Say cheese (Kodak Easyshare CX6230)

Member Name: uncle_bob

Product:	Kodak Easyshare CX6230
Date:	08/04/04 (490 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality pictures, Easy to use, solid build, a camera not a credit card!

Disadvantages: Buttons can be fiddly

Well, like many people these days, I finally put the good old 35mm canon camera in its bag, and got myself a digital camera.
Why have I waited so long? Well I'm not afraid of technology. If you could see my computer desk, you would see when it comes to electronics, I have it. However when it came to the camera, I held back. When everyone else rushed out to buy the latest craze in camera technology, I stood back and watched. I had doubts, I didn?t believe it would really work very well.
I used to borrow one from where I used to work when I wanted something to take quick easy pictures with. That camera was a very expensive camera, but had a lot of, I suppose you could say, bugs with the technology. The main one being battery life was poor, if you got a couple of hours from the battery you were doing well. The quality was good, but didn?t compare to a good quality 35mm camera, so I waited, in hope the technology would advance, and it would be worth spending the money on one.
Well it?s advanced enough to warrant the silly money I paid for this digital camera, much to the disgust of the wife (who I might add, uses it more than me!)

So I went out and got the Kodak CX6230, with the Camera Dock 6000. Still a little pricey for me, but I think the price is as low as it is going to be for a while, so why not.

So, the camera. I am not an expert when it comes to cameras. I?m more of your opportunist photographer than I am a professional. The main thing that attracted me to this camera was its ?no thrills? attitude. It does what it has to do, and doesn?t dress up poor quality with fancy gimmicks, that is often found on these cameras. I have always used my trusty Canon, which cost more than this digital camera did, but no digital camera could ever replace it, unless I spent thousands. However, there?s no denying, a digital camera is a lot easier than a film camera, especially for me, who wants to take quick pictures, without having to mess around
with developing films, and not knowing if the picture has worked until you have it developed. This camera offers that
I?m going to try and break it down for you, to help in reading and understanding this review.

Cost and Comparisons.
As I said before, the cost of digital cameras is dropping. Where as before cameras like this were for the lucky few who could afford them, now they are becoming more like mobile phones. Easy to get on most budgets, and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The Kodak range is no exception. Kodak have long been known for their film, and now known for their digital cameras. This camera is not the cheapest they offer, with a retail price of around £130 its aimed more at people like me. Who don?t want big fancy cameras, just one that?s going to do the job simply and easily.
When I compared it to other manufacturers, it came out the best in terms of quality for money. Nikon, Canon, etc which are more known for their cameras were generally more expensive, but didn?t seem to offer much more in terms of quality, pixel for pixel, Kodak keep up with the competition. Seemed you were paying for the name more than the camera, however, I?m sure there are some hardcore photographers around who have a brand and stick to it. Me, I wouldn?t know the difference between Nikon and Canon if it smacked me in the face.
So basically, price is fair, if you want a digital camera like this, this is one to go for, if money is an issue.

Quality:
The 6230 is a 2megapixel camera. This is more than enough to produce good quality pictures. If you want a little more detail, then a 3megapixel camera is the next logical choice. After that you?re getting into the serious cameras, and the serious money. I have taken a lot of pictures with it, and very happy with the quality. Both night and day pictures. The built in flash does well with lighting, and although eats up battery quite fast, is optional, so you can turn it off, for nighttim
e images.
The pictures are full, and picks up the small details and colours without any trouble.
The 3x zoom allows you to get up close and personal with the object you are photographing, and auto focus zeros in on it quickly and effectively, without needing to mess around focusing it yourself.

As well as photo quality, there?s also physical quality to consider.
The thing I like about this camera is its built well. A lot of people are going for these smaller, credit card sized cameras now, which although maybe ideal to slip into your shirt pocket, if you?re like me, they wouldn?t last long. To me a camera is meant to be taken with you, whatever you may be doing. No use having a camera if it can?t cope with you. This one is a good strong camera. It?s large enough to hold comfortably, but yet not big and bulky and requires neck straps to carry. When switched off, the lens retracts and covers itself, and all the buttons are recessed, so it slips in your pocket easily, and is well protected. It can take being knocked or banged around a little, without fear of breaking it. Its not heavy, so wont cause you to walk with a limp when its in your pocket. Looks good and solid, nicely laid out and everything is on the back for easy use. Comes in any colour you want as long as it is silver, with a good quality wrist strap that actually is capable of supporting the camera falling out of your hand without snapping (no pun intended)
Overall, the picture and build quality are good. I have no complaints with it. If you want a camera to take with you, on sporting events, hiking, or whatever your lifestyle has in store for you, this camera should be a trusty partner to rely on.

Features:
For its price, it is actually very well featured. I?m not going to list off every feature it has, as to be honest, I don?t know what half of them do, let alone how to use them, but I will go through the main features.

Still images, or video images. Yes
, this camera will record video too. And does it very well. On the standard built in memory, you can fit about 55seconds worth of video. Get an optional external memory card and that can be increased to whatever your wallet with stretch to. Video is very good considering it is a camera, not a video camera. And is ideal for catching those ?perfect moments?
The self timer is available for video too, so you can set the timer, and how long you want to record for, and then video yourself, without having you walking away from the camera and back up to it as you turn it on and off. It even records audio with your video, but having the audio, obviously reduces the amount of video you can fit on the camera.

3x optical zoom/3.3x digital zoom. I?m not going to pretend I understand the difference, but from what I have been told, optical zoom is the important one. That?s actually zooming in on an object. Digital zoom, I understand, is just enlarging a picture, which although is a nice feature on a camera, any good photo editing software can do that for you, with much better results. So optical zoom is what I was told to look for, and is what I went for. 3x is more than enough really, unless you what to photograph something, you shouldn?t be taking pictures of. It allows you to zoom in on something without having to get right up to it, quickly and easily.

Self-timer. This feature seemed to be forgotten about for a while on digital cameras, but luckily it is back.

Built in flash. Neat and simple, it decides if it needs a flash or not, but also has the option to turn it on or off, as well as red-eye or just a fill flash.

Auto-focus. Simply a case of holding the shutter button half way down until it has focused, then pressing it the rest of the way. Quick and effective, gets it right most times. I never have understood how auto focus works, but I just accept it does, and on this camera it does.

Review screen. This is one of the big
advantages of digital cameras over film. The screen allows you to preview the picture after you have taken it. If you like it, you can keep it, if not, you can delete it and try again. You can review all the pictures in the camera easily without having to upload them to your computer. Allows you to zoom in on a picture to see it in better detail on the screen.

Viewfinder. I found this feature by accident (no, I don?t read the instructions half the time, I?m male) but it allows you to use the screen as your viewfinder, instead of using the normal viewfinder. So you can just move the camera around, watching the screen until you have the picture you want. Makes taking pictures much easier, as you can see what it is going to look like, and what will be in the photo easily. Also makes recording video easy too, as you can see much easier like this

Burst: I wasn?t sure what this was until I played with it. But it allows you to take 3 pictures straight after each other. Great for action shots

Date stamp: It will stamp every picture with the time and date, when you take it, for easy reference later on.

Image tagging: Not a feature I have used yet, but it allows you to add short tags to pictures, to help you sort them out later on

Multiple scene modes: allows you to set the camera up for various scenes. Landscape, or night time, or just have it set to auto to cover everything.

Easy share: It is part of Kodak?s easyshare range, and it is just that, easy. Just plug it up and press the share button, and it uploads the pictures straight to your computer, or you can select which ones you want, from your computer.

Camera Dock: This is an optional extra, but is worth getting. It is not a cheap optional extra, but is still worth the money. The camera doesn?t come with a mains adaptor to allow you to charge the batteries up. The camera dock will charge the batteries up, and comes with the Kodak battery pack, which is much
easier than messing with AA batteries. Battery life is fairly good compared to a lot of digital cameras, but the dock does save you a lot of money in replacing batteries all the time, as well as making it even easier to get the pictures off the camera. Just put it on the dock and press the button, it does the rest for you.

That?s a run down of the basic features. There are a lot more option in the menu that I haven?t even tried to use yet, but for those of you who may be a bit more up to speed on cameras, I?m sure there are plenty of features you will find very useful.

Bad points:
There aren?t many things I can fault this camera on. It does what it is intended to do well.
One small little nag I have about it is the navigation button. It does seem rather clumsy. It is a multi function button to scroll left, right, up, down and OK. But its often fiddly and makes navigating the menu slow sometimes as you end up pressing the wrong part of this rather small button, and having to go through things twice.
The lack of mains charger included with the camera is another bad point. Although I got the camera dock, it would have been easier if Kodak threw in a charger to allow you to just plug it up when it needed it.
Apart from that, its perfect.

Overall:
Overall this camera is a great camera for the everyday user. It offers everything you want from a camera, but yet is advanced enough to allow you to get a bit more serious with your photos, without needing to upgrade. 2 mega pixels give you good quality pictures, and the colour is great. For the money this is an ideal starter camera, or back up camera. I won?t be selling my 35mm, but this camera is definitely much easier to throw in my pocket when we go out, than it is to lug around the bigger camera.

Summary: