Although not quite an amateur photographer, I have always loved taking pictures. As digital technology became more popular, I clung to my film camera, a Kodak APS that I loved. I received a cheap, no-name digital camera as a gift, and I thought that would be sufficient to handle any digital needs I might have. Boy, was I wrong!
Things changed for me when my husband bought me the Kodak EasyShare C360 and Printer Dock last Christmas. Although I still feel a bit guilty to admit this, I love my EasyShare digital camera more than any film camera I've ever owned! It is extremely easy to use and yet has a great variety of options. For basic picture-taking, there is an auto feature; simply turn the dial to it and go. However, you can also chose from several other alternatives, including action, close-up, portrait, and landscape. In addition, the camera has a separate series of "scene" settings which allow you to customize your picture-taking even further--these scenes include children, beach, snow, even fireworks! I especially like using the indoor party setting, which eliminates the poorly lit, poorly exposed indoor shots that you get with other cameras, and the self-portrait, which makes for some fun shots. Oh, did I mention that this camera makes movies, too? The video and sound quality is excellent.
Now on to the printer dock. The best thing about this feature is that when you are not using the camera, you simply set it back down on the printer dock to recharge. This works perfectly for recharging the camera after relatively short (e.g., a day or two) usage periods, but for longer trips, I purchased an inexpensive battery recharger. So far, the only time I had to swap out the batteries was when I was away for a long weekend and took several hundred pictures at my sister's wedding (and even then, the camera didn't start to lose its charge until the very end of the weekend). The printer dock also provides an easy way to transfer the pictures from the camera to your computer, although you can print pictures directly from the camera. I haven't used the actual print features of the printer dock very often, but when I have, I've been impressed with the high quality photos produced.
The camera itself provides wonderfully clear, sharp images, whether you are just viewing them on your computer, printing from the printer dock, or printing elsewhere (e.g., the Kodak Gallery online, which is what I usually do). The camera also offers many additional features that I don't use, such as being able to tag pictures to share. I do use the excellent zoom, the timer function, and the burst photo option (lets you take a rapid series of pictures). The 32 MB of memory is sufficient for casual use, but since memory cards are readily available and relatively inexpensive, I upgraded to a 1 GB memory card, which allows me almost 800 photos. The one minor complaint I have about this camera is the accompanying EasyShare software. Although it is convenient--especially with the ease of uploading your pictures to the online Kodak Gallery--I think it could have been much more user-friendly.
Overall, however, I am thrilled with this camera and printer dock combination, and I would highly recommend it to other casual photo enthusiasts like myself! |
Kodak EasyShare C360 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom digital cameras, camcorders for sale