The Philips 7" Digital Photo Frame 7FF1AW/37 "Every Picture Tells A Story"
Written: Oct 19 '06 (Updated Oct 22 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Simple set-up, easy image transfer, high resolution LCD display, totally color-neutral device
Cons: Expensive, internal memory only holds about 50 images, can’t be hung on the wall
The Bottom Line: The Philips nifty 7" Digital Photo Frame 7FF1AW/37 provides photographers and other consumers with a plethora of image viewing options
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| Howard_Creech's Full Review: Philips 7" Digital Photo Frame - Photo Viewer - 7F... |
When I was growing up (way back in the day) I loved science fiction novels and movies. I was absolutely fascinated by the gadgets popular sci fi authors and movie writers portrayed as existing in the future. Things like flying cars, tiny personal communication devices, videophones, super-thin wall mounted TVs, and "live" picture frames. I’ve seen all these gadgets (except the flying cars) actually materialize on store shelves during my lifetime.
The Philips 7" Digital Photo Frame 7FF1AW/37 looks like a minimalist style picture frame, but turn it on and you’ll have instant access to your most cherished photos of your grandchildren, your last vacation, or your teenager as a basketball/soccer/football star displayed "slideshow" style - right on your desktop.
Getting Started
The first thing I did was to plug the DPF in so the internal battery could charge. I let it charge overnight. The DPF’s primary control is a sliding on/off switch on the right side of the back of the unit. When the unit is on/charging a small green light shows at the top of the switch. There are six additional multi-function buttons arrayed along the top quadrant of the back of the device. Turn the unit on and, after a brief pause (2-3 seconds) the Philips logo appears and the unit shifts automatically into slide show mode (if a loaded memory card is installed).
Set-Up
The six multi-function buttons are used for setup and to select/change/modify operations/functions. The initial set up of the DPF is a bit daunting - until new owners get used to how the buttons work, where everything is, and what each button does. Once I got used to navigating the menu via buttons I couldn’t see, operation became almost intuitive.
Set up options include, but are not limited to: language, screen brightness, slideshow orientation – portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal), frequency (options range from 5 seconds to 24 hours), transition effect (fades, wipes, roll-ups, splits, turned page, and many other nifty image transition effects), and image display order.
The DPF provides three image display modes – Slideshow (auto) mode (I suspect most users will leave the DPF in this mode full-time), Browse (manual) mode, and Thumbnail mode (which allows users to add or delete images, change image orientation, etc.).
How do I get my photos into the DPF?
The simplest method for loading photos into the DPF is to simply remove the memory media from your digital camera and plug it directly into the appropriate memory card slot on the DPF. The images can then be downloaded to the camera's internal memory (14MB - enough room for about 50 images) or displayed on the LCD screen directly from the memory card. As a photographer, I like this option because it allows me to preview what’s on my memory card before I download the images to my computer. Users can also hook up their digital cameras directly to the DPF and view the contents of the memory card (I didn’t try this method). Another method is to create an upload file in your image management program (I use FXFoto) and drag that file to a spare memory card (plugged into a card reader) and then plug the loaded memory card into the DPF. This method works great for those who want to create truly personal slide shows. Finally, users can transfer images directly from their computer to the DPF via a USB connection (I didn’t try this method).
My Use of the DPF
I test a lot of digital cameras, so a device that allows me to quickly and easily preview captured images by simply plugging in the digicam memory media saves a lot of time and effort.
After I got the DPF, I transferred about 30 images I’d shot over the past year and a half from my FXFoto image files to an upload file and then (via drag and drop) transferred the file to a 128MB CF card plugged into my SanDisk 12 in 1 card reader. Those 30 images were shot with 22 different digital cameras ranging from an ultra compact Casio Exilim EX S500 to a Pentax K100D dSLR.
I'm a long-term believer in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) so I very rarely modify my digital images (other than an occasional minor crop to remove an extraneous element from the composition). The DPF internal image management software preserved my orientations, I shoot about 60-65 per cent of my images as verticals. Even more amazingly the DPF precisely preserved the color, saturation, and contrast of each image exactly as I had shot it; from the garishly over saturated colors and hard contrast of the Sony W7 to the near neutral colors and balanced contrast of the Panasonic LX2. The DPF faithfully displayed each image just as it originally came from the camera - a totally neutral device for reviewing captured images. That's an amazing accomplishment - a device that doesn’t impose any color interpolation whatever on the images displayed.
Taking the Philips DPF "On The Road" – Portability and Battery Life
I have a friend who's a first time grandmother and after I told her about testing the DPF she asked me to bring it by so she could check it out. I took the DPF to her office at the end of the work-day, placed it on her desk, and turned it on. She was absolutely transfixed as she watched my short slide show (images included macro shots of butterflies, environmental portraits, and images of skateboarders and BMX bikers frozen in mid air leaps). After watching for about five minutes she said, "I want one" - by this time we had somehow managed to attract almost a dozen of her co-workers. They had materialized mysteriously from cubicles and offices all over the building and I had to run the slide show several more times. Everyone present wanted a DFP to create a slide show of family photos – except for the guy who wanted to load the DPF with pictures of his last vacation so that he could temporarily escape the boredom, frustration, and stress at work - anytime he wanted.
For my next outing with the DPF I showed it to a group of photographer friends and some other photographers. All the photographers really liked the DPF and several joked about buying one so they could easily inflict impromptu slide shows on their friends, co-workers, and families - anytime they liked (one of the photographers ordered a Philips Digital Photo Frame the next day). For my final road trip with the DPF, I took it to a small casual Business/Social gathering of mostly high tech professionals.
What did everyone think of the DPF? They all loved it. The regular folks wanted to know how hard it was to set up the DPF, how hard it was to get pictures into the DPF, and why it couldn’t be hung on the wall, “like a regular picture frame”. The photographers all wanted to know why the bulky frame portion of the device couldn’t be detached from the LCD screen (so the DPF could be used in the field as a portable image viewer). The high tech guys all wanted to know why the device didn’t have a built-in MP3 player and a pair of tiny speakers so that their images could be accompanied by their personally chosen music. The built-in battery is good for about fifty minutes of continuous play.
Technical Specifications
Effective viewing area: 3.6x5.4-inches (9x14-centimeters)
Resolution : 720 x 480 pixels
Viewing angle (horizontal) : 170 degree
Viewing angle (vertical) : 170 degree
Connectivity: USB
Storage Media: Compact Flash (type I), Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro, SD/MMC
Image File Format(s) supported: JPEG (Up to 12 Megapixels)
Internal Image Storage: 14MB
Playback modes: Browse, Slideshow, Thumbnail
Plug & Play: Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X, Linux
Included
Power cord, metal stand, quick start guides, user’s manual (on CD), and 2 USB cables for connecting the display to a digital camera or computer.
A Few Concerns
The DPF’s screen dimensions (3.6x5.4-inches) perfectly match the 1:1.5 aspect ratio of 35mm film, but digital images generally come in at a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means that all vertical images displayed on the LCD screen are going to be cropped slightly. Photographers who don’t make a practice of leaving a bit of head-room in their vertical images may be upset by the DPF’s minor but arbitrary cropping.
The DPF has a viewing angle of up to 170 degrees (vertical and horizontal) which means viewers don’t have to view the screen from directly in front of the device, but viewing the DPF at a significant upward or downward angle causes the image to darken noticeably.
Conclusion
Image quality should be the single most important component of any digital image viewing device and the Philips 7" Digital Photo Frame 7FF1AW/37 delivers the goods – the DPF's screen display is true to the original image. Philips got it dead right with their 7" Digital Photo Frame 7FF1AW/37, images are bright, bold, and hue (color) accurate.
I received this product from Hass MS&L (a public relations firm) in exchange for posting a fair and honest review on Epinions.com.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Howard_Creech
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 in Electronics |
 in Home and Garden |
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Member: Howard Creech
Location: Louisville, KY
Reviews written: 334
Trusted by: 1276 members
About Me:
Photographer/Writer fascinated by Movies, Music, Books, American Diner Food, History, "Popular Culture", and Travel.
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