Digital Photo Frames: a Guide to Buying

Digital photo frames are a great way to show off your photographs to your friends and family and they make great presents at any time of the year. But if you are thinking of buying one for yourself or someone else, there's a few things to consider before you part with your money.

Basically you need to think about the screen size, type, ratio, angle of viewing and resolution. Also, which file type the frame will handle and how it stores your images are important considerations. And finally, the aesthetics and how the design of your chosen frame will fit in with the room it's going to be used in. So let's go through these things one at a time, and after that I'll give you my top recommendations. Mouse-over any of the links to find out the price.

1. Screen

Size: most digital photo frames are in the size range 5 to 15-inches. Check the details to see whether the dimensions refer to the screen size or the frame size.

Type: there are three types - Most have LCD or TFT but there is also new technology which is known as OLED. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens don't use a backlight and can provide sharper images using less power. Also the screen is thinner but can be more expensive.

Aspect ratio: the most common aspect ratios for digital photo frames are 4:3 and 3:2 - some have panoramic ratio (3:1) but it is rare. If you purchase one with 16:9 you will most probably have black bars on the side or at the top and bottom so make sure you are getting the right ratio for the images from your particular camera.

Viewing Angle: to make sure that people in different parts of the room can see your photos at the same time, make sure you buy a frame with a wide viewing angle.

Resolution: the larger the frame, the greater the resolution needs to be:

• a 7-inch frame should be 720 x 480 pixels
• an 8-inch frame should be 800 x 600 pixels
• a 10-inch frame or larger should be 1024 x 768
• a 15-inch frame should be 1600 x 1200 pixels

2. File Transfer & Memory

Memory: most digital photo frames will take memory cards such as SD, memory stick, compact flash, MMC, xD-picture and Microdrive cards. They also have inbuilt storage ranging from 8 MB to 80 MB - more memory means less updating. Some also connect to a website where you can have extra online storage.

File type: check that the media format you are going to use is supported. File types includ JPEG, MP3, MPEG-4, MPEG-1, AVI, BMP, MPEG-2, WMA, EXIF, TIFF, WMA, WMV, PPT, PNG, MOV, GIF and DivX .

3. Design

• Choose a style which fits in with your decor
• Make sure it will be near a plug or else buy a battery-powered frame.
• Consider if you need to buy one with interchangeable faceplates so you can place it in different rooms

Other features you may like:

• Bluetooth - send photos direct from your mobile to the device
• Editing software - lets you crop, rotate, etc
• Printing - sends images direct to a printer
• RSS feed - send photos automatically to your friends and family
• Wireless - lets you share photos with another computer or download to Flickr and other websites

My Recommendations

Less than 6-inches

The Philips 5FF2CMI has a 5.6-inch screen and comes in white so it should fit in with your room décor whatever the color. Other features include:

• a high-pixel-density 640 x 480 display for sharp and detailed photo display
• 4:3 aspect ratio
• auto photo orientation to fit portrait or landscape modes
• lets you create albums and slideshows
• allows you to display and manage photos on memory cards or 32MB internal memory

6-inch to 7-inch

The Sony DPF-D72 7-Inch gets very good customer reviews. It has crisp picture quality, and also acts as a clock and calendar. Other features include:

8-inch to 10-inch

The Sony DPF-V1000 10-Inch has a 10.2 inch screen and a sleek, classic design. It gets a minimum of 4 stars from customers. Features include:

11-inch to 15-inch

The Impecca 15-Inch has a 15-inch screen and also gets 4 stars or more. Features include:

16-inch plus

Only one product available at this size but customers only gave it an average of 2 stars (4 customer reviews) and in all honesty I can't recommend the Digital Spectrum 17-Inch because so many customers have had problems with it. I have included it here so that you know to avoid it! Having said that, some of the features include:

however, it now looks as if the manufacturer has gone out of business so this is definitely one to avoid which is a pity as I found it aesthetically quite appealing. There are so many other really good products on the market though albeit smaller than this one. Maybe we need to wait a bit for technology to catch up with the size!

Wireless

Yes, it's another Sony! Sony digital photo frames seem to have the crispest, clearest screen quality - and after all this is what we want, nice looking pictures! I recommend the Sony DPFV700 7-Inch because there were virtually no complaints and customers were very satisfied with it overall. Features include:

That's it in a nutshell! One last thing... Amazon's most popular digital photo frame is the Pandigital PAN7000DW 7-Inch which you can see at the top of the page. However, it's become so popular that it's not possible to buy it new direct from Amazon any more. However, you can buy it new through other sellers via Amazon but be sure to check the sellers' ratings before deciding.

Have fun with your new digital photo frame!