Question about those Digital Photo Frames
 

I got a 7" digital photo frame for my parents for Christmas - it was $88 on one of those Black Friday deals. Anyway, I thought I'd load a few pics of my nephews on it before giving it to them so they can immediately see its functionality. I guess I just assumed it had its own internal memory so you can transfer pics via USB or something. But apparently you need to put your digital camera's memory stick into the thing. Does that mean you can't be off taking new pictures somewhere and have the frame working at home at the same time?
Does anyone have one of these things?

Well...
 

Depending on which one you purchased, some of them have a small amount of built in memory. The one I was just given has 64MB. While it is true that you can use an memory stick, you are not required to use the one that is for your camera. You can buy as many memory sticks that you want, swap them or use your computer to load the one that you want in the picture frame. I have two CF cards, on that is always in my camera, and one that I now use for the digital picture frame.

if i buy a second memory stick to keep with the frame, is it easy to swap pictures between sticks? For example, if i have 10 pictures on the stick in the frame, and take a picture with the camera, can i add that photo to the existing 10 on the other memory stick easily? (sorry, i'm not a complete tech idiot, but I don't have a digital camera, so this is a bit foreign to me).

what frame do you have? do you like it? how much did you pay?

Thanks!

follow up.
 

I got mine as a gift so I do not know how much it cost and I am drawing a blank as to the brand (name i never heard of). Pictures look good and it has some need effects for transitioning the pictures. I do know that Phillips makes a very good product. They also have some larger sizes as well. I have really been eyeing up the 8x10 that they have.

To swap/add pictures you will have to use your computer. Most people with digital cameras upload the pictures taken from the memory card to the PC. After that is done you could easily download pictures to the other memory card from the PC.

I've been looking at these for a while, but am still waiting for prices on a reasonable size (9-10"+) to come down. The bigger/more expensive ones appear to have internal memory and can download from a CF/SD/etc. card or a USB drive. The smaller/less expensive ones seem to require the storage media to be plugged in all the time.

Since they all seem to show pix in 800x600 or so, and with random 32-96MB cards laying around from long ago, I imagine I could load up a large number of down-sampled images on spare media without a problem. If not, 256MB cards can be bought for $20 new, 128MB cards are on ebay for $8 including shipping.

$88!? Damn. I paid double for a similar one... love it though. Great present.

I have always liked those, I paid too much a few years ago, but everyone that sees it is very impressed.

I now have a 32" monitor on my wall with photos in rotation, it is fed from a laptop so it is a big version of the cool compact frame.

No - fairly standrad wiht these things - just have an extra stick/card and swicth tme out. YOu shoudl have a few for your camera anyway IMHO

That's what I had considered, but I think next time I see one of the cheap laptop deals I'm going to snag one, break the hinges so the screen will lie flat against the back, then build a frame and hang the whole thing, minus the battery and some other stuff. Then I've got a 60gig high res music playing wifi-ing BT picture frame, for not much more than the price of a larger digital frame.
I've gigs and gigs of photos, so a frame that requires memory cards just isn't practical for me.

I took an old Dell (like REALLY OLD) and built a picture frame over the weekend.... I was so pleased with how it turned out that I'm planning on buying some $100 laptops off ebay and giving them as Christmas presents.

I tied it to my flickr account too which is nice.

I actually gutted the laptop so everything would fit nicely inside the frame...a little hot glue and an installation of DSL - Damned Small Linux and it was good to go!

thanks for all the info/suggestions. so, if i buy a memory card to pre-load some pics for them (I have an SD/SC slot on my laptop), how can they change which pictures are on it? Would they put the card into their camera and connect to their computer? Do the cards fit in most cameras? (They have a Kodak, which I bought for them 2 years ago).
Thanks again.

Varies from camera to camera
 

The memory cards vary from computer to computer. If you are going to purchase this as a gift, and you want to get them an extra card, buy the kind they use for their camera. It is always easier to only have to deal with one type. Most people like you described have the capability to dock the card into their laptop or and external accessory that you can copy/paste/delete pictures on to the card as if you were browsing your documents. The card would actually show up in your Windows Explorer or My Computer as a drive letter. Hope this makes sense.

ceiva.com
 

ceiva just introduce some nice new ones yesterday, and new cheaper monthly upload fee plans,

these are great for gps, or other tech challenged people.

Question: Can the frame be on all the time rotating photos? Im guessing they use a Ac adapter, right?
I do like that idea of the laptop photo frame. Might have to try it out one day...

Also I see the CEIVA Logic LF-2003 Digital Picture Frame and Photoco PhotoShare 7 Portable Digital Photo Frame roughly the same price. Which one would you prefer as a gift? I doubt it they will be using the internet feature on the Ceiva