This is a nice looking camera and a little different from the Kodaks that come bundled with a printer.
For a start, it is available in several different colours(pink bliss, red shimmer, cosmic blue, mystic purple, white glaze, golden dream, midnight black and silver essence), so this is obviously a fashion phone and it is certainly alot better looking than the Kodak C series phones.
The phone is very sleek looking and if you look in the Argos catalogue, you will find that it costs £249.99, which is far too much and is totally wrong. Look on the website or go into your local store and it only costs £124.95, which sounds alot better to me.
Now lets have a look at what the camera can do. It is very much a point and shoot camera, so it is ok for holiday snaps and nights on the town and with an 8 mega-pixel sensor, it should be quite sharp and ok for most peoples photo's, however, it isn't perfect.
For anybody, colour tones are a personal preference and on this camera they seem to be rather strong for my tastes, but not too bad. However, there is some noise on shots that include alot of sky and this means that you lose some of the sharpness. Fortunately, it isn't too bad either and this isn't the type of camera that you buy for serious photography. It is very much a camera for keeping in your handbag or pocket on a night out or for a spot of sight seeing.
The images can also be a touch soft when the lens isn't extended.
The lens is equiped with a 3x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom giving a 35mm equivalent of 36-108mm. which isn't brilliant but it is what you would expect for something this small. Whilst we are on the subject of size, although this is a small camera, it does feel abit chunky when you are holding it.
Although this is a point and shoot camera, it does have some useful adjustments, so that you can adjust the exposure and the film speed (ISO- this can be manually adjusted upto 1600, which is used for low light settings, but the image is terrible at this setting on this camera.)
Metering can also be adjusted with 4 options available to the user and the menu system on the camera is very easy to learn, so it isn't difficult to be creative within the cameras limitations.
White balance can also be adjusted.
The camera really comes into its own after dark, with a powerful flash and a red eye mode, you can take photos in a night club which have very bright images and no trace of red eye. This of couse means that this camera is good for indoor use and after dark, which is probably when many people would use it anyway.
There are a good selection of scene modes, so you can select the one for the type of photo that you wish to take (for example a firework shot or a sunset) and the camera does the rest.
There is digital image stabilization with anti blur which is useful for those special moments when you find yourself struggling to count all the empty bottles on the table and the room won't stay still, but you may need to ask somebody to set it up for you, if you are feeling that bad!
The camera comes with the usual video capture mode with 30fps at VGA setting. This is quite good with many cameras at this price struggling to match the frame rate count. This means that the image isn't too jumpy.
For printing out, this camera can dock with one of Kodaks useful printer docks, so you can just print out your photos at the touch of a button. The printers also use a laminated paper that resists fingerprints and water, so if you decide to buy one, you don't need to worry about crappy photos that don't survive for long. With the docks usually printing out a maximum size 6x4 photo, it is useful having a mode on the camera for 6x4 images, so that you don't have to crop them.
The camera has a nice metal body and only weighs 141.5 grams or 5 ounces if you prefer.
The vital statistics are W × H × D: 4.1 × 2.1 × 1.0 in. (103 × 54.5 × 25 mm)
It is powered by a Lithium ion battery which is rechargeable.
Memory cards are now very cheap, so buying a nice big SD card won't set you back very much, but you will need to factor this into your decision when buying this, as there isn't a card supplied.
The camera is pictbridge enable, so it is easy to connect it to a suitably equiped printer
Package Contents KODAK EASYSHARE V803 Zoom Digital Camera KODAK Li-Ion Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KLIC-7003 Carry strap USB cable 5V AC adapter with power cord(s) for in-camera battery charging Getting Started Guide with KODAK EASYSHARE Software Custom camera insert for optional KODAK EASYSHARE Camera and Printer Docks
To some up my feelings for this camera, it has limitations, but for the price and its looks/ease of use, it is a nice useful camera for students and clubbers or for dinner parties and shots around the home with family and friends.
For me personally, i prefer to use my SLR and this camera was stolen from me by my wife. She did ask to borrow it, but neglected to mention for how long. However, i don't really miss it and i didn't feel that it was much use for what i use a camera for.
I have said yes to recommended to potential buyers, but i would only recommend it if you don't need it for serious photo's.
As with many things, it has its strengths and weaknesses, but if you need a camera like this, then why not try it out in your local shop?
![Olympus µ[MJU:] 850 SW](http://images.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/260/Olympus_u_MJU_850_SW__6854260.jpg)
