This little pocketsize camera/MP3 player takes photos at 640 x 480 pixels, video at 320 x 240 pixels at 20 FPS (Frames Per Second) and is an MP3 player all built in one. This camera/MP3 player is made to fit in your pocket, it is 4.1 inches in length, 2.6 inches wide, 1.5 inches thick and weighs 7 ounces with the batteries installed.

This is an easy to use three in one system, for video and photos, just point and shoot. For Mp3 music use the software provided to load it up with.

The Kodak MC3 is powered by 3 AAA Alkaline batteries and you can use NiCad or NiMH rechargeable batteries. I highly recommend a charger and two sets of rechargeable batteries, so one set is always charged and ready to be used.

It has a built-in speaker in the back of it and a standard mini-plug jack for headphones. The lens is a fixed 37mm (35mm equivalent) F 2.8. It has a color reflective 1.6-inch LCD screen.

Photos are saved in JPEG or EXIF 2.1, Video is save in MOV with mono sound and the Music is saved in the MP3 format.

You can buy it with a 16 MB CompactFlash Type I card for about $229 and with a 64 MB CompactFlash Type I card for about $299. You can use any size Type I CompactFlash card.

MEMORY
Here is a listing of what you can get out of different size memory cards.
16MB
Photos 150 Images
MP3 music at CD quality 20 minutes plus
Video at 10 FPS 5 minutes
Video at 20 FPS 1 minute
32MB
Photos 300 Images
MP3 music at CD quality 40 minutes plus
Video at 10 FPS 10 minutes
Video at 20 FPS 2 minutes
64MB
Photos 600 Images
MP3 music at CD quality 90 minutes
Video at 10 FPS 20 minutes
Video at 20 FPS 4 minutes
128MB
Photos 1200 Images
MP3 music at CD quality 3 hours plus
Video at 10 FPS 42 minutes plus
Video at 20 FPS 8 minutes plus

As you can see the video part eats up the memory fast.

What you get
The KODAK MC3 camera/Mp3 player
A cheap pair of headphones
A 16 MB or 64 MB CompactFlash Type I card
A USB cable
A CD with all the software
3 AAA alkaline batteries
and the documentation needed

Requirements
The PC
Windows 98, ME and 2000
A Pentium 266MHz or equivalent
64 MB of RAM

The Macintosh
Power-PC-based Macintosh with MAC OS 8.6–9.0.4
32 MB of RAM

Both
Hard drive space of 70 MB for the software
A color monitor with 256 colors or more
A CD or DVD-ROM for software installation
A USB port

My Gripes
One gripe I have is there is no optical viewfinder, I would rather take pictures through a viewfinder than an LCD display. I love the Display for playback but not for taking photos.

There is no flash, though it will take decent indoor photos if you have plenty of light.

The LCD is a reflective display, which makes it hard to see unless there is plenty of light. They should have used a backlit display so you can adjust according to your light conditions.

Overall
This is not for taking excellent digital quality pictures, sure the 640 x 480 photos look good but they do not have the size and quality of a good digital camera.

Kodak makes an attempt to capture the person who loves to listen to music on the go and have video and still photos on hand. You can also use it as a web cam if you wish.

Out of the three things it will do, the MP3 music is the winner. If you are buying it for great photos and movie features, you will be disappointed. The photos are fair outdoors and you have to work with the indoor light to get a decent photo. For video, well all I will say this, you should be able to use 30 FPS to get decent quality.

This is more or less a toy to play with. It is great if you use it mainly for an MP3 player, then if you need to take a photo, you will have a camera with you at all times. Buy it for an MP3 player and not for videos or photos.

I recommend it as an MP3 player since it is in the audio section!


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 229