Clever Kodak (Kodak Easyshare DX3600)

Member Name: criple

Product:	Kodak Easyshare DX3600
Date:	18/06/02 (305 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy To Upload Pictures, Easy Menu System, Excellent Picture Quality

Disadvantages: Short Battery Life, A Bit Bulky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ I am a bit thick when it comes to electronics. I absolutely hate having to read the instructions before I can get to work with anything. I am not a fan of reading (apart from op's on dooyoo of course!) and don't appreciate having to read a novel before I can play with a beloved new toy. When I bought my mobile phone I had to get my husband to read the instructions and then tell me what to do, call me lazy but I just can't be bothered. That's what prompted me to go for the Kodak DX3600. In fact all of the Kodak cameras that I looked at seemed extremely easy to operate but this is the one that stood out above the rest. Before I begin to tell you more about this wonderful piece of technology let me tell you that I am a complete novice when it comes to photography. I did not buy the camera for business or any kind of venture, it was purely and simply to take good quality photographs of my friends and family.
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\\\\\ PRIOR TO PURCHASE /////

I read around in some magazines, mainly the 'Which' magazine to try and find out what would be important in my choice of digital camera. I knew that for a good quality camera it wouldn't be cheep. It was important to do some research before making a purchase. There are certain things to consider and before you go looking around I would urge you to think about your needs and what the main use of your camera is going to be. What would you like it to do? How much do you want to pay?

Now, one of the most important things to consider is the quality of picture you wish to produce. This is where you look at the 'Pixel' quality, i.e. the higher the Pixel resolution on the camera the higher the picture quality. You will see many cameras rated by this. It will say something along the lines of 800 X 600 pixels for lower quality cameras or on the higher quality ones you will b
e looking at anything from 1.3 mega pixels. The DX3600 has 2.2 mega pixels, which tells you this will be good enough to print 8 X 10 inch prints. The standard thought seems to be that if you will be printing photographs either on your home PC or through a developer you need to buy at least a 1.3 mega pixel camera. If you simply want to set up a web page or put up a family album online then a lower quality one will do. Personally I would rather pay that bit extra and get a camera that will do both. Surely one of the benefits of digital photography is being able to manipulate the pictures and print them yourself.

You need to consider your budget and how much you are prepared to pay for this luxury. For the same amount of money you will be able to buy a top of the range conventional camera where the picture quality could far exceed that of a digital one. Digital cameras have definitely improved but be prepared to pay. They are coming down in price and are therefore more affordable. Do you want to simply take still photographs or would you like the facility of recording short movies? The DX3600 also gives you this option although the quality of the moving images will be of far less quality than of your average camcorder. You will get sound and it can be a useful little feature for that unexpected display that you just have to capture in its full glory.

Another handy feature is to be able to view the images you have just taken on an LCD display. This feature is also good for when you need to hold the camera in the air and take a pot shot. You can look through the display instead of the viewfinder and hold the camera higher up. This will of course add to the cost but I wouldn't have purchased a camera without one. With the higher quality cameras like the DX3600 you will have the opportunity to view the picture you have just taken and delete it if its not up to scratch. As every picture you take reduces the memory left available this can save cloggin
g up your memory with unwanted photographs.

\\\\\ MAKING YOUR PURCHASE /////

OK, so you've decided that you want a good quality camera that will allow you to reproduce prints that are more than likely going to be printed on your home PC and printer. You want one that's easy to use and has an LCD display so that you can view your pictures immediately. You can then get rid of any rubbish without going to the expense of producing photos that you simply don't want. You're a lazy sod (like me) and want to start taking photos as soon as you get home. You are prepared to read the instructions for the most advanced features but in your own good time. You like the idea of having a movie facility just in case you catch someone in a compromising position that a still photo just wouldn't do justice to. You're a bit heavy handed and need something sturdy, just in case you drop it and you want something big enough so that it doesn't hide amongst everything else in your handbag.

You tell all this to the sales assistant and they proceed to get out a couple of cameras that fit the bill. They ask you if there is anything else that you consider important. Now I don't know about you but what I hated previously was having to start to connect all the leads and mess about with software to upload the photos. Go on! Tell them! Ok, "Actually I would like something that is easy for me to upload the pictures and keep connected to the PC so I don't have to keep getting on my hands and knees every 2 minutes"

"No problem, we have just the thing, a Kodak DX3600" says the sales assistant and proceeds to give you a demonstration of the camera.

\\\\\ HOW TO USE THE CAMERA /////

The assistant first shows you how to load the batteries. You slide open the cover on the bottom of the camera to reveal two Kodak rechargeable batteries. They are NI-MH 1.2 volt x 2. They aren't like any you
have ever seen before as they like two AA batteries but are joined together. They can only go in the camera one way so there is no chance of you loading them upside down! You ask about the battery life and how to recharge them. The assistant explains how easy this is. With the DX3600 comes a docking station; this has more than one use. When the camera is placed in the docking station and it is connected to a mains supply it recharges the batteries. It sits there nice and tidy and initially there is a little red light. When the batteries are fully charged the light turns green, easy peasy. The battery life depends on the features you use. If you use the LCD display a lot they will run down very quickly. She tells you not to do this all the time and to close the lens when not in use. It will close down automatically after a set period of time if you forget. How useful!


You ask if you can get a feel for the camera and take a few shots and the sales assistant agrees. It does feel quite heavy but at least its sturdy. It's not the smallest of cameras either; you have seen digital ones smaller and lighter. In spite of this you quite like the feel of this and the ease of use as you start to navigate through the menu system. You can see that the symbols are easy to understand and you manage to guess at some of the functions without even asking! You take a picture and view it on the LCD display; you are quite amazed at the picture quality and the fact that a little symbol comes up straight away to ask if you want to 'bin' the photo. As it wasn't very interesting, you do, so you proceed with the on screen instructions and delete the photograph. You tell the assistant that although you will be printing pictures on your PC you want to load some on a website as well. She proceeds to tell you that you have the option of choosing the quality of your prints. The higher the quality the more memory they take so you will get fewer photos. You can adjust
this for each picture you take so that you're not wasting valuable memory on pictures that are going to be sent via email or posted on line.

As you are not fully aware of how the camera stores its data you ask. The sales assistant is more than happy to tell you that the camera has a built in 8MB memory. 8MB what, you say? Can you please explain? Well, the more MB the higher the memory and the more pictures you can take and store, bearing in mind that the quality of photos you set your camera to take will all have a bearing on this. For example on the 'best' setting you will be able to store 8 photos. It tells you this on the LCD screen, which is very handy. If you change the setting to 'good' you can then get 33 photos, quite a big difference. The answer to this problem if you wish to take all your pictures on the best possible setting is to buy an additional memory card. Hang on a minute! I thought you said this had internal memory? "Well it does", says the sales assistant but you can also buy what is called a compact flash card to insert in to the camera. There is a little slot for the card to go in and it's easy to install. You can buy anything from 8MB right up to 128MB and beyond. This will enable you to store lots of pictures and it will always use the internal memory first.

Fantastic! You are happy that the camera has all the features you need but what about uploading the pictures to your PC?

\\\\\ UPLOADING IMAGES /////

Kodak seems to have thought of everything. The sales assistant pops underneath the counter as if to bring up by magic a gadget that she called a docking station, you were expecting a space ship to come and land on it at any moment but without further ado she placed the camera neatly in the station. There was one button on the front of the station and the LED display to show that it was switched on and that the batteries were charging (remember I said earlier that every tim
e the camera is placed in the station it charges the batteries) Once the software for the camera was installed and the camera was placed in the station you connect it to your PC with a standard USB lead. You then simply press the button and it automatically begins the loading process. It opens the software for you; you don't need to do anything. All the pictures you have taken will appear on screen. It's then up to you to decide which you want to save. You simply click save and it will do it for you. The camera doesn't automatically delete the photos once you have uploaded them; you have to do this manually.

You remember that your friend has one of these cameras and you ask if you can place the camera in any docking station. She tells you that as long as it is one for the DX3600 you can take the camera to your friends and put the pictures that she wants directly on to her PC, another brilliant feature. You can also buy the docking station separately should you break it at any point in the future. If this happens in the meantime you can load your pictures directly to the PC without the station, so don't panic. So, you think you can successfully manage to load the pictures and view them on your PC. You don't want to just keep them there however, you want to print them and put them in an album.

\\\\\ PRINTING THE PICTURES /////

This is the moment you have all been waiting for, will the pictures be dull or grainy and of the same quality as your old camera?

The sales assistant can help you no more apart from show you a couple of photos that they had taken. You were happy with what she showed you but the proof would be in the pudding (or the printing in this case) you decided to take the plunge and buy the camera. It had all the features you wanted and more besides and you found it easy to use. All the way home you were taking snaps of everything; it's a good job the batteries were already charged. You rushed in
though the front door and had it connected to your PC in minutes. You pressed the one and only button you needed to on the docking station and you picked a couple of favourite snaps.

PRINT! Now as you were expecting to buy a digital camera you made sure you had a decent printer and ink, as surely this would be just as important. You also made sure that you had some nice glossy photographic paper. A friend of yours used Print and Go by Imagepro and you had bought some of this.

Hey presto! As if by magic the photo appeared from your printer. You were amazed at the quality. You had printed on a full A4 sheet and it virtually covered the page. There were no lines, no red eye (because you used the red eye reduction feature) and the image was true to colour. You were convinced you had made the right decision in choosing this camera.

You wanted to try one last thing today and that was to upload an image of yourself on to dooyoo. You were on your own and wondered how you would be able to do this. You got out the quick start guide as this was about as much as you could digest and read how to use the self-timer. Easy yet again, you struck your pose and the camera took the photo a few seconds later. You needed to get a close up so you used the 6X zoom, impressive or what!

You uploaded this with no problems and decided that you were so very impressed with this camera. You were also happy that there wasn't a big instruction book to read through. There was the quick start guide for the basics and a CD Rom with the full instructions on. You would be happy to spend some time discovering all about this camera.

\\\\\ CONCLUSION /////

You were very impressed with its many functions and ease of use. The print quality was fantastic even when you took your compact flash card to Asda and had some prints done there. The only let down is the battery life. You like using the LCD display and it drains the batteries. You have found
that quite a lot of AA batteries, which you can use in the camera, aren't strong enough to power it. You now make sure that the camera sits in the dock whenever you're not using it to keep it topped up. You have bought an additional compact flash card as if you want to get them printed at Asda for example you have to insert the card in to a machine. You cannot do this with the internal memory. You would recommend this camera to your friends and have taken a look at the Kodak.com website where they sell many accessories for it. You have bought a bag to protect it and you intend to make further purchases in the future.

WHAT! WHAT! You want to know how much it cost? How much did you pay for this luxury?

£299.00 for it at Dixon's and they are currently the same price on the Kodak website, another bargain!

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