Kodak EASYSHARE P725 > Reviews (6)

The Demise of the Printed Photo...

Since digital cameras started to take the place of traditional film based cameras the number of actual, physical photos in my house has plummeted, to the point that not long ago, if I wanted to have a look at my photos I'd have to go onto my laptop and either look at my files from there, or if I no longer had the originals, go onto my Facebook or sites such as Flickr which are handy for creating albums online. The point is though, if I was sat in my living room I had to make a conscious effort to dig out my digital images, and so many of them are stored away instead of being on display somewhere handy.

I initially thought digital photo frames were a bit of a fad, but I've since realised that they are actually very useful and pleasant devices to have around...

Price & Availability

The Kodak Easyshare P725 digital photo frame is not only made by a reputable photographic brand, as opposed to some dodgy unbranded 'made in Taiwan' thingymabob, but it was also a very reasonably priced £35 when I bought it back in the UK from a local electronics store. They are available in several highstreet electronics stores as well as some Kodak branches, although I don't imagine that all of them will carry a full range of digital photo frames. The P725 is also widely available online.

Looks & Appearance

In terms of looks, it's actually very nice in my opinion, being similar to some non-digital sleek black frames, and unless your house is a vision in pine wood, I imagine it could blend in with most homes relatively well. The photo display screen itself is 7 inches (displaying 800x600 pixels worth of image) and the outside frame is around an inch thick. There is a stand at the back of the photo frame, meaning that standing it up isn't a problem.

Another good point to this device is that it's mains powered - I know with some electronics the ability to use them wirelessly is great, but when this frame is going to usually be sat on top of a cupboard or coffee table, I don't feel that having a power cord is a negative thing, particularly when it saves on replacing batteries.

Use & Functions

To load the photos onto the frame you just pop your USB stick or memory card into the back of the device and copy the images over to the frame. If you don't want to copy them all over, you can play them from the USB stick or memory card itself, so if your friends want to show you their photos on memory stick, you can plug it into the frame and go from there without having to steal / copy all their photos. The device comes with easy to follow, quick start instructions that tell you everything you'll need to know.

There are a variety of functions for displaying your images on this frame in different ways - if a speedy slideshow is not for you, there is the option to just show one image. In my opinion, though, if that's all you're going to use this for then you're better off buying a normal frame and paying the few quid to print your single photo out, as you'll not be using the frame to the best of it's abilities.

I tend to put my photos on a slideshow but have them change at the slowest rate - one photo every minute, as opposed to the quicker rates of every 5 and every 10 seconds. I find that if I show the photos quicker, it's a bit distracting.

In terms of image display, the photos appear crisp and vibrant, obviously if you're taking photos of grey rainy days then they won't look THAT vibrant, but the colours are faithfully reproduced.

Storage & Memory

In terms of memory and storage, Kodak say that this stores up to 4000 photos, but that really would depend on the size of your photos - with my compact camera the photos are a few megabytes in size so I can fit more photos from there on than I could with the larger files from my digital SLR camera. Either way though, I estimate you'll be able to stick a comfortable 200 photos on there even with decent sized files, as I currently have around 160 on and there is still room to spare.

If you wanted to increase the number of photos stored on there without putting an additional memory stick in, if you could be bothered and have the software to resize images (e.g. Photoshop or other imaging software) as I have, you can resize photos to be exactly 800x600 pixels and fit an awful lot more on. Thinking about it, I think I'll do that the next time I change the photos on the frame...

Overall

Far from being a fad, this has turned out to be a very nice little gadget to own. It's given me much more freedom to enjoy the photos I've taken, as well as those emailed to me by friends and family, and I can highly recommend it.