The convenience of digital cameras had made not only photography easy, but it has also made it easy to be lazy. While film forced us to take a trip to the pharmacy to get our pictures developed, many people slack on getting their photos printed when instant gratification is a USB cable and a few clicks away. I admit I’m guilty of it. My husband and I actively use and rotate between three cameras: our two point-and-shoots, the Canon Digital Elphs SD1000 and SD1100IS, and our digital SLR, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. By the time we’re done uploading the pictures from all three cameras and backing the images up, printing seems like an afterthought.
Another obstacle is the number of pictures. Years ago we would take 5 or 6 rolls of film on a vacation and be set. Being limited to 32 exposures in a roll (27 in some cases) discouraged us from over-shooting. When I know I’m wasting valuable, expensive film, I’m not going to snap two or three frames of the same thing so I can choose which one is better. With my digital cameras and my memory cards that hold 800-2000 pictures, a seven day vacation could easily result in 1000 photos. How will I pick just a few to print and frame?
Digital picture frames are a great solution. They allow you display hundreds of photos in a slideshow format. My husband purchased the Kodak EasyShare SV811 Digital Picture Frame for me for Christmas in 2007. It has been a great way to display my photos.
Display
This digital frame has an 8 inch LCD screen, with a 6.9 by 3.9 inch display area. The display resolution is 800 by 480 pixels. The screen quality is one of the better ones I’ve seen for these digital frames. The pictures are sharp and you can only see the pixels at certain extreme angles. It has one of the better viewing angles as well. I can view it well from most of the side angles. The horizontal viewing angle decreases a little from the bottom when the frame is set up like a picture frame, as we have it set up on our mantle which is a bit above the couch. Though the images are visible straight-on and when standing above it, it’s not very clear from the couch. Some of the images black out a bit as the frame is angled away from the couch. With a brightness of 300 NITs, I found the screen to be sufficiently bright.
There are a few options for viewing your photos on this digital frame. Photos can be scrolled through as a slideshow. There are several options for intervals between images and transitions. I found 2 seconds to be appropriate and particularly liked the option to randomize the transition between pictures. Unfortunately, the pictures don’t have an option to be randomized. They only play in the order they occur on the memory source.
You may also manually scroll through images or thumbnails using buttons on the top of the frame or the included remote control. I thought this would be a good way to speed the slideshow up to get to a certain image, but this was impractical due to load times. I often found it faster to wait the two seconds for each picture to change than to attempt to scroll through them.
A complaint I had about the actual image display was that vertical images are significantly reduced in size and centered. It’s unfortunate that these images end up displaying so small.
The Kodak EasyShare SV811 Digital Picture Frame has built in speakers with an mp3 audio option. It was nice to hear our photos to music, but it was impractical for our use most of the time. We used it a few times when we hosted parties, but kept it off most other times since it’s in the same room as our home entertainment system. When we did use it, I found it to be sufficiently loud, not overly so.
Storage Capacity
This frame has several options for loading and storing your photos. It has 128 megabytes (MB) of internal memory, which would store an average of 32 4-megapixel pictures. Storage capacity will vary depending on the quality and compression of the camera that took the image. We always keep our cameras at the highest quality and lowest compression, and when shooting with anywhere from 7 to 12 megapixels, 128 MB just doesn’t cut It. Luckily this frame also takes several memory card types: Secure Digital (SD), Multimedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), XD-Picture Card (xD), Compact Flash(CF), and Microdrive (MD). All of my Canon cameras take SD cards, but almost every card format is supported, ensuring compatibility with most cameras.
I used an old 1 GB standard speed SD memory card for my digital picture frame. I have a few left over from old cameras, before high-speed memory cards existed. I’ve been able to store a few hundred images on it (though I found 150 to be more than enough for slideshows). The great thing about using a memory card is your ability to determine the amount of memory to use. The negative side of this is the extra cost unless you happen to have extras.
Ease of Use
I found the included software to be extremely easy to use. It works with Windows XP and above. I had no problems working with it on either. Loading images on a card is very easy. Pre-load the card with images using your card reader or camera hooked up with a USB cable. I chose the former and placed over one hundred images in the order I wanted to view them. Then simply insert the card into the digital picture frame’s memory card slots. Upon being powered, the frame immediately begins cycling through them according to your settings.
Frame Options
The Kodak EasyShare SV811 Digital Picture Frame is a reasonable size, at 11.2 by 8.3 by 1.5 inches. It can be hung, with an indentation for a picture hook on the back, or displayed as a picture frame on a surface using the foldable stand on the back. The frame includes a standard black frame. More decorative frames are available as well. With this one, my husband also bought me a warm walnut and frosted floral glass frame.
The frame is powered by an AC power cord that is also included. I didn’t have a problem hiding it, though it could have been a little longer. It was sufficient for our use, but just barely.
In The Box
The contents of the box:
Kodak EasyShare SV811 Digital Picture Frame
Remote control
AC power cord
Software CD
Getting Started Guide
Price
I’ve seen this frame retailing for as much as $145.99. I’m not sure what my husband paid for it, but I certainly do love the frame.
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