Snap Happy (Kodak Easyshare CX4300)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	Kodak Easyshare CX4300
Date:	20/09/05 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good picture quality, easy to use.

Disadvantages: Battery life is terrible and a memory card is essential.

When I first acquired this camera digital photography hadn't taken off anywhere near as much as it has by now and I had no intentions of investing in a digital camera. At the time this particular model would have set me back over £200, but since I was buying a new computer it got thrown in as part of the package.

So it is that after fiddling around with it a couple of times it has lain, still boxed, on a shelf in my bedroom completely untouched and unused for quite a long time.

However, this summer I decided that instead of doing my usual stunt of buying loads of cheap, disposable cameras that produce low quality photographs, I may as well make an effort to use my digital camera.

Now, even for non-Technical minded people like me this camera is fairly easy to use. You simply flick the switch at the front to turn it on and press the button on top half way down to adjust the settings and completely down to take a picture. There are buttons on the back of the camera that allow you to adjust various other aspects of your camera such as flash (you can choose to turn the flash off, set it to auto flash, flood fill flash or red eye flash) and the menu button which lets you choose your preferences on issues such as picture storage and picture quality.

The instruction manual that came with the camera proved to be fairly useless and I felt the best way to become accustomed to it was just to fiddle around with it, testing the buttons as I went.

Like most digital cameras, this camera has a screen at the back where you can see the picture before you take it and where you can review the pictures you have taken so far. You can also zoom in on pictures you are taking and when looking at pictures you have already taken, although it is only a x2 zoom on pictures you are taking and a x4 on pictures already taken.

The pictures look fairly bad quality when you look at them on the camera, but the quality improves dramatically when you upload your pictures onto your computer. The Kodak Easyshare software is provided with the camera and is easy to install and use. You only need to connect one cable from your camera to your computer and the pictures upload effortlessly and quickly and all you need to do is sit back and wait.

The picture quality was definately an improvement on my rubbish disposables and the camera wasn't particularly more difficult to use than my disposables but was a lot more versatile. However, it still has its downsides. First of all, it doesn't have a great deal of internal memory and can only hold a paltry few photographs. It is pretty much essential, therefore, to invest in a memory card. A 512MB memory card gave me loads of memory to play around with, but also set me back £50. Secondly, this camera eats battery like nothing else! It takes 2 AA batteries at any one time and they don't last long at all. I had my camera on for about 45 minutes before the batteries needed replaced. A dock is available for the camera that lets you charge it, but as the camera is an older model, it is virtually impossible to get your hands on one of these docks anywhere other than eBay.

All in all it is a good little camera, especially for those new to digital photography, and you'd probably be able to pick one up cheap from eBay since they are an older model, but battery life and memory can be an issue for you if you are strapped for cash.

Summary: Good camera for those new to digital photography.

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