Rating: Summary: Love Camera, Hate Software/Drivers Review: I am use to a 35mm SLR, but wanted digital. I decided the 290 was the best balance of features and price. I think the camera is great and already have several wonderful pictures. Great quality optics. It is very easy to use. I love the way the cap pops off automatically to take a picture. I do not understand why it also pops off automatically when it is attached to the computer in connect mode. The driver that came with the camera for USB connection is very buggy. It caused my computer OS (98SE) to go unstable. I have had many GPF and lockups since installing the software that have never happened before. The Windows would also not shut down. The Kodak site has new drivers to fix the shut down problem, but installing them after the previous installation was very difficult. I had to load and remove the original software three times to get the new drivers to load. Both my image editing software packages get GPF errors on certain pictures. That is something I have never seen before in using either editor for over two years.
Rating: Summary: Very good Review: I've had this camera for about a month now. It's a replacement for a Kodak DC120 that I had for several years and finally died after a very hard life. The pictures from the DC120 were good for a digital camera at its time but not as clear as I would have liked. Pictures from my wife's high-end Kodak Advantix camera were clearer. The DC290 pictures look as clear as the Advantix. The color is great and the ability to reach into dark areas and get the detail is better than the DC120. I recently tried it for some back-lite photos at a wedding reception and it did great. Disadvantages are ones normal to digital cameras: fairly long cycle time between photos, poor battery life and limited space on the supplied flash card. The view-finder is in a funny location, but if you use your right eye you won't smudge the LCD display. My son-law-recently bought a Canon PowerShot S300 Digital ELPH for my daughter and we were comparing the two cameras. I think the Kodak creates better pictures, uses standard batteries and costs less right now. The Canon is smaller and has better lens protection. For pure pictures good with the Kodak. If size is important go with something like the Canon. The DC290 is last years model (Kodak lists as discontinued at their web site) which is why the price is so good.
Rating: Summary: A Great Digital Camera Review: You will hear consistently that this camera is slow, and to some degree this is true, however, it takes awesome pictures! I've begun to print mine out (even 8x10's) and this camera is just great. With the new price reduction, pick one up. You won't be sorry.
Rating: Summary: Good Feature Set, But Easy To Break Review: I've used this camera for a while now. Pictures are good quality, and with the price of compactflash comming down it's a good deal. My only gripe is the compactflash slot is very fragile. If you switch cards a lot it may break. In such a case you'll have to send kodak your camera, and they will send you a refurb back. I frankly was disapointed that my month old camera in great condition was replaced with a refurb that was obviously much older with obvious signs of wear and tear, plus a couple dead pixels on the display. All of which are considered "okay" by Kodak. I really felt like I paid a new camera price for a used camera.
Rating: Summary: Very good machine - excellent picture quality Review: There is no question about the picture quality the machine delivers. Up to 8X10, it is impressive. You can even have more than 8x10 if your picture does not include finely-detailed subjects such as human face. Other than impressive picture quality, the machine performs pretty good in low-light conditions. Flash has a very good range, which allows you to have bright and vivid pictures at home. The lcd size is large enough to review the photos. The machine comes with enough software and cables to review the photos on TV and computer, and the hookup for both is pretty simple. However, it does not let you take any picture for 15-20 seconds after you shot several pictures. The flash light keeps blinking and you can not take any picture. I am not sure this is a problem with my own machine, but it should not wait that longer. If you buy this machine, I would suggest you to buy an additional 64 or 128MB memory, especially if you go outdoors and take tens of high quality shots.
Rating: Summary: Picture's worth a megabpixel! Review: A great camera at any price! This is my first digital camera however, I have used other's that my friends have. I purchased this camera after having both SLR and point and click camera's. The quality and color produced by this camera are outstanding. The camera is also very easy to use and change settings. Opt for an additional memory card and the additional lense kit. The lens kit if used properly, increases the your picture taking abilities. Another great feature is the built in mic. We took a picture of the kids singing a Christmas song and sent it off to my parent's just before Christmas. They really enjoyed it. I've read about the camera being a battery hog or having corrupted memory cards. I've had the camera five months and have not experienced any problems. I do keep an extra set of batteries with me at all times just in case.....
Rating: Summary: Still very good 9 months later Review: I've shot about 3000 pictures in nine months, mostly in Africa being bounced around, and the DC290 has done well, as did its DC265 predecessor. The add-on telephoto isn't worth it, and the DC265 required repairs after being dropped 18 inches on its lens barrel. But excellent pictures. If you keep the LCD shut down and turn off the flash via the boot-up scripts, the battery life is pretty good, sometimes 100-200 pictures. It's a little big for suitcoat pockets, OK for most jacket pockets. My wish list would include a 200mm-equivalent telephoto and elimination of the buffer-emptying 20-30sec pause when you shoot four 1800x1200 pictures in rapid succession.
Rating: Summary: Super Kodak Review: I have tried a few others, but nothing can compare in clarity or color accuracy to my 290. Most other digis produce pictures that have that 'soft' focus look - go ahead - look at them. They're not really in focus. the pictures from my 290 allow me to see the nit on the nut of a gnat - yes it's true. Set it for the closest setting - about a foot. WOW - what detail. You can see the dirt in the pours on the skin - yuck. The 2nd best feature is the time lapse up to 16 seconds. I got a terrific lightning strke - which is something you need to leave the camera 'open' while you wait. I love shooting light trails in the darkness of any sort. This one is the best. The giant uncompressed TIFF format allows you to save details you will only see on a jumbo 10 by 14 print - now who wants a picture that big anyway? The colors are beautiful and devistatingly accurite. You'll be going to the mirror with your glasses off to see if IT is really true. Most places allow you a 30 day return without questions - do it - indulge yourself. You won't be returning this one. It's the BEST. Let the rest of them just - eat cake.
Rating: Summary: Great camera Review: This is a wonderful camera. Kodak digitals have the best color reproduction of all of the digital cameras, and the clarity is comparable with the best. I did my research before buying this and would not consider anything but a Kodak, Olympus or Nikon. The rest pale by comparison. This camera has several features which are hard to find on other cameras in its class. One is the burst mode, which allows you to take several pictures in sequence at up to 3 frames per second. Another great feature is the external flash sync. Very few digis have it and it is indispensable if you want to take professional photos. The feature I really love though, being a programmer, is the ability to program scripts for the camera - to me that is what digital cameras have over their analog counterparts, the flexibility and programmability. Even if you aren't a computer nerd like me, you can enjoy this feature because there are several free scripts available written by programmers. This feature alone puts this camera head and shoulders above others in its class.
Rating: Summary: The best digital camera I've seen Review: Besides the great design, the DC290 features 2.1 megapixels and 3X zoom (5X digital). I've never seen a camera with so much features for that price, including an infrared port, USB connection, audio & video output (you can see your pics on the TV), a great operating system (very easy and very flexible) and a very good LCD monitor. I've taken the camera to lots of places, is everything but fragile, the rechargable batteries (included) lasts for about 60 pictures in best resolution. You can update the operating system via internet so you can add new features to the camera, also you can download and create scripts for speacial functions, like picture bracketing. Very recommended!
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