Kodak EASYSHARE CX4230

...on. The camera was the Kodak CX4230 digital camera.


What do you get for your money

Positioned compactly in a bright yellow Kodak box is the camera itself, a Kodak Lithium battery, USB and Video connection cables, Custom camera insert for optional Kodak Easy Share camera dock, various manuals and the camera software for connecting the camera to a computer.

The camera specifications are discussed ...
...such this camera is perfect. Kodak quote this camera as being,” Point and shoot simplicity, enabling you to get spectacular shots easily”. After using this camera a few times now I have to agree with them. Simply switch on, point and shoot. You don’t even have to look through the viewfinder, as the LCD screen on the back can show you what you’re going to get, though at the expense of the battery life I might add.

Ideally there are ... more

Introduction

Alas it that time of year again, another year older and supposedly another year wiser (LOL). This year I decided I would like a digital camera and that my Birthday would be the perfect time to get some increased funding to allow the purchase.

After much research into what various digital cameras are capable of, I settled on the following criteria for my potential purchase:

Camera to have both digital and optical zoom, to allow me the choice of which I choose to use as appropriate to the situation within which the photograph is being taken. Ideally camera to have some form of onboard memory capability and be capable of taking pictures with at least 2.0 mega pixels. All of this coupled with the crunch factor, the camera would have to be less than £200. So as usual I wasn’t asking much, or so I thought. There are very few cameras in this price bracket that have optical zoom as an option.

One camera did fit the bill perfectly and this was the one I finally settled on. The camera was the Kodak CX4230 digital camera.

What do you get for your money

Positioned compactly in a bright yellow Kodak box is the camera itself, a Kodak Lithium battery, USB and Video connection cables, Custom camera insert for optional Kodak Easy Share camera dock, various manuals and the camera software for connecting the camera to a computer.

The camera specifications are discussed later on in this opinion, but basically the Kodak CX4230 has both a 3x digital and2x optical zoom, 16 megabytes of internal memory, various flash and picture quality modes. I wanted a camera that was easy to use and almost foolproof in general situations. I didn’t need a lot of technical features that I would never find the use for and as such this camera is perfect. Kodak quote this camera as being,” Point and shoot simplicity, enabling you to get spectacular shots easily”. After using this camera a few times now I have to agree with them. Simply switch on, point and shoot. You don’t even have to look through the viewfinder, as the LCD screen on the back can show you what you’re going to get, though at the expense of the battery life I might add.

Ideally there are a few extras you need to ensure you can gain full effective use of this camera. The first was a memory card expansion in the form of a secure digital or multimedia memory card the second is some form of rechargeable batteries and finally I decided a needed a suitable case to store them all in.

All of these were built into the equation and the Jessops camera shop, from which I bought the camera were able to supply all of these at a reasonable price.

Camera Technical Specification

The camera has a CCD (the actual electronic lens and camera) resolution of 2.1 mega pixels (1704x1257 pixels), which results in an image resolution of 2.0 mega pixels (1632x1232 pixels). The camera can take three different resolutions of pictures, 2.0, 1.0 and 0.5 mega pixels. The lower the mega pixels the slightly lower quality of the photograph taken, but the greater number of photos that can be stored per megabyte of storage.

The lens itself has a focal length of 36 –108mm, which is pretty much the same as for most other standard compact cameras and was sufficient for my needs. As I have mentioned previously the camera has a 3x optical and 2x digital zoom capability. One good thing I do like about the camera is that most functions are automatic. Things like shutter speed, exposure control, flash, white balance, ISO equivalence and picture orientation are all controlled by the camera itself, unless you choose to do otherwise. The flash on the camera has four different modes that can be selected at the press of a button, automatic, red eye, fill, close up and off of course.

One beauty of this camera over others available is that you no longer have to wait for the camera to save the photos before being able to take the next one. The camera is constantly ready to take photos, which can be handy at times.

On the camera is a real image optical viewfinder as found on just about every camera these days and a 1.6” (40.6mm) LCD screen on the back of the camera. I find the screen very useful, because normally I have to remove my glasses to see through the viewfinder and I am then never really sure whether it is properly in focus or not. Now I just look at the LCD screen and shoot.

The camera itself is 115mm x 66mm x 40 mm (4.5” x 2.6” x 1.6”) in size and weighs in at 220 g without batteries, so I imagine that will be just over 300g with batteries by the feel of the camera. Yes it is lightweight, but in no way does this make the camera feel flimsy, which is good.

Accessories

There are of course a series of appropriate accessories available for the camera. Kodak recommends that you use their own brand equipment, but this usually costs more than other equivalent brands, which offer the same quality of product. The main accessories have to memory cards and rechargeable batteries. The camera uses Secure Digital memory cards, which are the size of a postage stamp and can store up to 900 photos. The memory cards work as follows:-

A 64 Megabyte card of which I have two cost about £20 - £25 and can hold the following numbers of digital photos; best (2 mega pixel) 95 images, best (1 mega pixel) 190 images and good (0.5 mega pixel) 380 images. Obviously larger memory cards such as the 128 and 256-megabyte cards are available and will double or quadruple the amount of images discussed above. The 128-megabyte cards cost about £50 - £60 and the 256-megabyte cards are likely to set you back around £80 - £90. I find that two 64-megabyte cards are more than sufficient for my needs. These cards are available at most good camera and computer shops. Secure Digital memory cards can also be used in a multitude of other devices, such as MP3 players, PDA’s and other digital equipment.

Kodak can also supply a rechargeable battery pack, though at a price and again I opted to use my own standard AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries, which work equally as well and can be used on other things if required. Gives you a bit more flexibility I think.

Also available is the Kodak Easy Share camera dock. This basically a plastic desktop stand for your camera. You simply drop the camera into the dock and it will automatically download the pictures. I didn’t bother with the dock as I felt it was more of a gimmick than actually useful for the fifty pounds it costs. I just plug the USB cable from my computer into the camera and hey presto the same results. It can also however act as a battery charger, but you do need a special Kodak battery pack and I use everyday AA rechargeable batteries.

Price and Availability

I bought my camera from Jessops in Manchester, mainly because they had reduced their prices and it gave me the opportunity to try the camera before I bought it and ensure what I was getting was going to delivery the results I wanted.

The camera itself was £149.99, recently reduced from £169.99. I then purchased a 64-megabyte secure digital memory card, which cost me £29.99; a suitable camera case at £7.99 and some rechargeable batteries and charger for £14.99. Sum total for the whole package should have been £202.96, but with a careful bit of bartering I got an extra £10 knocked off, because it was the last one in the shop, it had been on display and I was buying numerous accessories with the camera. So I got the lot for £192.96. I tried to argue it down to a round £190, but the manager wouldn’t budge and I did want the camera there and then, so you can’t have everything. Try www.jessops.com for more information and to check the latest deals.

Looking around at various Internet sites and other shops, they all appear to be selling the camera at between £149.99 and the original £169.99, so do shop around for one.

Conclusion

All in all I am still very happy with my purchase and glad I chose this model over the many others available on the market. The photos I have taken have been very respectable in terms of quality and colour. The only fault I did find with the camera when using it, is with regard to action type photographs. Due to the time delays involved with pressing the button, auto-focusing and then taking the picture, you will have to be careful and plan your attack for these. With a little careful preparation and a bit of practice I did manage to get some reasonable results of our cat having a wall of death mad turn round our front room. Having also recently used the camera to help photograph a friends wedding and to take structural defect photos of some bridges during night time inspections, I was extremely pleased with the results and camera performance from both situations.

 

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