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Kodak MC3 Portable Digital Camera/Camcorder and MP3 Player - 64 MB

Kodak MC3 Portable Digital Camera/Camcorder and MP3 Player - 64 MB

List Price: $84.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very handy and a good value
Review: I was shoppping around for an mp3 player when i stumbled on this item. It was pretty much a no-brainer. For pretty much the same price as a higher-end mp3 player, you also get a video recorder and a camera.

It's real easy to set up on the computer and to transfer files. just put in the cd rom and install the mc3 software. once you plug in the usb connector (which comes with it), your computer should automatically read the mc3 player. to transfer files, load up windows explorer and copy and paste files into the mc3 drive (it will have its own letter, like the c drive, itll probably be labeled the E or F drive)

The mc3 actually plays mp3 files, unlike the sony players that require you to convert mp3 files into sony's own format. and the sound quality is pretty good. The camera and video recorder are cool, but its pretty hard to see what youre recording if you're indoors. but once you transfer the file to the computer, it looks better.

Another good thing is the size of the player. it's smaller than i thought it would be.

this product would be perfect if it came with a lithium ion battery. but i guess just spend the extra money and buy rechargeables, especially if you're going to be recording videos a lot.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: When it's good, it's very good... But when it's bad...
Review: I've had my Kodak MC3 for about 2 weeks now, and I've got mixed opinions. On the positive side:

1) Music performace: The MC3 does an excellent job of playing MP3's, especially if you upgrade to a 128 MB card so you can store lots of 'em!

2) Video Quality: When set on best (30 fps) quality, the video is great- very smooth and clear, provided you have good lighting (more on this in a minute). While it does take up a large amount of memory, it's worth it.

3) Outdoor Daylight Pictures: The picture quality in excellent lighting (ie outdoors on a sunny day, etc) is fantastic 4) Ease of Use: The MC3 is idiot proof- very simple to use, install, etc...

But the negatives:

1) Pictures in less than perfect light: If you want to take pictures indoors without bright lights, at night, or in any other situation where the lighting is a bit dim, get another camera. This is my biggest dissapointment with the camera. There's no flash, so trying to capture anything that's a bit dark or unevenly lit is an exercise in futility.

2) LCD Screen: While it is often sufficient, the screen can be difficult to see alot of the time.

Overall, this is a great little toy for taking outdoor pictures while listening to music, and even making the occaisional video clips. Just make sure you can live with the limitations caused by the lack of a flash.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly As Good As The Commercial
Review: Incredible ease of immediate use. Thrilling results with little effort. All members of the family were able to use it. Exceptional sound and video quality. Since the size is small it is unobtrusive, and even the most obstinate members of the family act more natural in the videos. Instant gratification with the videos and music. Is becoming a habit!! Unfortunately the price of additional memory cards is quite high to allow for the continual use that the family wants. Easily transposed onto computers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Kodak mc3 software is miserable. I have a solution.
Review: Kodak mc3 is great and does what it promises very well. But the bundled software is a shame. So I have written a nice little computer program to transfer music and pictures comfortably. Please let me know if you are interested in it (of course for free ;) I hope you will find it helpful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: mc3: Buy It! It's Worth the $$$
Review: Kodak mc3: Versatile and Inexpensive Gadget

It's small, light, and rugged -- I take it everywhere -- school, the mall, vacation, hiking.

I've used it for: mp3s on a airplane, videos of fish while waist deep in the ocean, videos while sledding/snowboarding -- even duct taped it to a friends model airplane and flew it around -- (cool movie)!

Pictures: they look good if taken outdoors, or with some daylight -- (the lack of a flash is a clue to use mc3 mostly outdoors).

Video: it got two quality settings -- one is great if you've got a lot of motion and detail. The other is if you want small files (for email) or you want LONG (minutes) movies. The length of a movie clip is limited to the amount of free space on the card. Files are QuickTime -- but the software can change them to .avi. (HINT: buy the video cable -- and recorded your videos to VHS tape.)

mp3: has played 8 to 256 kbps mp3s; it has equalizer/repeat/shuffle; it displays title/artist/album info. Comes with a ripper and player software (RealJukebox for PCs; MusicMatch for Mac). Nice that it doesn't encrypt the mp3 file. (Comes w/ earbuds -- but I like the speaker. (Earbuds are nice for mp3s on the pc.))

Software: I've got both mac and pcs -- it was easy to install on both. Was able to get stuff on/off easy -- but I like the explorer window more than the mac. The picture and video editing programs are very cool! Go google search for "allan harris 1180 WHAM" for some videos a radio station has done using the mc3 product.

Three Comments: 1st -- you're going to use this A LOT -- go buy rechargeable batteries (two sets). (Although alkalines are handy when away from the charger.) 2nd -- Compact Flash Cards -- Big cards hold more, but cost more. What I do for a day is carry a 32MB card (w/ music) and three 8MB cards (for videos/pictures). Upload often. Or buy more cards. 3rd -- No light comes from the display, it is just a reflection. The display quality is like a good color display PDA. Pluses -- It's MUCH easier to see the display outdoors in direct sun light vs other camera displays -- and it's MUCH easier on the batteries. Minus -- It's harder to see it indoors -- but I think it is useable. (FYI: I've noticed that indoor pictures look better on the pc, than on the mc3 display.)

Summary: I love it! Simple controls -- my five year old uses it to take pictures and play music ("Sesame Street" on the airplane). I carry with me in a pack or by the wrist strap listening to mp3s all the time. When I want a picture or video, mc3 is there. Expensive cameras and video equipment are for special occasions -- the mc3 is for my every day stuff.

Punch Line: Simple, fun, easy, rugged, versatile, and inexpensive. Simple Elegance.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not quite up to speed
Review: Ok, repeatedly people state its a toy, and yes it is, I bought it for my son, and he uses it to listen to mp3's and take an occasional happy snap. As far as it goes it's ok doing that. No it doesn't have a flash, so obviously you aren't going to try and take pics in subdued lighting. The movies are ok, low quality, but enough to have some fun with.

My biggest bugbear is that firstly theres no ability to have an external power supply. Secondly seeming that it is a USB device, why hasn't Kodak written some NEW software so it can be used as a WEBCAM? A previous review stated it could be, well for the life of me I haven't found anywhere on the web where it lists that capability, and in this day and age it is something you could actually use.

So anyway if you are looking for a toy like this it works fine, but you may find other such toys with more features.

Kodak of course could extend the life of the product by releasing some upgraded firmware patches that will allow it to be used as a webcam, adding one more feature to its arsenal.

There should be quite a few of these cams floating around second hand these days.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ok, But Not Great
Review: OK, the Mc3 is a great toy for those of you that aren't serious photographers ok anything like that. It's MP3 playback is excellent on headphones, but the speaker doest't sound all that well. The picture quality is very good for this price range; I can blow the pictures up 8 or 9 times and it's quality would be clost to perfect. The drawbacke to it are that there is no flash, no backlight, and when you are taking videos, the microphone distorts the sound a bit. But, with best quality video, it's picture is great, and when transferring songs onto it, it is almost lightning speed if you use the cable that they give you. In all, I would recommend this product to anyone between the ages of 10-25.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Forget about this one!
Review: The commercials for this thing made it look so easy and so much fun to use. After looking at it and slavering at it and thinking of the fun I'd have with it, I finally broke down and bought it. To paraphrase Arnie "BIG MISTAKE!" Tried to install it on my system but the software included wouldn't talk to the MC3-no matter how hard I tried. Further, the software installed made my system unstable-reset itself many times. I'm returning this piece of trash at the earliest opportunity.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jack of all trades, master of none, but a lot of fun anyway
Review: The emphasis here is that the MC3 is a toy - it's a lot of fun to play with, but it's not the sort of tool to use if you're planning on doing any serious publishing (online or on paper) or video work.

That said, this camera is fine for taking lots of fair quality VGA-resolution photos for e-mailing or sticking on your webpage (for what it's worth, the photo quality is notably better than other bottom-of-the-line dedicated digital cameras). The quality of the videos is at least comparable (if not slightly better) than the first generation Sony Cybershot cameras, although the MC3 doesn't limit the length of the video clips to 15 seconds like the Sony (a definite plus). The MP3 player component seems to handle various CBR-encoded MP3 files (I've tried 64, 128, 160, and 192Kbps with success), although it doesn't seem to support WMA. Finally, the USB cable allows for surprisingly fast file transfer, slightly slower than a dedicated card reader.

For $200 (which is how much this camera costs if you supply your own CF card), the MC3 is a fine gadget. If you want a good digital camera, video camera, or digital music player, you'll probably have to resort to getting three separate devices.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: is cheaper ifyou get it with a 16mb card but you need a 64mb
Review: the flashcard enters and the thing to push it out has to be push to the side some costumer didnt know that... the video 320/240is only good on the day time and the exposure has to ajust by itself when it has to much light so you have to point it to the sky ..for a few secs until you see the pic if you wanna in a not too lighted place ,point the camera to the darkest point so it can ajust the exposure .i got the cheapest version 16mb for us100dollars butyou have to geta bigger flashcard anyways the video cable didnt came with it so i got one with a small plug and 3 lines on the tip of the plug it means 1 video and 2 audios if itdoens work pull it out a little bit and it works ..


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