Are digital photo frames the albums of the future?

Everyone has an album of their favourite photographs – pictures that bring back happy memories of birthdays, wedding days, an idyllic holiday or just a single, special moment. With traditional photography, a hard copy of a picture is printed out and if you want to display that image you are limited to only one picture in each frame. Digital photo frames are a modern solution to this limitation, enabling you to display multiple images in a single frame.

A digital photo frame is the same shape and size as a standard photo frame, although as the technology has developed using ever-smaller electronics, digital photo frames that will fit on a keychain are now available. A good size to display your pictures is in a digital frame measuring about 12”x14”, which means you have no loss of definition and the full beauty of each photo can be appreciated. However, as most frames display pictures in landscape format, you may have to do a little adjustment to portrait pictures on the computer first (by flipping them through a 90 degree rotation) before uploading them into your frame.

A digital frame has a built in digital photo projector. By transferring your digital photos from your camera or computer into the frame’s memory by using a memory card or USB connection, you can then create a slideshow of your photographs. This gives you a display that scrolls through your pictures every few seconds or you can choose to have one particular picture on display for a longer period.

Digital photo frames can become a talking piece in a room, entertaining your guests with a selection of your photographs without the need for complicated slide shows or a pile of loose photographs on a tabletop! They also make a perfect and unusual gift, particularly if you pre-load some of your most precious photographs onto the memory card beforehand. Good quality digital photo frames start at around £40, but as the technology becomes more available, the prices are coming down quickly.

When choosing a digital photo frame, pick one that will accept several types of memory card, and ensure that it will be compatible with the memory card in your camera. Many digital photo frames run on batteries, but herein lies a problem. If the frame runs on standard AA batteries, many people will be tempted to buy rechargeable batteries thinking that it will save money. However, rechargeable AA batteries carry a lower voltage than non-rechargeable batteries. Most digital technology contains voltage sensors, which indicate when there is not enough charge for the equipment to work (hence that annoying red flashing light in your digital camera telling you that your batteries are low). Because rechargeable batteries hold a lower voltage, even when fully charged they may trigger the voltage sensor in the equipment and cause it to stop working.

The alternative is to invest in a digital photo frame power supply adapter. This is a 12volt power supply unit especially designed to deliver the correct voltage to a digital photo frame, ensuring that it works perfectly, every time. A 12volt, 1.5A AC adapter will also have built-in protection against voltage spikes or ‘over voltage’, which will also ensure that the data on your memory card is not corrupted by a surge in voltage to the frame from the mains power supply.