Review: Digital Picture Frames

Dec. 6 -- Images are going high-tech everywhere you look, and bit by bit, picture frames have been getting in on the act.

Whether you snap black-and-white photographs with your 35 mm or zap pictures with your digital camera, electronic picture frames offer a high-tech way to showcase your images. Copping a traditional design, these devices let you display more than an album’s worth of pictures one frame at a time. As long as you have access to a scanner or a digital camera, you can mount your photos in one of these frames and create a virtual slide show of the images you choose.

Getting WiredThe frames come in three basic varieties: devices that interact with the Internet, those that connect to your computer, and standalones. There’s quite a range of how much hands-on activity each type involves. Sony’s expensive Digital Photo Frame is one of the simplest to use: pop the memory stick out of your camera, slip it into the frame, and voila! — there are your pictures.

The others can be just as easy for less money, with the purchase of an extra flash memory card.

In general, the routine for these high-tech frames involves transferring pictures from a digital camera to a computer and then to either a frame or a Web site, or loading scanned photographs to the frame or the Net. Most of the frames need to find a home near an electrical outlet. Several portable frames such as VideoChip Technologies’ $349 Photo Wallet and the $340 Digi-Frame 390 are battery-powered, but their small picture areas make them better suited for the road than for the living room or office.

Making the ConnectionThe cyber frames, which come with a built-in modem, are probably the most user-friendly. Once you’re set up with service, the devices do the work for you.

But required monthly subscription fees that let you upload, store and download pictures online can add up. The fees range anywhere from $50 to $120 a year and cover features from photo editing tools to print services. Expect premium services to cost extra. Unfortunately, there appears to be no cap on what these fees can cost, and if the company goes out of business or stops providing service, you’ll have a very nice frame which won’t be able to display much.

As with all Net appliances, speed counts. Downloads are reliant on the frame’s internal 56K modem, but you can upload pictures to your online digital frame inbox — which comes with the subscription — from any computer with a high-speed connection. Frames that work with your computer allow you to tweak images from the frame itself or through image-editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop or the company’s own software. In general, you transfer pictures through a USB or serial cable that connects the frame to your computer. The products we tested worked on both Macs and PCs. We found the Digi-Frame gave the most bang for its buck, while both the Ceiva and Kodak offered a good gift choice for the less technically inclined.