Digital Picture Frames – The new Photo Album?

December 24, 2009

It’s quite possible that conventional photo albums could soon become a thing of the past as a consequence of the advent of electronic photo frames. Admittedly, it seems unlikely that old fashioned static photo frames will disappear, they will always be useful, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that bulky photo albums could become redundant quite soon.

Digital photo frames are now a mainstream consumer product. They are no longer thought of as high technology gadgets and, considering the very high sales figures in 2008 (which show no sign of slowing in 2009 by the way), this type of frame is now a feature in many houses.

The technology is fascinating for many of course, but the thing that will probably appeal to the majority of people, be they technophiles or technophobes, is the additional functionality offered by digital frames. Some things are expected – nobody is going to buy a frame that doesn’t have a good display with a sharp image and clear colours which are a true reflection of the object in the picture. The size of the frame selected will be a matter of taste and will vary from individual to individual. At the moment, the most widely selected frame size is 7″ or 8″. That’s quite a decent size for a desk or sideboard and will suit many people perfectly well. Larger sizes are certainly possible if you have the notion and the money.

The main selling points that might convince users to opt for a digital frame instead of a conventional frame or photo album are the facts that electronic frames have the ability to store and display large quantities of photos and that there are no processing fees required as no physical copies need to be printed.

Digital picture frames are able to store thousands of photos on a selection of different electronic storage devices – many frames have their own internal memory, but for those that don’t, inexpensive memory cards can be used as the storage medium. The photos stored in this manner can be automatically cycled through to display a slide show with preset timings between different images – or the picture on display can be set in static mode and then changed manually.

The capacity to store and display so many more pictures than the very largest standard album is a huge benefit. No more rummaging around in the basement or hunting through ols shoe boxes to find that photo you’ve suddenly remembered about.

Electronic image storage is another major benefit. The end result is that you don’t need to pay processing fees or cover any printing costs in order to be able to view your photo collection or have it on display.

People will still have their “favourite” snapshots and will probably continue to print out paper copies of a select few of these in future. It seems unlikely that traditional photo frames will disappear completely. However, given the ease of electronic storage and the other advantages enjoyed by digital frames, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suppose that the days of traditional albums may very well be numbered.

Check out the wide range of digital photo frames available. They make a great gift idea.