December 17 - December 24

Kodak DC215 Zoom by Alessandro Cancian Some weeks ago I had the pleasure of test-driving one of Kodaks latest digital camera models currenlty offered on the market. To be precise, the model was the new DC215 Zoom. The initial impression was definitely good: the DC215 sports a compact, elegant and handy design. Dedicated to the consumer market, especially for home or SOHO use, the Kodak camera is easily configured. Thanks to its 1.8" LCD monitor changing picture resolution, reviewing the shots taken is childs play. The use of data control buttons, located near the display, is quite intuitive even though there are several of them. The DC215 comes bundled with very high-quality software, such as Adobe PhotoDeluxe for picture retouching and Adobe PageMill for Web page building, which can be installed on your computer in seconds. The Kodak camera is compatible both with PCs and with Macs, even though in the latter case the owners of iMacs or of the new G3-G4 are cut off, since USB connection is not included except in the Millennium version. Undoubtedly a pity, because a consistent part of the market is excluded, and also because data transfer via a USB port is much faster (about 10 times more) than via a serial port. The DC215 is equipped with a 2x true optical glass zoom, of a 4 MB Kodak Picture Card for picture archival and a NTSC/PAL port for those who want to look at their pictures on TV. The Picture Card allows you to archive a maximum of 54 standard shots (i.e. at the lowest resolution, not bad for a Web use). Should you want higher resolutions, the number of shots you can save goes rapidly down to 12, but in this case the 4 MB are, in my opinion, quite insufficient. The overall quality is rather good for low-res pictures, with very bright and lifelike colours, while hi-res pictures did not entirely satisfy me, especially for clarity of details. Picture downloading to a PC was very easy and I could retouch them using Adobe Photoshop, since the DC215 comes with a dedicated Plug-In. The overall price/quality ratio offered by this Kodak camera is definitely good, considering its low cost. The sum of $539 was unthinkable until recently for a million-pixel camera (hi-res 1154x864), even if my impression is that this is a figure that will come down much further still. One of the best features was the (AA Alkaline) battery life. One set was more than enough for three photosets and the corresponding downloads. The only complaint I have concerns the battery replacing mechanism, which I believe to be too fragile. For an entry-level model, the DC215 represents one of the best cameras I could test, with a nice to good photographic quality, very good software in bundle, and good ease of use. Perfect for the home user. To get more info, visit http://www.kodak.com

 

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