JOBO ScanViewer combines digital photo frame and scanner

Turning your old pre-digital memories into pixel-rich images usually involves buying a scanner, loading the prints into a computer and then transferring them to a USB or SD Flash card for viewing in your digital photo frame. JOBO has greatly simplified this process by including a scanner built into its latest photo frame - the appropriately named ScanViewer.

If the name JOBO sounds familiar then it could be because the company has been providing photographic solutions since the 1920s, or it could be that the Apollo 11 pictures were processed using JOBO equipment. The company now has offices in Germany and the US and supplies professional and consumer photography products such as dark room equipment, portable handheld photo viewers and digital photo frames to a global market.

The latest addition to its range of digital photo frames aims to take the hassle out of digitally capturing and viewing old photographic prints by combining a 1200 x 1800 pixel, 300 dpi scanner with an 8 inch (20.3 cm) digital photo viewer.

Supporting printed photo sizes of 1.6 x 2 inch (4 x 5 cm) up to 4 x 6 inch (10 x 15cm), the scanner instantly converts treasured memories into digital images as the print passes through the slot underneath the frame's viewing area. The frame comes with 1GB of internal memory but also supports CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, MS, XD memory card expansion. Resolution is 800 x 600 pixels at a 4:3 aspect ratio and a contrast ratio of 400:1.

In addition to internal or card storage, the unit offers USB 2.0 output to a PC. In common with other digital frames, the ScanViewer offers numerous photo display options such as slideshow and four-in-one, zoom, rotate and calendar or clock display as well as MPEG-1, MPEG-4 and AVI video and MP3 audio playback.

The JOBO ScanViewer will be available in December for €259 (about US$387).

Now if only someone could combine this product with something like the Sony photo frame which has a built-in printer.