try before you buy

by L. Levine 2009-06-26, 2 people found this review helpful

Found this in a thrift store in essentially new condition - that was a hint. Yeah, it looks attractive and fairly durable, but 480 x 234 pixels on a 7 inch screen looks rather coarse. I wouldn't use it for photos from a real camera. On the other hand, it looks like a good match for low-res phone cameras - my phone pix look better on this device than on the phone or the computer.

Well, there's more...

The unit's default is to expand the picture to fill the wide screen - but that is guaranteed to distort your photos. Your preferred setting (whether cropped or not) is several clicks away. However, the unit does not remember your setting - so you have to repeat the routine each time you turn it on.

Another issue is that the user guide (the version online) is incomplete - two more functions are available when the unit is paused (all functions: fill, rotation, zoom, interval). Again, these settings are not saved when the unit is turned off.