What do you buy a photographer for Christmas? The chances of you getting a surprise gift for a photographer are pretty slim, since all things photography-related are either so expensive that they require careful consultation before purchase, or they are so obscure that you have no idea what it is. A friend of mine always wants her family to buy her items of photography equipment, but they balk at buying such strange and expensive objects. Instead, I fear she gets a lot of Christmas sweaters.

A digital photo frame, however, makes a cool photography-related gift that is not too expensive and can be enjoyed by photographers and non-photographers alike.

Pandigital 7 Inch Digital Photo Frame

I recently bought this digital photo frame from Costco for $60 and I am very pleased with it. I don't have a lot of wall space for pictures, but with this photo frame I can store and display up to 6400 photographs in its 1 GB internal memory.

It has some nice features, including the fact that it has an 800x600 display. If you are considering buying a digital photo frame, don't buy any resolution smaller than 800x600 or you might see pixelation in your photos.

The frame gives you plenty of options for loading pictures. You can use the USB cable supplied to transfer them from a computer or insert an S/MMC/MS/MsPro/XD memory card. It is also wireless compatible, but requires an additional accessory for that to work.

There are two mats supplied, one white and one charcoal gray.

Other features include a remote control that hangs on the back of the frame for storage, a wide range of slide show options, clock, calendar, and alarm features, and programmable on/off.

I almost forgot to mention that in addition to photos it will play mp3 audio files and AVI movie files. I can't see me ever using these features, but they are there. All-in-all, it's an impressive product.