It would appear, the humble digital camera is somewhat of the ‘pinnacle’ in reviewing on these review sites…partly because it must be one of the main products that ‘external’ customers use to choose a product. So, without further ado, here’s the Kodak M863. Lovely stuff.
My particular version comes in a black matt finish with a strap to place around your wrist – being a bloke it was a far more obvious choice that the potential vivid pink option!
Now, im hardly a connoisseur when it comes to digital cameras; the only other one I’ve previously owned was a ‘Premier’ one. (yep, never heard of them either!) But the first thing that strikes me about this camera is the large detailed 2.7 inch LCD screen on the back of the camera. With the camera being 8.2 mega-pixels; which is probably far too many to make any difference than, say, 6 mega-pixels would for day-to-day photos, it’s a very detailed photo you’re going to get at the end of it. But lets go into how exactly you get the photo you want.
Well, firstly lets be pedantic – the ‘on’ button is on the top of the camera, next to the flash option which has the regular presets as on, off or depending on the light available…which usually just makes it flash anyway! Next to that on the top of the camera
is the selection wheel, where you have the different mode options – photo, video, digital image stabilization, close-up, backlight, high ISO (for low light conditions) and favourites – a selection of, unsurprisingly, you favourite photos. Now, for the majority of us we’ll just use the photograph and video options, but the stabilizing and close-up options could be extremely handy for those using this camera for professional usage. Oh, and finally on the top of the camera is the big button which takes the photo…lets not forget that one!
Along side the LCD screen are a whole host of buttons which can get you from A to B to C in digital camera terms. There’s obviously a zoom button, simply labelled ‘W’ for wide and ‘T’ for tight to help you differentiate. There’s another circular button selection ‘thing’, but this doesn’t turn like the one on top of the camera – this one rather just has options such as a timer and screen display – it can remove all the details around the edge of the LCD screen to give you a full picture, and also provide a grid to make sure your subject matter is centre, left-of or right-of picture.
Then there’s the big old Menu option. Despite being the inquisitive type, I rarely venture into here as I don’t really need to chagne any of the default settings. But, pretty much any option you could ever think of is here…The list goes – Picture size, long time exposure, colour mode, date stamp, white balance, face detect capture, exposure metering, AF zone, ISO speed, sharpness, red eye preflash, blur warning, maintain settings, LCD brightness, image storage, set album, orientation sensor, camera sounds, sound volume, date and time, auto power off, video out, language, format and finally ‘about…’ – think of that intense list as a set of ‘ingredients’ of what this camera can provide. The factory settings as usually in the common sense mode; for example face detect capture is ‘on’, red eye preflash is ‘on’ and the image storage option is set to automatic.
Finally on the back of the camera is the photo album button, which you can look back through your photos. Pressing it once will take you to the photos stored on the camera – an alternative button on the back of the camera allows you to delete any – and pressing it again takes you back to photograph mode, or whichever mode you last left it in.
As with all digital cameras, there are various input points for USB leads to connect to a computer and extra holes to insert bigger and better memory cards. For the record, I’ve never brought an extra one as the one provided in the packaging when I brought the camera is 128mb, which is realisitically enough if you take it for a day-trip or a night out for example…unless you’re trigger happy of course!
Now, here’s all the technical details for those of you out there with a head for numbers…
Product Dimensions: 2.1 x 9.1 x 5.7 cm ; 118 g Boxed-product Weight: 908 g Resolution: 8.2 Megapixel Optical Sensor Type: CCD Light Sensitivity: ISO 100, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 64, ISO 1600, ISO auto (64-320) Digital Zoom: 5 x Max Shutter Speed: 1/1400 sec Min Shutter Speed: 4 sec Exposure Metering: Multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot Digital Video Format: QuickTime Still Image Format: JPEG Video Capture: QuickTime - 640 x 480 - 15 fps ¦ QuickTime - 320 x 240 - 30 fps Effective Flash Range: 0.6 m - 3.5 m Type: Zoom lens - f/2.8-5.1 Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera: 34 - 102mm Min Focus Range: 60 cm Macro Focus Range: 10-70cm Self Timer Delay: 10 sec, 2sec Display Format: 230,000 pixels Connector Type: 1 x composite video/audio output ¦ 1 x USB ¦ 1 x docking station ¦ 1 x DC power input Operating System Support: MS Windows XP, Apple MacOS X 10.3 or later, MS Windows Vista System Requirements Details: Windows XP or later - 600 MHz - 128 MB - 200 MB ¦ MacOS X 10.3 or later
Now that all sounds all a techno-experts wet dream and means very little to me, but primarily I’d recommend this camera every day of the week. It’s versatile, it does the job I ask of it every time and has so many settings and quality of photograph that realistically it could be used for some professional work. Interested? It’s available on Amazon for £74.99…get it!
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Oct 27th, 2009
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