Kodak Easyshare EX1011

...Product---------------

The Kodak EASYSHARE EX1011 is a wireless digital photo frame, which is also Wi-Fi enabled. This means that once you take photos on your digital camera you can simply remove the SD/XD card (the memory card) from the camera and place it into the photo frame and it will display all of your pictures. You can choose to either leave one picture on display at all times or you have a slideshow of all of your pictures.
...can automatically receive pictures from Kodak Gallery members with the Picture Mail feature. However I'm not really sure of the need for this functionality. We bought this for our travel pictures and therefore do not need this personally, but hey I'm sure someone will.

It also has on-frame viewing and editing features and is able to play MP3s with built-in speakers. It has a dimension of 330 x 241 x 41 mm (according to the instructions). ... more

One part of modern life is taking lots of digital photos on phones or camera's, however to me the problem exists with what exactly to do with them. Some upload them to social networking sites like facebook, Others copy the photos to a disc and kept for later and others simply leave them on the memory card that the photo is taken on. However there is another way to do things these days - Digital photo frames.

------------The Product---------------

The Kodak EASYSHARE EX1011 is a wireless digital photo frame, which is also Wi-Fi enabled. This means that once you take photos on your digital camera you can simply remove the SD/XD card (the memory card) from the camera and place it into the photo frame and it will display all of your pictures. You can choose to either leave one picture on display at all times or you have a slideshow of all of your pictures.

When you purchase the product it arrives in a nice size box and after unpacking the contents I was actually impressed with the lack of packaging that needed to be thrown away. In the box comes

• The Photo frame
• A remote control
• A USB cable
• Power cable
• Set up instructions and software

The instructions told you how to set up the frame and the first instruction is to install the software onto the machine that you wish to control the pictures from. The software installation is extremely easy. It is a simple case if inserting the disk and clicking next>>>next a couple of times, when this completes it asks you to reboot the machine and then the software starts automatically the next time you log into your machine. The instructions also guide you through how to add the device as a object onto your wireless network (if you have one) and then you can manage the photos remotely.

Although this software install was easy, it is in a way unnecessary as like I said you can simply remove the memory card from the device and plug it into the device and away you go.
The software is only required as it can automatically receive pictures from Kodak Gallery members with the Picture Mail feature. However I'm not really sure of the need for this functionality. We bought this for our travel pictures and therefore do not need this personally, but hey I'm sure someone will.

It also has on-frame viewing and editing features and is able to play MP3s with built-in speakers. It has a dimension of 330 x 241 x 41 mm (according to the instructions). The handy little remote control also allows you stop and play you slideshow as required as does the touch menu display on the top of the frame. At the back of the frame is a handy stand which can be pulled out to keep the frame kept upright.

---------My Thoughts----------

The Frame looks impressive and is a nice black shiny colour. Each person who has seen the frame has commented on nice it is, however I think these comments would have been passed onto any digital frame that appeared. The dimensions of the frame do give you an impressive size 10" screen, which is the largest screen that I have personally come across.

The Frame also has a USB port which means that you can plug in a memory stick into the device and play as many photo's as you wish. We currently have a 16GB memory stick in there and it is scrolling through the images happily. The frame does come with inbuilt memory of 128 MB which with photos from my camera (varying in size from 1mb to 1.5mb) will allow you to store around 100 photos.
The frame does give you nice and crisp clear pictures as well.

-----------Drawbacks--------------

I was just thinking about my last point, which from the right angle is true, however if you look at the frame from below where the frame is located then the image and colour contrast isn't perfect. I have tried playing with the settings in the menu but have never corrected this problem. This problem is hindered by the stand on the back, this makes the frame slope backwards slightly and this helps interfere with the image quality.

Personally, from an IT support person's perspective, I do not see the need for the software requirements on your machine. Yep you can do nice things like control the device from a remote place but I personally think this is an un-needed solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Also the software on your machine isn't really required as you can do everything by simply plugging your device (memory card or USB device) into the frame.

Again from an IT background the instructions were pretty rubbish to be honest and had me scratching my head in dis-belief because it actually turns out you needd to do very little.

-------------Cost-------------

We got this device when I arrived in Australia for my Girlfriends mum and paid $200AUD. This equates to around 95GBP, this was from Office world and was in the sales just after Christmas. The frame is currently retailing on amazon.com for 137GBP. In my eyes this is good value for the size of the screen and its added on features but in reality is overpriced because I don't feel like the added on features are needed.

--------Am I happy with the product?-----------

I think I am but it is very marginal. The frame is stylish, easy to use and does (from the right angle) give quality pictures.

However on the same token, I feel that many of the featues will not be used. I mean do you actually know any Kodak Gallery members? No me neither! As a result of these wireless features I feel the price may have pushed over the limit of what I would normally be willing to spend on this kind of device. It was only because it was heavily reduced after Christmas that I felt it was a decent purchase. 

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