I purchased this picture frame to give as a gift to a non-technical relative that is pushing 80 and was looking for something that I could setup and leave alone.
I shopped, read reviews, shopped some more and tried out some of the less expensive, lower resolution 7" picture frames.
Lower resolution picture frames frankly suck, with pixels the size of boulders and many with power supply buzz that gives the picture a wavy look. This Sony model is a 7" (15:9), WVGA 800 x 480 (which is considered a higher resolution digital frame) and point and shoot digital photos look great.
Appearance:
This is flat out a classy looking electronic picture frame. Visually, it reminds me of a Sony Bravia LCD television -- glossy black picture frame with an illuminated (can be turned off) Sony logo alongside the bottom of the bezel.
The frame can be oriented either horizontally or vertically and contains a mounted swivel bar to stabilize the frame in either position.
Operation//other odds and ends:
Clever is the word that comes to mind.
The DPFD70 has a multitude of display options. Those options include: single photo, 3 photo collage, photo with time (analog or digital style), photo with calendar, photo with calendar/time, time only, calendar only ... and I'm probably forgetting something.
Photos can be resized to fill the frame. Unlike other picture frame LCD players, the Sony doesn't play havoc with the aspect ratio of your photos when it performs this task. Check out this feature on any digital frame before purchase and you'll see that many will turn your relatives into squashed looking mutants.
Sony hid the controls along the backside of the frame and very cleverly superimposed navigation on the LCD screen beside the actual buttons. When you see this for the first time, it engenders a "what a great idea" moment. Buttons are a bit insensitive - you must press them firmly, or they may/may not register.
This frame has internal memory storage of 256mB. Frame housekeeping uses about 50mB, leaving usable internal memory of about 200mB. For most, this will work out to about 300-500 images. Of course various memory card slots will greatly expand storage capabilities. If your image exceeds 800 x 480, the frame will resize your image to fit. I did experiment with different resolution images and other than the ability to zoom into a photo, I found no image quality benefit from loading images in a size beyond the native capabilities of this frame.
Interestingly, this frame can be loaded without use of a computer. Many digital cameras will USB directly to this frame for downloading and of course this frame supports a wide range of memory media, including: Memory Stick (reg, DUO), Compact Flash, SD, xD-Picture Card.
You can either leave your memory card in the the appropriate memory slot and the digital frame will read that memory, or you can export images from your memory card directly to the internal memory of the frame. The setup menu will also allow you to display images based upon storage date, random selection or by storage path. If a visiting relative wants a copy, digital files can also be exported from this device for storage to a memory card.
My favorite cool feature is auto photo rotation. Physically rotate the frame the and photo will rotate and resize. Perfect when you want to take a closer look at a vertical photo (that otherwise would have bars on the side).
Since everything today comes with a remote, it goes without saying that this frame does as well. WARNING, don't lose the remote. There are a few setup features that require use of that little jewel.
Instead of wasting power, this unit can be programmed to turn on/off at specific times of the day.
There is an index mode to allow for easy photo access and if you saved the photo in a large enough resolution, you can zoom into the picture for better detail.
Photos can be displayed between 3 seconds to 24 hours (except in collage mode) and you have a choice of six photo transition modes.
Since I know that someone out there will ask, the frame can access a total of 9,999 individual photos. Fully loaded, that works out to a bit more than 8 hours of photos @ 3 seconds per photo.
Life expectancy of back light - Sony specs this frame @ 20,000 hours of use before the back light dims to 50% of original brightness. Use this frame 8 hours a day, 365 days a year and you'll hit this 50% brightness in about 7 years of non-stop use.
Max image size is 8,000 x 6,000 pixels and the frame supports JPEG and RAW images. One warning - the file name of the photo cannot exceed 256 characters.
Disclaimer -- Admittedly, I'm a bit of a techie, since my job is audio/video buyer for a regional independent specialty retailer/custom installation dealer. Having said that, I found the operation of this frame to be quite logical and straightforward. I always jump in with both feet and no owner's manuals to see how easy a new electronic device is (or in many cases, isn't) to operate ... and to see how many telephone calls I'm going to get from my customers. In the case of this Sony digital picture frame, I had it up and running in about five minutes and had figured out probably 80% of its capabilities without use of the manual. That's about as good as it gets for intuitive product design.
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