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Digital photo frames really sounded like the answer and Tesco's in-house brand of Technika caught my eye. The frames on offer were a fraction of the price of the branded products from the likes of Sony and Kodak but seemed to have very similar functionality. So, did my budget purchase ... Read review
Advantages: Cheap unit that's no worse than many of its expensive competitors Disadvantages: Fiddly to use and limited viewing angle - do you really need one?
...and Tesco's in-house brand of Technika caught my eye. The frames on offer were a fraction of the price of the branded products from the likes of Sony and Kodak but seemed to have very similar functionality. So, did my budget purchase make the grade? Kind of (but, to be honest the real answer should be "yes" as the more expensive models suffer from many of the same issues).
==Style==
The first ... ...clearly a plastic affair being white with a clear Perspex surround but it's simply styled and should fit with most modern decors. The frame will stand in a portrait or landscape fashion and is angled slightly from the perpendicular to give the perfect viewing angle. It cannot be wall-mounted.
==Operation==
In terms of operation it's easier to have the frame aligned to landscape format but, personally, ... more
I was a fairly early-comer to the use of digital photo frames. I'm not the kind of person who likes lots of photos scattered around the house but felt that, with a young son, I really should have some up. Irrational? Maybe.
Digital photo frames really sounded like the answer and Tesco's in-house brand of Technika caught my eye. The frames on offer were a fraction of the price of the branded products from the likes of Sony and Kodak but seemed to have very similar functionality. So, did my budget purchase make the grade? Kind of (but, to be honest the real answer should be "yes" as the more expensive models suffer from many of the same issues).
Style
The first frame I acquired was a simple 7" frame. Aesthetically it's clearly a plastic affair being white with a clear Perspex surround but it's simply styled and should fit with most modern decors. The frame will stand in a portrait or landscape fashion and is angled slightly from the perpendicular to give the perfect viewing angle. It cannot be wall-mounted.
Operation
In terms of operation it's easier to have the frame aligned to landscape format but, personally, I prefer the look in portrait. Much too will depend on how you tend to take your photos as you have to rotate the photos before adding them to the frame's memory (unless you want to rotate them individually in browse mode). The reason landscape is preferable from a functionality perspective is that the operation buttons run down one of the long sides of the frame and, in portrait alignment the buttons are almost impossible to see without moving the frame. The buttons themselves are very small but clearly labelled.
The unit does come with a remote control but, to be honest, the functionality is so basic that you're not really going to add much with this. Were the screen bigger then I could see the point but for a 7" frame you're not going to be using this for a family slide show!
Start up is fairly easy although it can take a wee while if you have lots of pictures on the internal memory or the storage device that you are using for the frame to read. The start up screen (always in landscape format) also looks rather like a touch-screen menu and, as such, the temptation to press the screen is immense! Nothing will happen - you just have to wait!
Uploading and Storing
Uploading pictures is simple. The built in card slot will take SD, MMC and XD cards and also has a slot for a memory stick (USB flash). The USB port takes preference if two devices are plugged in and is the more accessible of the two ports being on the side of the unit. The card reader is located at the bottom of the back of the unit meaning that you have to move and manhandle the unit to insert a card - the designers clearly didn't think about usability when designing that one. Pictures can either be read directly from these storage devices or saved to the internal memory. If there is no storage device attached then the pictures in the internal memory will automatically be shown.
Up to 15 images can be stored on the internal memory and, to be honest, it is this which we use most of the time. Reality has shown that about 11 high res images is the maximum that you can really achieve (16Mb). Copying the images to the internal memory is easy enough but you'll probably want the manual to hand the first few times you do it as the key combinations that need to be executed are not particularly intuitive.
Images can only be read in .jpg format - this is restrictive. Also, if you have folders and sub-folders these won't be recognised but all of the contents will show. Due to different aspect ratios of cameras not all photos will display across the whole of the frame. You can alter the photos to display "full screen" but this is not always satisfactory, depending heavily on photo quality.
Display
Pictures stored on the frame (or uploaded from a memory device) can be displayed in a number of ways. The default mode is a slide show mode and you can alter the refresh rate to suit your needs (5 seconds through 1 minute). The range is adequate for most needs although personally I'd quite like the ability to have a really long slide show time to allow the picture to change throughout the day but without obviously circling.
If you don't want a slide show then you can select browse mode which effectively stalls the slide show and you can manually advance through the pictures. This is really the only mode that warrants a remote control.
The third, and final mode, is the thumbnail mode. For the life of me I'm not really sure why this mode is included. I guess it does allow you to sort through a lot of pictures reasonably quickly but I've found that the load times are slow and, as only 12 thumbnails are shown at a time it's often as quick just to use the slideshow mode on a short refresh rate. From thumbnail mode you can zoom into and pan across your pictures. Again I'm not sure how useful this function is. I would imagine that most people with digital technology would have a computer in order to view the pictures and zoom in and out. The 7" size of this frame doesn't have the screen clarity and quality that really warrants a zoom function.
Talking of the screen it is possible to adjust the screen quality just as you would a TV set. You can alter the brightness and "matting" - rather like contrast. These settings are quite fiddly to operate and, like the photo saving, you may need to have the manual on hand. As a result I've tended to set the frame once and leave it. The quality of the pictures is acceptable but you'll get better on a computer (or even by connecting your camera to the TV!) as the resolution is only 800 x 480 pixels. Colour reproduction is good (and arguably better than Kodak's screens). The viewing angle is not that wide and so, again, you'll not be using this for big family viewing. Just moving a few degrees from a head on view will make the photos look dark and much more than 35-40 degrees will just leave you with a black screen.
Powering that Technology
The frame is powered via a 9v power lead and cannot be run off batteries. This rather limits where you can place the unit.
Is it Worth it?
Whilst at a basic level this frame did what we wanted it's not the kind of technology that I could really recommend. Its failings are actually common to a number of more expensive digital frames too. At first I thought this kind of gift would be ideal for those without computing resources to allow them to view digital photos but given the fiddly use and poor resolution I actually doubt that there would be many without computing resources who would find this useful. The elderly, for example, are not well served by this unit.
Our unit spends more time switched off than on (better for the environment!) and only really goes on when my son wants to see the pictures. Perhaps a true indication of how useful I think this is!
+++ BOTTOM LINE +++
It performs its functions reasonably well but whether you have a use for that functionality is questionable due to the fiddly nature of the unit.
