36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best on the market, July 5, 2007
I am a total caveman when it comes to things digital. I have had digital cameras before but always felt reluctant to use them as they were too complicated, batteries ran out, the viewing screen was too small, and you had to wait a long time between shots. Well, I am here to tell you to buy this machine. It is great: simple to use; rechargable batteries, large viewing screen; very short wait between shots; AND it connects right up to the Kodak Easy Share printer (or you can remove the SD media and stick that into the printer) and makes exceptional quality photos. For $200 you can't beat this camera.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great camera!, January 5, 2008
I got this camera for Christmas and was impressed that I was taking pictures literally within a minute of charging the battery. It's so easy to use, you don't even really need a manual, the joystick and control panel are very intuitive and simple. Even easier than my old APS camera! I had resisted upgrading because I saw so many people struggle with "programming" their cameras - the user guide for my Dad's Sony is 50 pages - yuck, too much hassle! But this is about as point-and-shoot as it gets.
However, I became trepidacious after reading the negative online reviews of the camera. So, I took about a gazillion pictures to test it: self portraits, people, cats, close-ups of the detail in my Christmas decorations, indoor, outdoor, daytime, nighttime. I used as many of the modes as I could. I choose a couple dozen representative shots for printing (NOTE: I don't print my own, I upload them for printing at my local Walgreens). I was more than happy with the results: all the pictures came out beautifully, far exceeding my expectations.
So, as a camera for normal use (vacations, holidays, friends, family & pets), I'm thrilled. The speed hasn't been an issue; I still miss a few shots of my cats (they're not overly cooperative...), but not any more than with any other camera, 35mm, APS, or digital, that I've ever had. However, I don't have children so I can't comment on how appopriate this camera is for catching sports and play all the other kids' action.
I haven't used the video much, but to be honest, I considered that more of a novelty in a camera in this price range. If I was looking to shoot quality video, I'd expect to pay accordingly. To me, that's the kind of advanced feature that needs some input from Consumer Reports.
I think this is the perfect camera for the casual photographer and/or the technically-challenged. I'm very happy with it and can't wait to start scrapbooking all my new pictures!
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
so-so printed pictures, October 8, 2007
I want to give this 3 1/2 stars, but it's not possible so I'm giving it 3 stars. Bought the Kodak EasyShare V1003 in July for my mom. She's never had a digital camera before so I was looking for something easy to use, not too many complicated buttons. The camera was easy for her to learn how to use. The problem came when we printed out some pictures. The quality of the printed pictures was iffy. Some shots were stunning, great color, unbelievable detail. Others looked much worse than they did on the camera's LCD screen and the computer screen. I noticed that bad shots occured most often when we took pictures of people inside. Faces were not very detailed, and everything came out much darker than it looked on the camera's and computer's screens. I played around with the camera a lot over the past week, taking lots of test shots in different settings, and I've come to the conclusion that the camera has problems with taking photos of groups of people (bad facial detailing) in indoor situations from more than five feet away. If you stand pretty close to someone, the camera usually does ok (flash can sometimes be too powerful, washing out details and colors) but faces are blurry when you stand further away compared to the output of other digital cameras (my relatives have Canon and Sony cameras). The pictures are ok, certainly comparable in quality to our old 35mm film camera from the 90s. It's just that other modern digital cameras can capture much finer detail of faces in in-door situations than this Kodak. I've learned the hard way that megapixels aren't everything, camera lens and in-camera processing matters alot too. I've just ordered a 7 megapixel Canon model for my mother. My sister has this Canon and the print output from her camera is fantastic compared to what we've gotten from this Kodak. Shop around, higher megapixels don't translate into better details in photos.
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