Serif Software Digital Photo Suite 2009 consists of Serif's latest image organizer and editor package, AlbumPlus X3, bundled with its PanoramaPlus 3 to offer photographers a set of simple and intuitive, if not particularly powerful, tools for organizing and enhancing their photos. At $50, Digital Photo Suite 2009 has some appeal--but only if you have need for its specific set of tools. (You can browse PC World's Downloads library for other image editors; many have specialized capabilities.)

AlbumPlus X3 has more features than its predecessor, X2, including more image editing tools as well as the ability to upload photos to social networking sites. AlbumPlus X3 will not be available as a stand-alone program; instead, Serif is offering it as part of the Digital Photo Suite bundle.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy and quick it was to pull the almost 2000 photos from my hard drive into AlbumPlus X3. In just a few clicks, I could see thumbnails of all of my photos stacked by the folder where the images reside on my hard drive, ready for me to assign tags I could later search on. (In addition to photos, you can import video and music files from your hard drive, CD/DVD drive, digital camera, scanner, or external storage drive.)