How to transfer images from digital cameras to digital frames

It's so easy to shoot photos with digital cameras that we often end up with more shots than we could ever print. That's one reason digital picture frames are so popular: You can enjoy your photos without printing them. (For more on new models, you can check out our digital picture frame Ratings, available to subscribers.)

But a friend recently admitted she didn't know the best way to transfer photos from a camera to her new digital frame. The easy answer is to take the memory card out of the camera and pop it into the frame. But there are several other ways to do it that might be preferable.

First, one key piece of advice: Always download images from the camera's memory card to your computer. It's too easy to lose images stored only on a card, and downloading them frees up space for more shooting.

Here are three common ways of transferring photos.

• Insert a memory card into the frame: If your computer and frame both have memory card slots, insert a blank memory card into your computer and save the photos to it. Then insert it into the frame and let the frame read the photos that are on the card.
• Copy images to the frame's internal memory: Alternatively, you can follow those steps and then copy the pictures to the frame's memory, if it has any. The advantage is that this will often optimize the images, which in this case means simply creating smaller files. The downside is that compressed images may not look quite as good as they can on the frame, especially on a frame larger than 7 inches.
• Connect the frame to your computer: If your frame has a miniUSB port, you can connect it to your computer via a cable with a miniUSB plug at one end and a standard plug at the other. Then you have two options: You can transfer your photos to either the frame's internal memory or a memory card inserted in the frame.

Stay tuned for our next digital picture frame post, where I'll describe how to transfer images with either a USB flash drive or how to do it wirelessly. —Terry Sullivan

[Photo:Jeremy Toeman/Flickr]