Kodak EASYSHARE C300

...anyway, I stumbled across the Kodak EasyShare C300. It's fairly bottom-of-the-range these days, with 3.2 megapixels, a 5X digital zoom, and a 1.5 inch (38 mm) LCD screen. It's aimed at digital newcomers such as myself, and it claims to make "taking and sharing pictures wonderfully simple". We'll soon see about that, as I took the camera on a proverbial test drive.

GETTING STARTED

On opening the bright yellow ...
...smiling anyway.

Kodak guaranteed simple, and that's exactly what they deliver. Just put the batteries inside the camera, and away you go, you can start taking photos straight from the box. The EasyShare software CD doesn't have to be installed on your computer (even though that's cunningly the first thing they tell you to do), but it helps you to organise your photos into albums, and gives you the option of sending off your photos ... more

Being the vain person that I am, I decided I needed to buy a digital camera so that I could constantly update my Ciao picture, to reflect my ever-changing length of hair, and just in case black and white photos ever go out of fashion. Plus a camera might come in useful for other things. Perhaps.

Since I didn't need a camera capable of taking beautiful, professional standard images, and frankly, I couldn't afford that anyway, I stumbled across the Kodak EasyShare C300. It's fairly bottom-of-the-range these days, with 3.2 megapixels, a 5X digital zoom, and a 1.5 inch (38 mm) LCD screen. It's aimed at digital newcomers such as myself, and it claims to make "taking and sharing pictures wonderfully simple". We'll soon see about that, as I took the camera on a proverbial test drive.

GETTING STARTED

On opening the bright yellow box, I'm presented with a plethora of instruction leaflets, the camera itself, USB cable and batteries, a software CD, and a whole host of smiling children. Photos, that is, it would be extremely inhumane to put real children inside a camera box - I'm sure they wouldn't be smiling anyway.

Kodak guaranteed simple, and that's exactly what they deliver. Just put the batteries inside the camera, and away you go, you can start taking photos straight from the box. The EasyShare software CD doesn't have to be installed on your computer (even though that's cunningly the first thing they tell you to do), but it helps you to organise your photos into albums, and gives you the option of sending off your photos to Kodak HQ, who will send you back a set of prints. But we'll have more on that story later.

HOW DOES IT PERFORM?

Very well, in fact. The Kodak C300 is genuinely simple to use, although that's probably because it doesn't have the range of advanced features that better cameras have. You switch it on using the "mode dial", or as I call it, the "turny wheel" at the top, and you can either turn it to regular picture mode, night time/low light picture mode, or video mode.

Taking pictures is just like with a non-digital camera, really. You can look through the viewfinder, and click the shutter button. I think the shutter button is really easy to use, because on some cameras you have to hold it down for a few seconds, whereas on this, one click is all it takes! A big advantage of a digital camera is that you can see exactly what you're taking on the LCD screen, although on the Kodak C300 it's a big battery drain, and they recommend you don't use it all the time. The screen itself on this camera isn't the biggest, it does look a bit pixelated, and it's hard to see in bright sunlight, but it does the job.

There isn't an optical zoom on this camera, which is always a benefit, but there is a 5X digital zoom, which is - yep, you've guessed it - easy to use. For those who know nothing about cameras, a digital zoom isn't as good as an optical zoom because it just makes the pixels bigger, and leaves you with a poorer quality of image afterwards. An optical zoom is where the lens comes forward out of the camera, and actually gets closer to the subject without the pixels being affected. I found that the camera wasn't particularly good for long distance shots, as it has quite a wide range, and if you want to focus in on one area, the digital zoom makes it poorer quality.

After taking a picture, it automatically shows up on the screen for about 5 seconds, giving you ample time to delete it if it's pants. This is very easy, with a button clearly labelled "delete". After that, if you want to have a look at all your pictures, there's another button clearly labelled "review", which you press, then you can flick through them using the directional buttons, and magnify the images up to 4X.

In video mode, you can shoot up to 30 seconds of video, without sound. Maybe not the best quality video, and definitely not the best piece of equipment to use if you're planning on being the next Steven Spielberg, but if like me you just want to capture the moment, it's fine. Again, it's easy to use, you just view the video through the LCD screen on the back, use the shutter button to start/stop recording and then you can review it and delete it if it's not up to your high standards.

MENU AND SETTINGS

As I said earlier, if you're looking for a really comprehensive piece of equipment, packed with features, then this isn't the camera for you. If you're a novice like me and just want something that takes decent photos, then it's pretty good. I'm not going to tell you what the menu is like to use, since you can probably guess already, but you get to it by another button, clearly labelled "menu". Some of the features include a self timer, which gives you 10 seconds to race back and get yourself in the shot, and an exposure compensation feature (far too complicated for me) which basically makes the image darker or lighter.

You can choose from four types of picture quality, ingeniously ranging from "good" to "best" and you can change the screen size to 3:2, for if you want 10x15cm prints. I found that without a memory card, if you want to fill your camera with holiday snaps you have to use the lowest setting, since there isn't enough internal space to hold a whole holiday's worth of top-quality images. On the lowest setting, the memory can hold 67 photos, which is fine. Unfortunately, if you want to have the best quality photos, there's only room for 17.

There are 4 different styles of flash to choose from, depending on what kind of picture you are taking. "Auto Flash" is the standard variety, as doesn't operate in sunny conditions, but does at night. "Red Eye" is ideal if you're taking photos of people, as it flashes twice to adjust the victim's (sorry, subject's) eyes. "Fill" means that it flashes regardless of the conditions. "Off", unsurprisingly, means that it never flashes regardless of the condition. These last two are a bit pointless, and I just keep it on auto flash, since I find that red eye is never a problem with this camera anyway.

But my favourite feature on this camera, rather immaturely, is the ability to take photos in colour, black and white, or even sepia! Hurrah! If you've got a love for black and white photos, you don't have to edit it in a photo package, you can take it in B&W to start with! And sepia is great if you're trying to recreate a nostalgic look of days gone by.

WHAT THE BLAZES IS EASYSHARE?

I was wondering this, too. Well, on the back of the camera there is a little red button clearly labelled "share", and when you press it, it gives you the options of printing the image, emailing it to an address or setting it as a favourite. Basically, the EasyShare facility is for if you have one of the Kodak EasyShare printer or camera docks. These are the fancy devices where you attach your camera onto the top, press a button and your prints come out, or press a button and your images are instantly transferred to a computer. So, this camera is fantastic if you have one of these. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with just connecting it to your computer with a USB cable and printing off the pictures yourself.

I suppose the EasyShare stuff is helpful if you're the kind of person who loves to email your pictures out to all your friends quickly and simply, using the address book in the software CD. This brings me back to my earlier point. You can send your images off to be printed by Kodak, which is great if you don't have the facilities to print pictures off at home, but if you have a decent printer or the EasyShare printer dock, it's really simple to just do them yourself.

VALUE FOR MONEY?

I've waffled on enough, so now I'll get down to my final thoughts. The average price of this camera, from what I've seen on various websites, is around £70. Being me, I bought mine on eBay, where you can pick one up from around £40. Although it's a bit risky, I'd recommend the eBay approach, since I think paying full price is a bit much for this camera. Obviously shop around and try to find the best deal possible, and it'll undoubtedly be cheaper online than on the high street.

This is a great little beginners' camera, with enough features to satisfy the basic photographer, and Kodak really deliver on their "easy to use" promise. It's definitely better for close-up rather than distance shots, so it's perfect for quick snaps of your mates, not so good for picturesque landscapes. If that's what you want a camera for, I would definitely recommend the Kodak EasyShare C300.

ADVANTAGES

• Easy to use!
• Good quality prints in the end, with no red eye
• Enough features to keep me happy

DISADVANTAGES

• Screen is a bit small, and drains the battery a little too much
• Lack of optical zoom
• Internal memory is small - you will need to buy a memory card

TECHNICAL INFORMATION (IF YOU'RE INTERESTED)

Dimensions: width 103.5mm
depth 40.2mm
height 65mm

Weight: 147 grams (excluding batteries)

LCD screen: 1.5 inches (37mm)
280 X 220 pixels
full colour

Battery life: non-rechargeable alkaline batteries - around 60-175 photos
rechargeable batteries - 200-300 photos
lithium batteries - 275-375 photos

Lens: aperture f/4.5
focal length 37mm (35mm equivalent)
focus distance 0.8m to infinity

Operating temperature: 0 to 40°C

Tripod socket: Yes

Viewfinder: Reverse Galilean

I hope that's clear to everybody!

 

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