Aak, We're having a baby and need a digital camera right now
Written: Dec 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Works like a camera, great color
Cons: Quirky and slow when you need Simple and Fast
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| diver90's Full Review: Kodak DC290 Zoom Digital Camera |
Did you ever date someone that you really liked but they had a few, ahem, unique personality traits that just drove you completely postal?
For example: He is wonderful, attentive and caring but can't be on time for anything. If Michelle Pfeiffer or Cameron Diaz was giving out stacks of $100 bills three blocks away from 9AM until noon, he would show up at at 1PM and ask, "Where is everybody?"
She is adorable, affectionate and smart as a rocket scientist but whose mastery of anything electronic is late Stone Age. You pick up your programmable remote and somehow, in 6 minutes, she's blanked out all of your tedious work and the thing will only turn on the blender and all the TV channels are now QVC and Home Shopping Network. Miles of mangled VCR tape clogged the machine's guts and somehow she erased all 100 numbers you had stored in your cell phone.
You know how it is... It's not enough to make you call it quits but it's a constant source of aggravation.
That's what the Kodak DC-290 is like.
Now, let me explain:
My wife and I were expecting our first child (the lovely Ms. Alex, who is now 5 months old) this summer and I had been assigned camera duty. We had a point and shoot, an SLR, a video camera.... but we didn't have a digital camera. Heaven forbid. How were we going to take pictures and instantly ship them off to all of our friends via e-mail, so they could say, "Oh look, Mr. and Ms. Diver90 had a seven pound prune / monkey hybrid"?
So, off to the research bin. Jeez, what did we do without the web?
We had narrowed it down to two choices: A Nikon 900 series and the Kodak DC290. In the end, we chose the Kodak for two fundamental reasons:
1) It looks like a camera, feels like a camera and operates like a camera. All the buttons are in familiar places and it takes about ten minutes to figure it out. A friend of ours has the Nikon and it was just a bit awkward with it's "two blocks connected by an axle" design.
2) We liked the vivid colors it produced. Strangely enough, we prefer Sony XBR's for TV's because their colors are warmer and more subdued, more natural. But for a still camera, we liked the Kodak. Go figure.
Bonus #3) Amazon was having a special on the camera and we paid around $600 for it while the Nikon was at least $200 more at the time.
Neither Ms. Diver90 or I are Richard Avedon or Ansel Adams So, our needs were fairly simple. We know f-stop from pit stop, aperture from overture and that film speed is not how long it takes you to get prints back from the drug store.
A few points of interest:
1) You can easily set flash type (none, fill, auto, red eye), resolution, exposure compensation and other items through an LCD mounted on the top. We typically leave it set for auto flash, better resolution, normal exposures (not backlit or sunny day) and get 33-34 pictures before we have to download to the computer. We also review in the camera and delete bad shots to pick up memory space.
2) I've heard some folks complain about it eating batteries. Frankly that hasn't been a problem for us. I bought a spare set of rechargeable batteries and always throw them in the case. I also keep a spare set of regular batteries for emergencies. Still, we get through a lot of collections of 33 pictures before changing batteries.
3) Like most cameras it has a port for a USB or a serial interface to your computer. Use the USB connection or resign yourself to reaching retirement before your pictures transfer to the computer.
4) The zoom is good but not killer.
5) It gets the job done nicely.
OK, so what are the quirks?
1) It takes forever (all right 8 seconds) to switch on. When you press the on switch, it whirs, extends the lens, calculates pi to several million places, bakes some chocolate chip cookies, polishes the dining room table and then it's ready.
2) It takes a little time to actually take a picture. Try catching a baby's smile with this little "feature". I wouldn't recommend it for a sporting event either. "Yeah, see that picture of the basketball hoop? Well, one second ago Shaquille O'Neal slam dunked a ball through it."
3) It has this annoying habit of optimizing storage or something else demonically time consuming when you click off a series of 4 or 5 pictures. You get 3 or 4 off and then it won't take the next picture until it works out the how many angels fit on the head of a pin or how many times William Shatner has gotten on peoples' nerves before you can move on. We like to shoot panaramas and stitch them together digitally and this little quirk makes it very difficult.
Still it's not enough of a problem to make us say, "Well let's go out and spend another $600 bucks to buy a different one."
Anyway back to the blessed event: The contractions came, the car was loaded, the insurance was in order, the epidural worked and on July 20th, 2000, Ms. Alex arrived. There I stood with the point n click and Camcorder slung around my neck, tears streaming down my face just clicking away with the Kodak DC290. And when I finally went home later that day, I sent out a mind numbing number of e-photos from an amazed, astounded and wonderfully blessed set of new parents.
Final advice: Try one out before you consider it for purchase.
C YA
(Watch for Diver90 babystuff reviews)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
diver90
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
High Tech Executive. Interests - Travel, Wine, Books, Home Theater and Gadgets
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