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Kodak DC215 1MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom, Silver

Kodak DC215 1MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom, Silver

List Price: $199.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Deal, Takes Nice Pictures
Review: I took this camera to school and really enjoyed taking alot of pictures without having to pay developing costs. The best feature of this camera is its ability to capture colors so well. All well lit pictures are vibrant and clean. I only have a few problems with the camera that you might consider before buying. First, the casing is easily dented, as I found out when I accedentlly knocked it against a dresser. It still works perfectly, just has a small dent. The camera is also kind of bulky and not too easily gripped. Normally I use a HP Photosmart printer wich has a card reader in it to retrive my pictures and this works quite well, but the serial connection is very slow and not much fun. I am about to buy a laptop and I am discovering many do not have serial ports. This will make it hard for me to retrive pictures while on vacation, I will probably buy a usb to serial adapter. All in all this camera is still a good buy, and I am reccomending for such a great price.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Auction Listings Digital Camera
Review: I use the Kodak DC-215 exclusively for eBay Auction listings.. I have received MANY emails asking what Camera I use and complimenting me on the clarity and color of my photos... I have never used the Camera for any other purpose but for digital images loaded into my computer, it is OUTSTANDING... I plan to purchase another Kodak DC-215 as a 'Back-up'. (Just in case)..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great digital camera for typical snapshots.
Review: I wanted a digital camera but I didn't want to spend a fortune, and I wanted one that would take good quality pictures. I set my upper limit at $300 for the camera and began shopping. I looked at everything from $39 to $500. I spent hours on the internet reviewing cameras. I also scanned the Sunday sale ads waiting for the right camera and price to come together. It did. I bought a Kodak DC215 for $299. Included with the camera was a SanDisk card reader. I was ready to take pictures.

I shot a few pics the first day and uploaded them to the internet. How easy! Over the first few days I took more pics and continued to upload to my album. I also set it up where anyone could view the pictures and/or order prints. My family, 600 miles away, can only call once in a while and say hello, but can enjoy the pictures on the internet whenever they wish.

After uploading about 50 pictures I decided to order prints online. I'd heard so much about "resolution" and "recommended print size" that I was scared that I'd get very grainy prints in the mail. What I received (using the lowest resolution on the camera for the prints) were wonderful, glossy, 4x6 prints. Every bit as good or even better than from 35mm film. I was amazed at the quality.

I later purchased a 32MB card for about $70. It holds up to about 485 pictures. I'll use this card when we're on vacation.

I couldn't be happier if I'd spent $999 on this camera. The only drawback - it takes only snapshots. If you want telephoto or wide angle, etc, get a good 35mm and use film. For digital this camera can't be beat. I love it. It's EVERYTHING I set out to acquire at a very, very reasonable price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An excellent budget digital camera
Review: I wound up buying the DC215 while on holiday, after losing our old 35mm camera. At the time, I thought I was getting a bargain at around 220UKP, but have since seen the camera back in the UK for the same price. I wasn't aware that you could get such a well featured digital camera for this kind of money.

The camera has a versatile range of flash settings, including 'fill in flash', 'red eye reduction' and 'no flash.' The 'exposure compensation' feature is very useful in poorly lit conditions, when the flash would be inappropriate or useless. The camera also features a 10 second self-timer and a macro facility.

The biggest shock is battery consumption - in fact, if you use disposable alkaline batteries in the DC215, you'll probably find that the cost per picture is higher than buying and developing 35mm film! A decent collection of NiMh rechargables is an essential accessory, but there's no need to buy the Kodak brand ones. I wound up buying a couple of sets of Uniross 1300mAh NiMh batteries, which work very well. There's no reason why you can't use NiCd batteries if you already have them, but if you're buying especially for the camera, then the NiMh batteries are well worth the extra cost.

The features which I found annoying (most of which have already been mentioned) include the capacity of the standard memory card (4Mb) the slow download speed via the serial cable, the limited capabilities of the 2x optical zoom, and the fact that the 'zoom' facility in 'review' mode does not allow you to zoom in far enough to check the detail of the picture (which is supposedly the whole point of the facility.)

In review mode, the camera shows the pictures in two stages - a low resolution (and very blocky) image is shown instantly when a picture is selected and, if the picture is left on-screen for a short time, this is overwritten by the high-resolution version. Unfortunately, the camera also operates in this way when viewing the pictures through the video out connector - so each picture in the 'slide show' is first shown in blocky low-res, and then updated to full resolution after a short delay.

The camera features a conventional viewfinder, which is normally adequate for framing up pictures. It is also possible to switch on the LCD for a real-time view of the picture to be taken, although this is best avoided if possible as it severely drains the batteries.

Output quality is very good, provided that you set the resolution to high. For each resolution, there are three possible quality settings, which affect the amount of JPEG compression applied to the picture files. For the technically minded, 'Best' mode generates JPEGs with a quality setting of 94% - 'Better' and 'Good' use 85% and 75% respectively. Even at 3x magnification (on the PC screen) it is difficult to see the difference between the 'Best' and 'Better' settings, and for normal (1x) viewing, the differences between the three qualities are unnoticeable. A 16Mb card will store roughly 65 'Best', 90 'Better', and 135 'Good' pictures in high resolution mode. The camera displays an estimate of the number of pictures remaining on the card (based on current compression and resolution settings) although this figure tends to be on the conservative side.

One bonus of the design is that the serial and video connections use standard jack plugs, and the leads are simply straight-through cables. I have already made two spare serial leads, so I can download the camera at home, at work, or on the move (into my notebook PC) without having to remember to bring the cable with me.

All in all, it's not the perfect camera, but it's not far off - the only things really missing from my 'wish list' are a more powerful optical zoom, a USB port, and a better 'detail' viewer in 'review' mode. For 220UKP, I'm not complaining!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Unreliable for heavy useage
Review: I've had my camera for a year and a half. Since I'm a real estate appraiser, I take lots and lots of pictures and have found this camera to be less than reliable. During the first year the "zoom" assembly failed and had to be repaired. Fortunatly it was still under warranty. On damp days the camera often would not operate properly. The battery compartment is flimsy and most everyone I know has theirs secured with rubber bands. Often times when I got back to my office, pictures which showed up on the LCD as takes, just weren't there. The best feature of this camera is it's metal body, light weight and good picture quality. Maybe just for home use, this would be a good camera.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: reasonably good, but not great
Review: I've owned a DC215 since January 2000 and I've taken 6950 pics with it so far. Ninety-five percent of these pics were taken with the smaller 640X480 size because the larger size is too big for my laptop screen and the quality is too poor. I've printed out less than 20 pictures (as I prefer to keep them in digital format anyway). Here is what I think:

Pros:
* picture quality at 640X480 is very good; better than most cameras of its time
* with a 10MB card you can take 114 such pictures
* adapts to changing light levels very well
* comes with Adobe PhotoDeluxe

Cons:
* after about 1000 pics the zoomed-out shots started looking really out of focus; today I rarely take a picture while zoomed-out and I consider the zoom feature next to useless
* it uses 2.0 amperes of juice! To conserve batteries I had to turn off the LCD feature, making that nearly useless too
* The close-up feature is totally useless because of how much juice it drains (unless you have an AC adapter)
* to save as jpeg in Adobe PhotoDeluxe requires 7 clicks of the mouse and 30 seconds of time (multiply that hundreds of times and you get a frustrated user)
* sometimes the camera acts like it has a mind of its own, turning on and off whenever it wants (but this is rare)
* the camera programmers decided that the date/time has to be re-entered whenever the camera loses it, this can be really frustrating if you're trying to avoid using the LCD screen to save batteries
* the lens cap wore out after a year and it no longer fits the lens, making it useless
* the battery holder is still intact, but just barely

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: reasonably good, but not great
Review: I've owned a DC215 since January 2000 and I've taken 6950 pics with it so far. Ninety-five percent of these pics were taken with the smaller 640X480 size because the larger size is too big for my laptop screen and the quality is too poor. I've printed out less than 20 pictures (as I prefer to keep them in digital format anyway). Here is what I think:

Pros:
* picture quality at 640X480 is very good; better than most cameras of its time
* with a 10MB card you can take 114 such pictures
* adapts to changing light levels very well
* comes with Adobe PhotoDeluxe

Cons:
* after about 1000 pics the zoomed-out shots started looking really out of focus; today I rarely take a picture while zoomed-out and I consider the zoom feature next to useless
* it uses 2.0 amperes of juice! To conserve batteries I had to turn off the LCD feature, making that nearly useless too
* The close-up feature is totally useless because of how much juice it drains (unless you have an AC adapter)
* to save as jpeg in Adobe PhotoDeluxe requires 7 clicks of the mouse and 30 seconds of time (multiply that hundreds of times and you get a frustrated user)
* sometimes the camera acts like it has a mind of its own, turning on and off whenever it wants (but this is rare)
* the camera programmers decided that the date/time has to be re-entered whenever the camera loses it, this can be really frustrating if you're trying to avoid using the LCD screen to save batteries
* the lens cap wore out after a year and it no longer fits the lens, making it useless
* the battery holder is still intact, but just barely

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I have had mine for 2 days
Review: If this camera keeps doing what it has done so far, I will be extremely pleased with it... I wanted an inexpensive digital camera to make pictures to be viewed on a computer screen. Never plan to ever print any of the pics on paper. It does a SUPER job if you hold it steady and if you get the lighting just right. I especially like the color display on the back of the camera that shows the EXACT composition of the picture that you are going to get. The close-up capability (8 inches away from the subject) is important to me, too.

You need to have realistic expectations about the electric power consumed and the limitations of the serial interface as well. It can use up four good batteries in an afternoon if you keep doing things with it that take a lot of power, and the images take a few seconds to transfer to your computer. You should consider an A/C Power Supply and/or rechargable batteries if your will be using it a lot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: kodak dc215
Review: just got my dc, love it!! i've tried several different brands, $2oo to$800 ones, for the money this is by far the best deal. color great, easy to operate, kodak quality.i got a card reader, takes to long downloading from camera.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly a simple, straight-forward no nonsense digital camera.
Review: Like many consumers, I spent a lot of time reading review after review on all kinds of digital cameras and finally decided on the Kodak DC 215 for several reasons: great color balance (vs. Olympus' pastel toned images), ease of operation (vs. the overly complicated Olympus and Canon LED menus) and conservative battery consumption. And heeding other DC215 owners, I also purchased the Kodak AC adapter and two sets of rechargeable NicadMH batteries. Even without the use of a flashcard reader, it takes about 20 seconds per shot to upload onto one's computer with a transfer setting of 57,600 cps. As for any negative comments, I would highly recommend masking around the eyepiece (especially the sharp corners) with plastic tape (electrical tape is just fine) since the frame's corners can easily scratch ones eye glasses. Overall, the Kodak DC 215 should be rated a "Best Buy!"


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