4Media Photo Slideshow Maker

4Media Photo Slideshow Maker lets you create nice-looking video slideshows. Perhaps the best thing about this app is that you can simply load a bunch of images, select an audio file, and the application will quickly create a video slideshow that you can share with your friends and family.

The whole process really couldn't be any easier. The application automatically adds varied transition effects between your images and a zoom effect is also applied. You can of course disable transitions altogether if you want. After you are done customizing the slideshow's settings, you can click on "Create video" to start processing the video. A new window will come up asking you what format you want to use for your video slideshow. There are tons of formats available, and you will also even find conversion profiles for popular devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, AppleTV, and many more.

As I said above, what I like the most about this app is how automatic it can be. You load your photos, and you are pretty much done. But you can also change a few settings like how much time you want each image to stay on the screen, the transition time, and whether you want to loop the audio file that you chose for the background music. You can also change various conversion settings, like audio and video quality, resolution, frame rate and even audio volume. There are two things that I don't like. First, you can't add video files to your slideshows. Many similar tools allow you to do this. And, second, I think $45.99 is a bit excessive when the Mac already ships with a product that can do the same. I reckon that this app is way easier to use than the cheaper alternatives, but I would not spend almost $50 for this app. Maybe if they added more functionality, the price would be worth it.