This new Photo Book from Digital Foci is not so much of a book as it is a digital photo browser with a nice pleather binder. It has an 8″ screen and is set to be available in May for $189. More info in the press release below.
A couple of questions for you wedding photographers:
1. Is this something you would use to show proofs to clients or would you rather use a laptop?
2. Would you consider adding this as part of a package or an extra (i.e., clients take the digital album home loaded with their photos)?
Add your thoughts in the comments below.
PRESS RELEASE
Los Angeles, CA, February 17, 2009 – Digital Foci, Inc. www.digitalfoci.com announced today that it will introduce Photo Book, a portable digital photo album with an 8-inch 800 x 600 digital LCD color screen and a large 4GB of internal memory at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Show held March 3-5, 2009 in Las Vegas. Featuring a slim design encased in a soft leather-like case for a convenient, elegant photo display, Photo Book offers over 2.5 hours of battery life and an easy and portable way to enjoy and share digital photos in a comfortable setting.
With Photo Book, consumers have easy access to their photos in a portable album that can be brought along to enjoy and share anywhere. Its soft leather-like case presents an attractive initial impression and is ideal for passing around while sitting on a living room sofa or at a business presentation. The internal battery eliminates the need to deal with messy AC power cables and makes it very easy to handle.
To use, simply load photos to Photo Book’s internal memory directly from a memory card or USB flash drive. Supported memory cards include CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick, and MSPRO. In addition, users can connect Photo Book to the computer via USB and easily transfer photos, videos, and music from the computer to Photo Book.
Photo Book lets users organize their photos into different albums and choose a specific album to view. The “Photo Album View” displays each folder as a separate photo album, showing its folder name and a preview image of the first photo in the album. “Photo Thumbnail View” lets you browse through the thumbnails of the photos in a selected photo album. In addition to running a full screen photo slideshow with adjustable time intervals, you also have the option of running the slideshow with an elegant page-turning effect, just like you were flipping through an actual photo album. Y ou can also add music to play in the background along with your slideshow.
Perfect for Photographers to Present their Portfolios — Supports RAW Image for DSLRS
Perfect for photographers to professionally display and protect thousands of photos in a sleek portfolio, Photo Book supports RAW images from a wide selection of DSLRs, in addition to JPEG, BMP, GIF, and TIF image formats. Photographers can organize their photos into different collections, and choose a specific collection to show depending on their audience. Photos are automatically rotated to their correct orientation based on the EXIF data captured by the camera, and can also be zoomed, panned, and rotated.
Photo Book Features:
- 8” digital LCD with 800 x 600 resolution.
- Large 4 GB internal memory holds thousands of digital photos.
- Built-in memory card slots provide native support for: CF, SD/HC card, MMC, xD-Picture Card, MS/MS PRO (Supports mini-SD, RS-MMC, MS Duo with adapter).
- USB host capability – supports USB flash drives.
- Copy albums directly from memory cards for USB flash drives to internal memory without needing a computer.
- USB 2.0 connection for transferring photos between your computer and device.
- Displays each photo album with folder name and photo preview.
- Optional displays show photo file name and slideshow counter.
- Run automatic Full-Screen or Photo Book photo Slideshows with adjustable time intervals.
- Scroll photos manually with zoom and rotate functions.
- Supported image formats – JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, RAW image files from a wide selection of DSLR cameras.
Automatic photo orientation based on EXIF data. - Supported audio formats – MP3, AAC, WMA – music will play in the background during photo slideshow .
- Supported video formats – MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 SP.
- Built-in 1 channel, 1.4W speaker.
- Runs on rechargeable Lithium polymer battery with 2.5 hours of battery life.
- Comes with soft leather-like case that protects the Photo Book and makes an attractive presentation.
Photo Book includes a leather-like case, AC power adapter, USB to computer, USB adapter to USB flash drive, and Quick Start Guide. Priced at $189 SRP, Photo Book will be available May 2009 at: www.digitalfoci.com and major retailers, such as www.amazon.com and www.adorama.com.
This looks like a very cool device and I would enjoy testing it out. However I could see me not committing to it for a few reasons.
1) yes it would be much more convenient than using my laptop, however the display is too small and the resolution is too low. A display that would be around 11 inches and at least 1024×768 would be my requirements to show off my images at their best
2) it would be a nice product to offer clients but can see very few going for it due to the area I live in and the average lower income and budget my clients have for their wedding photography. I could see this selling easier for photog’s that are in a large city and specialize in more ‘affluent’ clients than what my area of residence/business offers me.
3) it would be a secondary ‘nice to have and show’ to clients as my primary will always remain traditional prints. clients like to see large 11×14 prints as they want to see what the images will look like printed and on their wall. large prints shown to clients would remain my number one display choice where this small LCD would be a fun convenient way to show off my work if I had it in the car with me and not my other portfolio ‘stuff’. a quick and convenient tool.
Cool idea though, and it is good that music can be played when it slide shows as that makes a world of difference when presenting images using a digital slideshow.
I can see a tool like this becoming more commonly used as the tech improves. LED backlight (or OLED even better) and it having a larger display and higher resolution would make it very attractive to those that need or insist on the best.
I am very interested in this item. Where can I see one in person.
I would like to know if I can play MP4 files of my photoshows, that have animated photos, video and music? (See sample of photoshow on my website).
I would like to use it in place of a proof book.
Can the files be locked to protect my work?