regular shots can’t be seen very well. It’s a shame about not having full-length but I think the rest of the plus points balance it out. I’ll definitely be using this machine again!

Regular shots:

2014 01 Purikura Mel (15)

2014 01 Purikura Mel (16)

2014 01 Purikura Mel (17)

2014 01 Purikura Mel (18)

Long pictures:

2014 01 Purikura Mel (14)

2014 01 Purikura Mel (19)

The bonus shot:

2014 01 Purikura Mel (20)

b_005574

6 comments:

  1. Wow that's really smart w/tagging social networking into purikura!! ^^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I think it was a really good idea as SNS has taken off here recently!

      Delete
  2. oooh, i took this machine a while back (we were 3 people. lol. was kinda awkward with the seats) but didn't notice the headers function! i wanna go back and make one!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I imagine three or more would be really hard to do well!

      Do it! I think I'm going to do solo puri purely for the banners!!

      Delete
  3. Man, I really wish there was a puri machine near me... I guess I'll just have to wait till my next trip to Tokyo. Thanks for the post! ^__^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'll have to splurge next time you get a chance!

      Delete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...