Kodak EASYSHARE M1020 > Reviews (1)

What Is It?

The Kodak Easyshare Digital Photo frame (M1020) is one of the newest inventions for people to be able to watch all their favourite photos, in a slideshow on a photo frame. This allows you to be able to look at your digital photos, without the need of a bulky computer. Also you are able to look over at the photo frame, and it will change again, and again, and again. However this particular model which I own, is now almost obselete as there are much better, newer models out already.

Why Buy It?

Our family has hundreds of photos on the computer, and as we do not tend to print them out any more, they are just sitting there unviewed to the world. If we wanted to show photos, we would have to load up the computer or on our phones.
There are lots of other reasons to buy it as well. It is a fantastic present, as you can take it out the box, and then put photos on it, which would be fantastic for a gift. You could also buy it us as an external back up of your photos. This is one of the easier ways to back up photos as you will keep them on a memory card, so if anything was to happen, then you will have your most precious photos safe. It is also very stylish and a great gadget to have. A real toy if anything, were getting closer to be able to see Sci-Fi style photos.

Where To Buy It?

I was really wanting one of these photo frames, as they looked amazing and I was always a sucker for a great gadget. So as I do with most products, I went online. There seemed to be few reviews written about this photo frame in particular but I really wanted to stay with Kodak Easyshare range as this was what software I used on my computer. Amazon was the best place to get it cheapest at £96.50 (at the time I bought it.) It was the cheapest I could find but there were the more expensive ones at Currys, Dixons, Argos and many major stores. This is a very common product, and there are hundreds of different brands and prices, so if you did not want to go with this particular one, there are many others on the market.

Design

I really liked the design of this. It is bright white with a clear edging, giving it a modern theme. The screen is a very good 10 inches, which is brilliant as it is not to big and not to small. On the back is a white box which is where the memory card slot is found, and where the power supply is. It has a handy little stand, so you can just sit it anywhere which is near enough to a power supply. The screen is very clear, and all you have to do is just take the film off it. It also has speakers, hidden on the side so you can play music and sound, however you can't really notice them at all. The design is very good, stylish and sleek.

Set Up

There are two ways you can add photos to the Digital Photoframe, USB or by memory card. I chose USB, as I could get all the photos I wanted from my computer easily onto it. However I still had to use a memory card, as I wanted to put around 400 photos on it, so got a 1GB one which was extra I had to pay for. This was a bit annoying but I found the internal memory is only 128mb.

OK, this might be enough for some people, but I would have expected a lot more. This was also one of the biggest I could find, internal memory wise, but have looked at more recent ones and have found them a lot better.
I did not have to download any software, as I was using a Mac computer and it just downloads the USB. All I had to do, was decide what photos I wanted to put on and I was away. It was an exceptionally easy process of selection and loading. For Windows, it will work the same, you just need to tick the ones you want and it will load on straight away.
If you are wanting to use just a memory card then you can just insert it straight from your memory card, and you are away. Or you can load them also from your computer, without the use of USB. Both methods are very quick and exceptionally easy to do

Extra Features

What I did not realise with this when setting up was that you could put any MP3 file also on it. This means you can put certain videos and music on it. This is a fantastic extra feature, as you are able to be able to watch videos if you wanted. I, however have never taken up this option as I only wanted it to show photos. But when it comes to any other extra features, it lacks. You can add effects to your photos but these are nothing very special. Also if you photo is portrait, it will automatically flip the photo so it is the right way out. But I wasn't to bothered by this as I was just looking for something to show off lots of photos.

Use

Once you have set it up, you are ready to go. Now you may have the problem of finding somewhere to put it as it needs a plug. It was pretty easy for us as it went on the table, next to the TV socket. The lead is just long enough, and you can easily tuck it away. Now as you plug it in it will turn on. This is the only way to turn it on/off, is by the power socket which is a bit of an inconvience. Immediately the screen turns white and has the Kodak sign. It is very bright and with a very good screen resolution of 800x480, so able to show off all the fantastic colors off the photos.
You can use controls to select how long you want each photo to go on the screen. The controls are quite fiddily as you have 4 buttons with arrows which you must click to get what you want. I chose every 30 seconds (you can choose from 3 seconds to 5 minutes) as you can get to see every photo really nicely. After each photo you can choose whether to have a transition, basically in which there will be a little effect between the change of photo. These are quite basic, as it is just slide, dissolve or blinds. I chose to have slide as it makes it a bit more interesting. Once that is set up it will immediately start your slide show.

Overall

I bought this a while back in 2007, and it is on quite a lot of the times. I have changed and added photos to put on it around 10/12 times over the 2 years and it has worked perfectly well since then. The memory card is just about full up, showing just how many photos are on it (plus the internal memory is just about full) and I haven't even added any music or videos. The screen is fantastic quality and actually shows off the photo better than on the computer. It is a fantastic thing to have if you have hundreds (or even thousands) of digital photos then this is a brilliant device to own. This is one of the older ones avaliable however if you are thinking about buying a frame then stick with Kodak, as they have been a fantastic company for me personally and have never had an problems with them.

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