Kathleen Cullen

Kodak is straddling traditionalist and multimedia worlds with its EasyShare S730 frame, and we applaud it for getting the balance right. This stylish, modern-looking, burgundy-bordered frame boasts a rechargeable battery so that it can be passed around without worrying about AC cords. The battery lasts only about an hour, though, so most of the time it will probably be residing on your beside table or desk.

The S730's 7-inch, 800-by-480-pixel display produced excellent results in our tests, with natural-looking, vivid, and detailed pictures. It also displays video (in MOV, AVI, MPEG, and MPEG-4 formats) and plays MP3s with your slideshow or video. A pleasant surprise was how the S730 seems to be raising the bar for audio quality in these devices: This frame has speakers located on the lower rear of the unit, but broadcasting toward the viewer, and the sound quality was remarkably good.

Transcend keeps pushing genres with the PF730; it's not only a digital photo frame, but also a video player, an alarm clock, a calendar, and an MP3 player.

The PF730 is quite stylish with its embossed (white or black) frame, and has a sophisticated look. You might set the PF730 out, say, on the sofa end table. The PF730 lacks the FM audio option of the 720, but still has 2GB of internal memory (which could be quite adequate for your entire slideshow collection.

In its warm brown wooden frame, Kodak's EasyShare D830 digital picture frame easily blends in with any other frames arranged on your desk or coffee table. With this model, however, Kodak has decided to allow you to replace the frame in the box with any picture frame you choose: Simply pop out the D830 display, slip the new frame over it, and slide the toggles to hold it all together.

The D830 has 512MB of internal memory and it accepts SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, MS Pro/MS Pro Duo, and xD cards, as well as USB. Simply plug in your card and the show begins. Images on the 800-by-600-pixel screen popped with vibrance and sharpness.

In its warm brown wooden frame, the Kodak EasyShare D830 ($140, as of 11/30/09) easily blends in with any other frames arranged on your desk or coffee table. With this model, however, Kodak has decided to allow you to replace the frame in the box with any picture frame you choose: Simply pop out the D830, slip the new frame over it, and slide the toggles to hold it all together.

The D830 has 512MB of internal memory and it accepts SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, MS Pro/MS Pro Duo, and xD cards, as well as USB. Simply plug in your card (or transfer photos to the frame from your PC) and the show begins. Images on the 800-by-600-pixel screen popped with vibrance and sharpness.

Transcend keeps pushing genres with the PF730. Like the earlier Transcend 720, the PF730 ($100, as of 11/25/09) is not only a digital photo frame, but also a video player, an alarm clock, a calendar, and an MP3 player.

The PF730 is quite stylish with its embossed (white or black) frame, and has a bit more of a sophisticated look than the Transcend 720. You might set the PF730 out, say, on the sofa end table, whereas the 720 (which somewhat resembles a radio) would look more at home in the bedroom or on your dorm room desk. The PF730 lacks the FM audio option of the 720, but still has 2GB of internal memory (which could be quite adequate for your entire slideshow collection).

Kodak is straddling traditionalist and multimedia worlds with its S730 frame ($140 as of 11/25/09), and we applaud it for getting the balance right. This stylish, modern-looking, burgundy-bordered frame boasts a rechargeable battery so that it can be passed around without worrying about AC cords. The battery lasts only about an hour, though, so most of the time it will probably be residing on your beside table or desk.

With its peculiar wavy design in black and a contrasting silver frame border floating on top, the 8-inch HP Smart Wi-Fi frame is...well, funky looking. It is also quite obvious that the frame is plastic, which is unfortunate. Delving beyond its somewhat futuristic appearance, however, I found that the Smart Wi-Fi ($145, as of 11/25/09) has a refreshingly straightforward, intelligently designed interface with simple icons directing you toward audio, video, photo, and online content.

Priced affordably with both an 18mm to 55mm and 50mm to 200mm kit lenses, Pentax's 10.2-megapixel K2000 may tempt quite a few people to jump into the digital SLR pool. Though the supposed niche for the K2000 consists of consumers new to the DSLR market, the camera's compatibility with previously issued lenses could increase the K2000's appeal to Pentax enthusiasts of all stripes.

That's especially true if you have a collection of Pentax lenses, as this camera accepts any lens from the Pentax line (keep in mind, though, that you may have to focus legacy lenses manually). Pentax has also retained in-body image stabilization, so any lens you add will also be stabilized. And according to our tests, the K2000's image quality stands up to that of the best DSLRs out there.

Unlike flashy frames overloaded with razzle-dazzle multimedia (like the cool but exceedingly ornate Transcend PF7207 and HP DreamScreen), the Vizit frame by Isabella ($280 with additional recurring service plan charges) aims for simplicity. Some digital photo frames offer so much functionality that photo sharing becomes an ordeal for the computer-nonsavvy, but the Vizit minimizes the frills.

The frame's viewable area is 10 inches diagonally--about 8.25 inches wide by 6.25 inches high. The responsive 800-by-600-pixel SVGA LCD touchscreen has a matte surface, and the frame itself is made of matte black or silver plastic. The Vizit is extremely lightweight, with a thin, plasticky feeling, articulating support that folds down in back. The support's faux-wood paneling surprised us--is Isabella aiming for a retro look retro rather than a high-tech one? Not entirely: Unlike the classic-looking Kodak frames, the Vizit has no mat. In any event, the unit's ‘70s wood paneling style doesn't look particularly classy or sturdy.

PF Digital promises that you'll get a lot from its eStarling ImpactV digital picture frame, but it's unclear how you should go about it. The 8-inch frame came without a manual, though there was a quick-start guide for getting the Wi-Fi connected. The company's Web site was similarly unhelpful, leaving me to stumble around using trial and error.

The ImpactV's touch-panel border for accessing the controls was hit-or-miss, and I found that the frame was also a magnet for fingerprints. Although the frame does connect to a network and can download pictures from RSS feeds, you can update only 20 pics at a time.

Toshiba's DMF82XKU 8-inch digital picture frame ($180; a 10-inch $230 model is also available; prices as of 10/6/09), has a sleek design and some useful wireless features. But looks aren't everything: The menu's icons are difficult to decipher and the user interface can be sluggish, making for a frustrating user experience.

The DMF82XKU is a chic-looking black frame accented with a narrow acrylic border; it is also available in white as the DMF82XWU. The frame's 1GB of internal memory allows you to store plenty of photos and music. It supports SD/SDHC, MultiMediaCard, XD-Picture Card, and Memory Stick or Memory Stick Duo, and it will play content from an inserted card.

With its new DreamScreen, HP reaches out beyond the familiar digital photo frame concept to include applications normally associated with stand-alone tablets. This 10-inch, $250 model incorporates wireless support for popular applications such as Facebook, Snapfish, Pandora, and HP's own packaging of Net radio stations, among other built-in audio and visual functions.

Sleek and minimalist in shiny black, the DreamScreen 100 is nevertheless better suited for sitting on a desktop than hanging on a wall. This is due both to its not inconsiderable weight and to the need to keep the unit plugged in at all times. So, even though it's ostensibly a wireless device, the DreamScreen is really tethered to one place.