I purchased this frame with the intention of placing it on my desk at work and using it for viewing thousands of photos I'd shot of my kids, sporting events, performing arts events, travel, etc. over the years. It was my intention of using the frame as a means of giving plenty of time to look at my work when I'm on the phone, eating, etc., plus the opportunity to delete anything I've later decided isn't so great. This will not work for that purpose (see below), but I decided to keep the unit anyway for use at home on my wall. I ended getting a Sony photo frame for my desk at work.
I own 2 DSLR's and 5 lenses, and tend to shoot thousands of photos. I also have, and occasionally use a point-and-shoot camera which produces images much closer to square (4 x 3) than my DSLR's (3 x 2). I tend to rotate my cameras between vertical and horizontal a lot in order to fill the image with the subject, so I need viewers than enable me to see them all effectively. This device only fulfills part of my needs, as can be seen below.
The Pros:
(1) The price I paid, around $70, was a great deal for this size of frame.
(2) Great for hanging on a wall and viewing wide 3:2 type photos from a DSLR in horizontal orientation. Images look great from a distance of 6 feet or more.
(3) Viewer has the capability to operate in random slide show mode with access to multiple directories on the SD card or USB drive.
(4) Appears to work well with any size or type of SD card. Currently, I have no trouble with an 8 GB card. Does not appear to have any limitations on longer filenames, as would be typical of older units.
The Cons:
(1) No autosensing capability to enable the viewer to be optimally used for photos in vertical orientation. Of course, it does shrink them to fit, but this wastes about 60% of the screen's viewing area. I assumed this capability would be standard, given that I own another frame several years old which has this capability. The arm on the back of the unit does not even permit you to set it in a vertical position.
(2) Image quality is mediocre when viewed at close range, such as when sitting on a desktop. When viewed from 6 or more feet away, it looks good.
(3) No apparent capability to delete photos from the SD card using the remote control or those on the back of the device.
(4) If your only camera is a point-and-shoot with a 4 x 3 aspect ratio, you'll either waste 16.7% of the space on the viewer or be forced to crop the photos.
(5) Like too many electronics manufacturers, Viewsonic makes the mistake of putting features on its cheap, tiny, easily lost remote that are not available anywhere on the device itself. From looking at their website, there is no replacement remote available at any price. If you lose or break the remote, this photo frame will become more difficult to use, since the slideshow does not restart automatically when power is lost, then restored. I was finally able to get the slideshow started without the remote.
(6) The process of entering the initial settings (date, time, viewing preferences, etc.) is a bit cumbersome and does not always work well. It provides no confirmation that you've actually saved the setting, so you can sometimes lose the data you've entered into the settings without realizing it until later. I think the key to avoiding this problem is to be sure and hit ENTER for every setting you change.
