Great pictures but poorly written drivers...
Written: May 19 '00 (Updated May 19 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great resolution, fairly easy to use, high picture capacity
Cons: Poorly written drivers, slow user interface
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| mhoner's Full Review: Kodak DC290 Zoom Digital Camera |
Before we bought the DC-290 we evaluated the Nikon Coolpix 950, and the Fuji MX-2900. Honestly the only reason that I purchased the Kodak is because my vendor could not get the Fuji. Overall I really like the design of the camera, it is MUCH easier to hold and manipulate than either the Kodak or the Fuji. The image quality is outstanding although a little bit dark on the native setting (easily corrected by setting the exposure to +0.5EV).
The camera interface is a little slow compared to others that I have used (lag time between pictures, turning the camera on and off, navigating the LCD screen to make changes in exposure and focus). Overall the UI is fairly easy to use once you get used to it (the delay caused me to push the navigation buttons too rapidly at first, which caused the UI to jump around inconsistently). Also trying to zoom in and out can be annoyingly slow!
Battery life is fairly good compared to other digital cameras (better than the Nikon from what I've heard). The DC-290 comes with a set of alkaline batteries as well as NIHM rechargeable's and a charger. We use the camera pretty extensively and charge the batteries about once or twice a week. One secret to extending battery life is to use an external adapter to download the pictures. Also keeping the LCD screen off and using the viewfinder really helps out (literally doubles the life). One final thing that I think helped out a lot with battery life was to update the camera's firmware to 1.0.4.
The biggest complaint that I have about the product is that the software drivers that come with the camera are very problematic. After installing the drivers off of CD my laptop computer become almost completely unusable until I had de-installed them. We tried installing the camera on another laptop with the exact same results. After calling Kodak they instructed us to try the Version 1.3 drivers that were posted on their site. Same problem, the mouse would freeze about every 2 - 3 seconds for almost a second and the speakers would emit a short pop. It was like trying to use your laptop with a strobe light on in the background (kind of like time-lapse photography). Kodak tech support admitted that this was a known problem and kindly offered to ship me a Compact Flash to PCMCIA adapter. They even sent it to me via overnight delivery! Admittedly their front line tech support group didn't handle the problem as promptly as I would have liked but as soon as I had my ticket escalated they were very responsive.
I also purchased a Sandisk USB compact flash drive adapter ($69.95 at Fry's). In my opinion this is the way to go, it makes it a lot easier to access the Compact Flash Card, and it doesn't crash my laptop like the PCMCIA adapter sometimes does. Another warning about the PCMCIA adapter's you have to be really careful not to accidentally eject the Compact Flash card while the adapter is in your laptop, otherwise you can corrupt the card and have to reformat it.
Overall I like the camera, but had it to do over again I would have probably bought the Nikon. The camera is overall just average but the image quality is great. If the image quality was not as good I would have probably returned it.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
mhoner
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Reviews written: 6
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