Sunday, 25 January 2009

Kodak EasyShare M820 8-Inch Digital Frame

Indulge your senses with pictures, videos and music. Just insert a memory card or USB flash drive into the Kodak EasyShare M820 Digital Picture Frame and enjoy viewing your pictures right away. Your frame comes with decorative mattes that allow you to personalize the look of the frame, and complement your home decor. Kodak EasyShare Software makes it easy to access all of your pictures and transfer them from your computer to your frame. Kodak's Quick Touch Border keeps fingerprints off of your viewing screen so your images stay beautiful. The touch panel features yellow lights that illuminate to tell you exactly where to touch. Create, edit and view slideshows at the touch of your fingertips. The convenient drag-and-drop feature is perfect for transferring pictures for slideshows. View your pictures on the 8" (20.3 cm) 16:9 wide screen featuring Kodak Color Science for vibrant color and crisp detail. Store up to 300 pictures directly on your frame's 128 MB of internal memory and use the two available SD card slots to view and enjoy even more of your pictures. Set the mood with your music, listen to your favorite MP3s with built-in speakers Selectable viewing hours featuring automatic on/off settings Easily browse and edit your albums Display your frame on a tabletop or on a wall, vertically or horizontally Add style to any decor with optional accessory faceplates Discreet cord design is barely visible
Customer Review: Kodak M829 Digital Picture Frame
This digital picture frame is very easy to use even without the manual. Everything you need is on the touch screen. Very easy to use from your digital camera, flash drive or the computer. Also the videos that I tried from my digital camera played very well and where clear. I haven't as yet tried any music. The clock feature that turns the picture frame on and off is a very convient idea but be sure you use the 24 hour cycle, I didn't understand this at first and couldn't get mine timer working right. I did have a little trouble coping picture files to my SD card but I think, I need to put them on my computer first and see if that is what is need to get them on my SD card, not sure about this right now, but I will try it and see if that works. Overall I'm very please with the Kodak digital picture frame and would recommend it to anyone as a gift for the Holidays.
Customer Review: Does not work like it says
I purchased this product two days ago and I am taking it back. I purchased this paticular frame because it goes with my Easyshare camera, and I like the word EASY when it comes to some of this Hi Tech stuff. I have to say it was easy to get my photos on, no problem, but The Video feature didn't work. The videos played very slow and the audio was slow and muted, when I played it for the first time it frightened my daughter, she thougth there was a monster in the frame. I called Kodak, they said to send it back. I don't want to purchase another one and have the same problem again.


From all of the books, advertisements, and products in stores it would appear that no one continues to use a film camera. This isn't true of course. Although a digital camera can offer much greater control during the editing process and perhaps even a cost savings over the long run, a traditional film camera still has advantages for some consumers. One of those being that if their film camera is a good one and meets their needs, there is no reason to change.

However, for those who do decide to switch to a digital camera there will be significant differences to which they must adjust. Certainly the technology behind a digital camera makes them different; how images are captured and stored, the optics themselves, pixels, resolution, and so forth. But there are a handful of basic changes to which even those who photograph on a very limited and casual basis will need to adapt.

Response Time

With a more affordable, point-and-shoot type digital camera there can be a significant delay between pressing the button and the camera actually taking the picture. These cameras are somewhat like a small computer. During the lag time it is focusing but this can cause some great shots to be missed.

Of course, spending the time to shop for a camera with less lag time is one solution; and certainly many of the more expense models don't suffer this issue. However, there is a simple adjustment which can produce a significant reduction in the lag time. The photographer can set up the shot, aim the camera at the subject, and press the button down half way and hold it. At this point, the digital camera will begin the process of focusing. Then, a couple of seconds or more later, when the photographer and subject are ready, the button is depressed entirely and the picture is taken almost immediately. Obviously, this requires the photographer to anticipate and prepare before taking a shot.

Battery Life

Because much of what a digital camera does consumes energy from the battery, they are known to drain batteries very quickly. One of the particularly power greedy functions unique to a digital camera is that of powering an LCD screen. Again there are a number of things users can do to assure they don't run out of power and to reduce the rate at which the camera uses the energy.

To avoid a trickling discharge, batteries should be removed from the camera when the device won't be used for more that a week or two and, likewise, a digital camera should be powered off if the user doesn't anticipate taking a shot for another 30 minutes or so. Using the "sleep mode" is good also, to assure that even if the user forgets, the camera gets powered off.

Using the viewfinder instead of the LCD screen to frame shots is wise when you wish to save power. Users can also avoid using flash whenever their subject is more than 12 feet or so away, since the flash will be ineffective anyway and drain power needlessly. Those traveling with a digital camera also need to be sure to carry a backup battery to avoid problems.

A final recommendation is to use other power sources when possible. Use AC power when performing various functions such as downloading or use a card reader to download from the memory cards and remove the camera from the process entirely. Pictures can be edited on the computer rather than on the camera to save additional power.

The Viewing System

A digital camera often has an optical viewfinder which is separate from the lens through which the camera takes the picture. Thus, when a subject is somewhat near, what a photographer sees, and what the camera sees are two different things. Using the LCD to frame a shot is also difficult because in order to see the screen, the camera is held away from the body, making it difficult to hold the camera steady for a good shot. The fix for this is to use the "correction marks" visible through the viewfinder which approximate the border of the image that the camera is seeing versus using the LCD screen. This also allows the user to keep the camera closer to the body in a steady fashion.

Another option is to buy a camera with an electronic viewfinder which takes the image captured by the lens, and electronically transfers it to a display screen allowing the user to accurately frame the picture. Use of an electronic viewfinder however will increase power consumption.

The third option is to buy a digital camera with a TTL mechanism. With TTL, the photographer views a scene through the same lens that records the image and is thus able to frame a scene accurately. This option however is generally available only on more expensive camera models.

Despite these differences, digital cameras do offer some tremendous advantages; from being able to view photos instantly, edit them, print them at home, share them easily on the internet, and so forth which make them worth the small effort to adjust to their unique characteristics.

The author, Christine Peppler provides useful information on using and selecting home electronics products such as a digital camera on her homemedias.info website. Visitors to the site can also take advantage of the opportunity to voice their thoughts on specific products to benefit other consumer through the consumer forum.

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