Excellent little camera (Kodak DC3800)

Member Name: Mizmi

Product:	Kodak DC3800
Date:	23/06/02 (163 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively Cheap, Excellent quality pictures, Brilliant size - small and stylish

Disadvantages: No optical zoom, Simple features, Relatively slow

This camera is fantastic. I purchased it whilst on holiday in Macao last summer, and it has followed everywhere since then. The size is great - it is tiny (9.5cm x 5.5cm x 3.5cm) and fits nicely into a small handbag or even a large pocket.

It takes 2.1 mega pixel images and the image quality is GREAT. Granted they do come out HUGE on your computer screen, but the quality is excellent - my friends hate it when I take photos too close up because you can see every single pore on their face.

This camera takes the popular compact flash cards and comes with a 8MB card - that's not much, so it is advised that you go and get yourself at least a 32MB. Depending on how high quality you want your pictures - a 32MB can take up to well over 300 photos (but the quality would be low). This camera gives you a choice of 'Good' (not actually that good), 'Better' and 'Best'. There are no noticeable differences between 'Better' and 'Best' but you can take SO much more photos with the 'Better' (medium) mode.

The thing I like about this camera is that it takes two standard AA size batteries - and STILL it is tiny. This means that when you suddenly run out of battery, you don't have to worry about a charger - just go to a shop and get some new ones. However - I use rechargeable batteries because they last much longer than the non-rechargeable, and save money in the long run. So it is worth investing in rechargeable batteries and a battery charger for this camera.

This camera also comes with a USB card reader (about £100 to buy on its own), which is EXCELLENT. You insert the compact flash card into the USB card reader connected to the PC, and your pictures are downloaded within seconds. Much faster than those cameras which come with just a USB lead. I have windows XP - and this works well with my USB card reader because it even gives you the choice of exactly where to download the photos to, and
even what to name them (eg: Party Pic [pic number]), AND you can choose to have the downloaded pictures deleted from the computer, so it saves you having to do it from your camera, which wastes battery.

However there are also a few downsides to this camera. This camera offers digital zoom - which when used, the picture quality is poor, so it?s not that great. The down side is that it does not have an optical zoom - which can be pain.

Also, it is a very simple 'point and shoot' camera and does not have many features and jigs - the menu is quite simple, and when scrolling through the pictures on the preview LCD screen - the pictures take a bit longer to load than many other digital cameras. I have noticed that although so digital cameras are ugly and bulky - they do offer many more features.

Also the camera delays for almost a second from when you press the button to when it actually takes the picture - which CAN be a problem, but usually isn't.

This camera is excellent for simple photography and it's size and style makes it attractive. Its price is really good also - I got it for about £200 - which is a low price for a 2.1 mega pixel digital camera. This camera comes with a padded leather pouch - which is great. The software is easy to use - however if you want to send photos off for emails - you would need a software such as Paint Shop Pro to resize the photos because they are huge (designed to be printed in A4).

It comes with an international guarantee and Kodak's cusomer service is GREAT.

All in all - I think that despite it's faults, it is still an excellent little camera. I would definitely recommend it if you just want a simple and comprehensible camera to take with you everywhere.

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