Rating: 
Summary: This Camera Rocks !
Review: After many hours of research, I decided the Kodak DC290 was the best camera for me in this price range (below $1000). After receiving it and having it for less than 1 hour my research was validated. Set up is as a breeze, the instructions were clear and precise. Picture quality was amazing, and I haven't even used the highest settings yet. The camera feels good in your hands and the fact that Kodak includes rechargable batteries in the box is nice as like all digital cameras this one uses up batteries pretty quick. However I have to say if you manage you picture taking by not using the view finder/display they last pretty well. Along with the camera I also purchase the Viking smart card reader. This is a must, the set up and initial use was a breeze on my Mac G4. The speed of transfer is amazing.
Rating:
Summary: We use this camera for work all the time. Great Pictures
Review: We use this camera at a manufacturing facility for all our documentation. A picture is worth a thousand words and this camera is worth the price. It is easy to use, comfortable, and easy to download to a PC. It is also very durable. Many people use this camera and it has gone through some abuse in an industrial environment. The pictures have real nice color details and sharpness. The software that comes with it isn't the greatest. I recommend Photosuite III or MS Home Publishing to get the most out of your digital pictures. Extra memory is also a must have. Invest in a 32 or 64 mb memory card and you can take pictures all day.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding (for the most part).
Review: I have owned digital cameras for 3 or 4 years now and the Kodak DC290 is the best, overall, I have owned/used. At work I have occasion to use a SONY MVC-FD95, SONY MVC-FD91 and the Kodak DC290 camera; and while the zoom capability of the either SONY is better, the Kodak DC290 produces a picture quality that just can't be beat! The colors come out so true and crisp it is hard to believe they were taken with a digital camera. I print the pictures out on a HP 952C printer and I use Kodak photo paper (not because it is better than the HP paper but rather the local Office Depot has it on sale more often). The photos are indistinguishable from 35mm prints up to 5 X 7 but I have not printed any larger yet. The camera "feels" good and is easy to hold. The controls are all well placed. The .5 to 1 second lag between the time you push the shutter release and the time the picture is actually taken, does take some getting used to. This is a bad feature on all digital cameras I have used. It takes about 2 to 4 seconds to "process" the picture but this time is a function of how fast your Compact Flash memory card is as well as the camera itself. I appreciate the "scripts" that can be downloaded from various websites into the DC290. These allow you to "change" the functionality of the camera or add features such as auto-bracketing, or putting your name and phone number on the startup screen. I also purchased the Kodak lens kit for the camera. I have played with the various lenses but have not done anything serious with them. My main observation is that the wide-angle lens seems to cause a noticeable loss of contrast on the final print. The 2X lens works fine as do the close-up lenses. And, I purchased a couple of extra sets of rechargeable batteries, mostly for convenience rather than necessity. While the camera is a noted battery hog, I can take 45 to 60 flash pictures, displaying each shot on the LCD for 5 seconds before the batteries give out. It's nothing to change the batteries. The 16 MB card that comes with the DC290 is adequate to get you going. Sooner or later, though, you will want to get a second memory card that probably has a larger capacity. You get about 25 high res, best quality pictures or in standard resolution and good compression, about 250 pictures on a 16 MB Compact Flash card. If you download any scripts to the camera, they take up room (not much) also. Downloading from the camera is fast if you use the USB connection. That eats batteries also and Kodak suggests you AC power the camera while doing this. I, instead, opted for a Compact Flash card reader. It cost about $35 and is so much more convenient. You just pop the Compact Flash card out of the camera and into the reader and it shows up as a hard drive on your system. You just access the pictures as you would any other file. Each high Res, best quality picture (about 550K) takes about 1 to 1.5 seconds to download. I did not try the standard serial port connection. The LCD viewer is wonderful indoors or outside out of bright light but is all but useless in sunlight. This is a drawback because using menus visible through the LCD viewer sets most of the camera settings. However, some of the more common settings are viewable and changable from an LCD on the top of the camera but nothing fancy is adjustable without using the main color LCD viewer. Overall, I highly recommend the camera. I used one at work first for several weeks and still decided to purchase one for myself.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera!
Review: I've had much fun with this camera. Very user friendly menus, great features, durable. My only wishes for this camera is to have a better zoom feature and longer battery life.
Rating:
Summary: Very Pleased
Review: I was very very pleased with all aspects of this camera. Its my first digital camera and the picture quality is extremly impressive there are so many features for the money. It was a little more than i had originally intended to spend but now im glad i did. The USB connection is a must, this camera has both a USB and a serial connection, downloads using the serial connection are ungodly slow compared to the USB i wouldnt even consider buying a camera without a USB connection. I also purchased the optional AC adapter i now feel that it was not really required the rechargable batteries...well ive been taking pics and downloading for 2 weeks now and still on the 1st charge...of course I dont use the LCD very much. just buy an extra set of rechargables and forget the AC adapter. I really cant say enough good things about this camera...its a great choice.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Digital Camera
Review: I'm just an amateur photographer but in the past 25 years I've owned three 35mm SLR cameras and two auto-everything 35mm cameras. The Kodak DC290 is my first digital and it operates about the same as the auto-everything cameras. It can't do everything that an SLR and a gadget bag full of accessories can do and it doesn't have the "feel" of an SLR. But, it does 99% of what I want and produces beautiful photos. I've had mine for about four months and have taken almost 1000 photos with it. Last week I went to the USAF Museum and took over 300 photos, about 100 of them with it on a tripod using shutter speeds of 0.5 to 3.0 seconds. Fantastic quality. I bought an extra compact flash card (64M) and two extra sets of NiMH batteries and took along my old notebook PC. When the picture cards were full, I transferred the photos to the notebook PC using a PCMCIA adapter then erased the card. That worked fine and I have not had any problems transferring files to my home PC using the USB port either. When you consider that we were spending over $200 per year on film and developing anyway, going digital just made sense. I like the ergonomics of the camera and the menus are easy to use - just spend a few minutes with the manual. I was switching between a variety of modes at the museum to get the best photos possible and it wasn't that difficult. I haven't had this much fun since I bought my first SLR. Coworkers were amazed by an 8x10 portrait of my wife that I took with the DC290 and printed on photo quality paper. Kodak provides support through their web page including OS upgrades to the camera's software. Recommendations: Get a case and one or two extra sets of NiMH batteries. I haven't bought the AC adapter for it but I can see how it would be useful to some because it takes about 8 hours to recharge the batteries. The batteries will last longer if you use the viewfinder instead of the LCD. The LCD is essential for close up shots and the digital zoom only works with the LCD. A large compact flash card is a good idea if you intend to use the best quality at high resolution since the picture size in that format are usually around 500K. The graphics software that comes with the camera is OK but better programs are available for any serious photo editing you might want to do.
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Summary: Computer Buff
Review: I think this camera is wonderful! Dispite some small shortcomings (short battery life, and difficulty in setting up to communicate with computer) it is a great camera. It is as close to a film camera as I have seen. If you have a good printer (Mine is a HP970Cse) and use Photo Paper, you will not be disappointed!
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Summary: Even a digital camera novice like me can take great pics
Review: As I knew nothing about digital cameras, I did quite an exhaustive investigation covering the middle tier of available cameras up to $1000 - and thankfully I came to the right conclusion! This camera is fantastic - especially for those who want to take pics and work with them on their PC. The ease of use for this camera and the results you can get are worth the price alone. But to be able to manipulate the files from your keyboard directly on the camera is ingenous. I, too, took pictures within all kinds of lighting conditions (including one of a full moon at night) and was never disappointed. To reiterate a point another reviewer made, it is a little disconcerting that you must buy an AC adapter separately - but that's the only real criticism by this non-professional user.
Rating: 
Summary: like most <$1000 DC's out there today...
Review: They're all pretty bad (but this is the one I have). All (important) adjustments need to be made via menus and that takes a lot of time- time away from me framing and shooting. The camera claims to have manual focus but it's in a menu on the LCD screen and controlled via buttons which are *not* handy WHILE you take the shot... better be tripod mounted with stationary objects as your subject. The camera's life under battery mode is *pitiful* barely got through twelve shots before I got a warning on fully charged new batteries. Yuck. The software which came with it (v1.0) is NOT complete at all... you *must* d/l the v1.3 at Kodak's site (4.5 MBs) or the driver's may not appear at all on your HD. F stops? The camera claims to have them... well... yes, again, like the manual focus... SORT OF. You guessed it, loads of button pushing in sub menues on the tiny LCD and they are lost when you shut it off. Practically worthless. NO AC ADAPTER INCLUDED... grr... a trip to radio shack can fix that but for $600? c'mon throw in the $10 item! Clearly a camera NOT designed by anyone who takes any sort of decent photographs... this one is engineer-designed by boys in cubicles who would rather be playing video games. It's ok though... all non-slr (ok, I know a digital is not SLR under any circumstances, but any camera where the viewfinder is NOT the shot you get is non-slr in my book) digitals suck at this time. This on isnt the worst out there, but the technology is NOT matured yet in my opinion and is almost worthless for non-web work that is not merchandise oriented. 5 years ago when I shot for a magazine I couldn't wait for DC's to hit the market and take over from film for most purposes... but that time is still not here.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product, but its the details that kill it for me
Review: Kodak DC290 is fine for medium/long range subjects. However, because the viewfinder and the lens are off-center, you invariably get off-center results - unless you use the LCD as your main viewfinder (this eats battery life and the display resolution makes it hard to make critical shot decisions). However, the image quality is quite excellent for most outdoor/lighted conditions. The interaction and placement of the controls are quite good. There are a few key rubber finger and grip affordances to make the shooter feel in control. The only cheap part is the zoom lever. It's a small horizontal lever, that has to be kicked way over to one side or the other, and the time delay to lens movement is sluggish. The overall construction of the entire body and finish is very nice. There's plenty of standard features like burst, time-lapse, etc. to keep most digital camera enthusiasts happy. A real nice package bonus was the 4, AA NiMH rechargeable batteries and charger + 16MB storage card. At least Kodak was thinking about the entire user experience. Oh, the PC software interface is rather silly. The childlike icons and metaphors for album creation, etc. makes you create a parallel cognitive hierarchy model for what is essentially folders/files on your computer. Something more straight forward with clear icons and interface is all we want. Use the quick access download near the clock once you've installed the software.
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