Customer Reviews

Kodak DX3600 EasyShare 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase of this camera - it's handsome (got lots of compliments on its looks), lightweight -- the thing's a veritable feather, comparatively -- takes superb outdoor shots, and pretty good indoor shots (although insufficient lighting, as with most digitals, affects quality).

Digital zoom - as with most cameras - BAD!. The DSP is "guessing" what pixels belong where. Fortunately the DX3600 has 2x _optical_ zoom (alas, the little sister model DX3500 does not). You can go to 6x with digital zoom, (and the .1x the zoom stepping is nice), but you'll start to see blurriness, pixellation, and x-mas lights effects. Up to 2x looks great.

The movie mode is such a fun feature... great for those times when a picture just isn't enough. The DX3600 records at 320x240 or 160x120, 20fps(!), with audio! And limited only by your memory capacity (I can get up to 15 minutes on my 64MB card). You can't use zoom or flash when recording, so lighting is a concern; but I've taken movies of a Japanese sushi chef slicing an egg with his spatula in low hotel restaurant light, and it came out beautifully! :)

The software blue-screened Windows 2000 on me twice during installation (which NEVER happens... my W2K system is a ROCK)... although it has worked perfectly during regular use. (or else the camera would have been returned already!) When plugged in to the USB cable, you can use the Kodak software, or the camera simply appears as a drive under My Computer. Nice!

This camera has MADE me a shutterbug! I didn't even own a film camera before this purchase. And on my recent trip to San Francisco, I snapped 275+ pics & movies!

The beautiful LCD screen (viewable even in bright sunlight), ease of use (the ultimate in point and shoot!), good battery life -- I recommend the 1600mA Rayovac NiMHs -- great macro shots, video out (how many "low-end" cameras have that?), and very nice-looking photos (what we're all after, in the end!) You get a lot of camera (and mini-camcorder!) for the money!

I've used Kodak digital cameras before (a DC-260 at work) and this one was a surprise. I bought it sight unseen, based on some excellent reviews. Even though the DX3500 has been out for a few months, the optical zoom and movie capability was enough to make me wait for the DX3600.

My first reaction was that the DX3600 was too light to be a serious camera. My first hi-res 8x10 print was enough to change my mind. The outdoor color saturation was very good. Indoor with the builtin flash is suitable for snapshots only.

The 8MB builtin memory will hold 10 hi-res or 40 low res photos. You'll want to pick up a 48MB or larger CF card. The internal memory is not cumulative with the flash card, but there is a way to copy photos from one to the other.

Buy the docking station. Yes, it's way overpriced. You get a rechargable battery set which is much better than the expensive lithium AAs that come with the camera. (The docs say that alkalines won't work well). Even more important is how easy the docking station makes transfering photos. Very similar to a Palm hotsync.

To tell you the truth, the DX3600 is an absolutely great camera for the price. The first praise for the camera would have to be its image quality. The quality is excellent. I printed out an 8 by 10 photo and was utterly surprised by the detail in the picture. The optical zoom is great too, it dosen't degrade the quality of the pic at all. I wouldn't recommed using the digital zoom option. Though most people say that the flash could be stronger, I think that the flash is great. It creates the perfect lighting without burnout (Super white in the middle of the piture) like many digital cameras do. The movie mode is an awesome added bonus to the camera. You need to have good lighting to film in movie mode. I'd also recommend getting at least a 32mb flash card. With it, you can take up to 49 highest quality pictures. The menus of the camera are simple, making the camera easy enough to use to where a 7 year old could operate it. It's the perfect family camera. The battery life is about 150 pictures with RAYOVAC 1600mAh rechargeable batteries. The camera is made of plastic, yet I'm surprised at how sturdy it is. I was carrying much things in my hands including the camera when the camera fell 3 or 4 feet onto my tile floor. I examined it an found no scratch, dent or crack. I then tried it out and it still worked like a charm. Thank you Kodak.

My only complaint for this camera is that it induces much noise into the picture when the flash is not used in low light conditions.

Overall, I think that this camera deserves a 5 star rating for its ease of use, quality, and durability.

Finally Kodak, the father of the family box camera arrives big in the Digital Camera Arena loaded & user friendly.

The DX3600 has it all and will please all, firm the casual amateur to the avid photo buff.

Summary: This is Consumers Choice for a really excellent Digital Camera to have. A great value and easy to use. Takes great pictures and videos (320x240) with sound (NOTE: With the 2x2 LCD screen they can be reviewed, edited, copied, & deleted). Easy down load capability to your PC with the provided software. (NOTE: Kodak has an entire stand-a-lone System (no-PC required)to include the; Camera Dock, Personal Picture Maker 200 printer & Kodak Photo paper available see my reviews). The DX3600 has a 2x Optical zoom (very important for true magnification without loss of detail) & hi res - 1600x1200 lines for outstanding 8x10 pictures! Has 8MB internal memory (12 hi res pictures or 30 seconds of video w/sound). Additional Memory can be provided by Picture Cards. (Note: I recommend a 96MB card this will provide an additional 140+ pictures!!!! Remember you can review/edit/delete pictures as you go). The DX3600 comes with rechargeable batteries (good for 30 - 50 pictures per charge / depending on your LCD use). (Note: I recommend you take extra AA batteries (DX3600 uses 2)for long photo shoot outings !!!) The Camera Dock option is a great unit to include on your trips. The DX3600 also comes with a USB cable for PC hook & an audio/video cable for TV hook-up!!! This way you can all see immediate picture results. (NOTE: you have a slide show feature in this camera. This is awesome!!)

The quality of your pictures will improve and become outstanding the more you use the camera. This is a versatile, easy to use, great money value and Kodak is the only Digital Camera manufacturer that provides the complete economical photo products from the camera, Photo printer w/LCD screen/direct Picture Card access, famous Kodak photo paper (Satin, Hi-Gloss finish etc.), Photo inkjet cartriges and Picture Cards up to 128MB. This Camera is awesome and with the great price and the 2.2 megapixels is all you need!!! Enjoy.

Well I got my new Kodak DX3600 yesterday ( as I mentioned it's a replacement for my Sony DSC-S70 digital camera - yes I down graded from a $600 camera !!) and started playing with it. IMHO a digital camera's ability to take close-up photos is a good indication of the overall quality of the camera ( based on the premise that ALL digital cameras can take decent photos of people, buildings, cars, etc ). The first picture I took in macro mode 6X is shown at ... ... and a picture of a quarter and for what I want to use the camera for it's a good quality picture ( both pictures have been cropped and reduced ). The focal distance to an object in macro mode has to be between 10" and 24" with the DX3600 where other more expensive cameras you can get closer because of a high quality lens. Kodak does make 5X & 12X close up lenses ( which can be piggybacked to 17X ) for about $35 which would greatly increase the effective close up range of the camera and detail of the pictures. I plan on ordering the close-up lens kit shortly. Tomorrow I plan on getting out and trying my hand at "normal" shots and see how they look - from the examples at the review page at Steve's Digicams it appears to be very effective in that respect. This camera has 8MB of internal memory - with additional memory being supplied by compactflash modules. Another nice feature of the camera is it's ability to take full motion video clips! All in all for the price it's a nice entry level 2.2 megapixel digital camera. Why did I go from a Sony to Kodak - well the Sony had too many bells and whistles ( I am no macho-techno nerd when it comes to cameras and I want nothing to do with fooling with f stops and all the other settings) for what I need to do with a camera ( maily take photos for ... and outdoor photographs while traveling ) the Kodak seems to be exactly what I need AND the price was right.

DX3600 is a very cool digital camera. It captures not only still pictures, but it also captures video and sound. However, the internal 8M memory will be full very quickly when using video capturing. Picture quality is not bad. Indoor pictures are a little bit dark.

I didn't buy the camera dock. The transfer is still pretty easy without the dock. Just connect the USB cable to the camera and the computer will start the transfer program. I spent the money to buy a charger with 4 AA NiMH batteries instead. The camera actually uses 2 AA batteries only.

The software comes with the camera is pretty basic. I am looking for a better image editing software.

The camera does not ship a hard copy manual. You need to print it out from CD yourself.

First, the quality of the pictures is excellent. The videos with sound take some practice to make look and sound good. We got a 64 MB CF type 1 card and rarely fill it all the way up (using highest quality settings). A good camera for the price - no real complaints except as noted below.

I have experienced the battery problems mentioned by other owners. For some reason, the camera looks at the fully charged 1.2 volt NiMH battery and thinks it's not fully charged (Lithium and Alkaline batteries are 1.5 volts each). I was never able to get stand alone AA NiMH batteries to work.

If you have a dock, this seems to help: Place the camera on the dock and wait for the light to go from red to green. Repeat the process several (around 5 or 6) times (remove the camera and replace it on the dock, wait for the light to go from red to green). I can now shoot 40 meg of movies and take 10 pictures with flash with no battery problems.

I`ve had the camera for a week now and I`m pleased overall.It takes great outdoor pictures,but quality drops a bit on indoor pictures.They seem to come out a little grainy if the lighting isn`t just right.The video mode is a big plus!You need to add a flash card to really enjoy this feature though.The 8 meg internal memory just isnt enough to use this feature.I picked up a 64 meg flash card for 60 bucks and now it can handle up to 15 minutes of video recording.I just wish kodak would have included a little video editing prgram in the software.It would be better to be able to edit my own movies.I guess I`ll end up buying a little video editing program if I can find one cheap.But overall,I would reccommend this camera for it`s overall features and price!

It's simple to use point and click, and it produces good quality pic's. I love not having to develop the film, and not having to wait until all 24 shots have been taken to look at the snap shot. Now I can shoot as many pictures as I want, and develop only the good ones - or none at all. I loaded the pictures into webshots.com screensaver, and everyone who comes over to the house sits and stares at it - it's great. When the camera is plugged into the USB port on my computer it automatically runs the appropriate software, and all that's needed is to click the button that say's "transfer now". The ability to take digital movies is a plus - the movies are a bit grainy even on high resolution setting, but it's more than I was expecting. I put the digital pic's and movies on our web site. I also sent some into ofoto.com to be developed. They turned out nice although quite a bit darker than what we see on the monitor. But you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them and a 35mm pic - no grain. The batteries that came with it died after about 200 shots + several minutes of movies, and plain old AA's are not cutting it - they don't seem to have enough power. It's not perfect, but overall we're very pleased with it and we're having a lot of fun.

Well, let me start off by saying, I am no camera expert, and this is my first digital one. I must say however, I am quite impressed! There are various types of flashes, such as the red eye flash. It didn't take me long to figure out, and the instructions manual was not needed. There are 2 minor cons: The picture showed on the cameras screen looks a little different than what it looks like on the computer, which probably caused me to delete a few good pictures. Also, this thing eats up batteries very quickly, unless you buy a special kind that the camera comes with. I do recommend this camera to anyone who likes quality digital pictures at a unbelievably low price!