Pictures or photos are a part and parcel of remembrance, catering to the aesthetic values of human being. Over the years sophisticated cameras has evolved to cater various needs of this strange trait of human character which is unique. Pictures have been of great consequence of scientific researches and scientist have succeeded in capturing mind-blowing pictures of remote stars and satellites. Naturally printed formats have failed to satisfy our quest for easy sharing and viewing of those precious moments, hence the evolution of photo frames having capabilities of displaying photographs and sharing them more vividly and conveniently. Computers have aided this development immensely and taken it, more or less, to the realm of fantasy.

Digital photoframes has the capability to display images or photographs directly from the memory card of the camera. It's possible to upload pictures to photoframes through bluetooth, a wireless device, via USB support and even via mobiles. There are photoframes which has its own internal memory storage.

Now a days built in speakers are wide spread for playing videos with sound and are provided with remote controls making photosharing and viewing that much more comfortable and immensely enjoyable.
Sony DPF D80 is a high quality digital photo viewer albeit incapable of playing video or audio files which hardly becomes a loud disqualification. The best part is its ease of use and audacious image quality. It looks absolutely breathtaking in its glossy plastic giving it hi-tech look. The intelligent part of the gadget its design. Sony DPF D80's display area seems wider than most because the bezel is smaller than most other such products although the dimension is 9 inch x 6.5 inch x 5.5 inch. It has been provided with a rotating kick stand making the frame to be mounted vertically or horizontally, the noticeable drawback being that it does not come out with a fixture to be mounted on the wall.

The menu, the power switch, navigation buttons are all there, but the addition of the remote has made it much more comfortable to use. Slots for CompactFlash, SDHC/MMC/xD and Pro/Duo memory sticks are provided on the back and are easily accessible. The A/C adapter with mini USB is placed directly opposite to these slots.

Images files can be directly coped from the computer add to that its capability of remotely copying and resizing selected images to its own internal memory just by a dab on a button.

It optimizes at 500 images independent of size, this is possible because even though the Sony DPF D80 has does make its total built in memory available for pictures. This is a possibility but my only contention is that a difference of 6MB in built in memory availability should hardly make any such difference, may be some technological impediments are there, applying same analogy to computers makes quite a difference in the performance in computers as far as the system disk is concerened.

To be more conversant with the Sony DPF D80 just have a look at the technical specification:

Device Type: Digital photo frame
Key Features: Memory card reader, Digital photo viewer
Width: 9.1 in
Depth: 1.5 in
Height: 6.6 in
Weight: 1.6 lbs
PC Interfaces: USB
Features: Clock, Calendar
DISPLAY

Display Type TFT 8 in - Color
Display Form Factor Built-in
Image Aspect Ratio 4:3
MEMORY / STORAGE

Flash Memory Cards Supported Microdrive, Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, XD-Picture Card, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCardplus, Memory Stick PRO Duo, XD-Picture Card Type H, XD-Picture Card Type M, CompactFlash Card type I, CompactFlash Card type II
Integrated Flash Memory 256 MB

DIGITAL PHOTO FRAME

Operating Modes Portrait, Landscape
Features Automatic slide show, Variable fade effects, Automatic image resizing, Variable slide show speeds, Automatic Orientation Sensor

STILL IMAGES

Supported Still Images Formats JPEG, JPEG(JFIF 1.0)
Playback Image Resolution (max) 48 megapixels

PERFORMANCE:

Although this is the first photoframe that I am using it's very fast both while copying and resizing. At 800x600 pixel resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio the pictures are amazingly well defined and hardly carries any grains. It reproduces all the attributes of the image accurately. Although it is not specified in the technical specification it can also play Sony ARW (raw) files.

THE LOWS:

The non-inclusion of thumb drive is inexplicable and there are visible color contouring. Only the index thumbnail display is annoyingly slow, and it won't let you interrupt it until it's rendered all the thumbs on the screen.

No doubt it is very pricey but on the whole it's a worthwhile experience and you would not really repent the money spent.

(Also available at ciao.co.uk under the same user name)