GADGET GUIDE
A Guide to Digital Photo Frames
The digital “revolution” has taken photography, along with many other activities, to a whole new level of sophistication. Digital photographs can be easily manipulated, and shared with friends and relatives, via the Internet, or email – but what if you want to share those same pictures with loved ones who do not have a computer or Internet access, or simply want to display them for your own enjoyment in your home or office?
The answer may well be a digital photo frame, which allows a single photograph, or multiple photographs – in the form of a slide show – to be transferred directly from a digital camera, and displayed in bright, colourful, high resolution.
Key Features
The display screen, rather obviously, is the major component of a digital photo frame, and the size, and other characteristics of the screen should be the key features influencing your choice.
Screen size – measured diagonally, as with a television screen – can be as small as an inch, or two, or as large as, perhaps, 20 inches, or so, although you will notice that sizes around 7 inches are fairly standard. A 7 inch digital photo frame, with a resolution of 640 x 480 “pixels”, or “picture elements”, is adequate for a tradition 6 x 4 inch print, but you should think about the quality of the photographs that your digital camera is capable of producing, and the distance at which they will be viewed, once in the frame, when choosing an appropriate size. Bear in mind, because of diagonal screen measurement, that a small increase in the quoted screen size can produce a large increase in total viewing area.
The “resolution” of a screen – often quoted in rows and columns – is the total number of picture elements that it is capable of displaying, and the higher the number, the higher the level of detail in the displayed image. Many digital photo frames, nowadays, have TFT (“Thin Film Transistor”) LCD (“Liquid Crystal Display”) screens, which produce excellent results, even in conditions of high ambient light.
Transferring photographs from your digital camera to a digital photo frame is obviously also something that you need to think about. Digital photo frames are available that are compatible with all the latest memory expansion card types – “Secure Digital”, “Memory Stick”, and the like – but you do need to make sure that you choose a frame that is compatible with your camera, either directly, or via an adaptor. The Aigo A216 Digital Photo Frame, for example, includes 32 MB of internal memory, plus compatibility with SD, Memory Stick and MMC expansion.
If you are planning to use a digital photo frame for a slide show, perhaps accompanied by sound, or interesting transition effects, or you just want to change the displayed photograph regularly, a remote control unit can be a useful addition, particularly if the frame is positioned out of easy reach.
Last, but not least, you will probably want to choose a digital photo frame that blends with the existing decor in your home, or office, and many different designs are available, in plastic, light or dark wood, and other materials, often with interchangeable facia, allowing the frame to change with your home. The Philips 7FF1M Digital Photo Frame, for example, is a 7 inch model, with four interchangeable frames.