April 23, 2003

The introduction of a new Kodak EasyShare digital camera, printer dock and software makes it so easy to take, print and share digital photographs.

The Kodak EasyShare DX6340 (Kodak, $329) digital camera is the newest in Kodak’s line of digital cameras. This 3.1 megapixel camera is convenient and compact, and though it can be used in a quick and easy point-and-shoot mode, it has plenty of extras to satisfy even the advanced amateur photographer. The all-glass Schneider-Kreuznach f2.2-13 lens is custom made for digital so as to optimize image sharpness, uniform brightness and color quality while still offering a 4X zoom capability.

A new high speed dual sensor auto focus system coupled with an instant shutter button capture makes it fast and easy to snap pictures, so you won’t miss that action shot or a fleeting smile. This auto focus system is so advanced it can focus in near darkness without using an often confusing pre-flash or focusing illuminator light (confusing on other cameras because your subject(s) may think the picture has already been taken and start to talk or move before the actual picture is taken). The quick focus-and-shoot represents cool advanced technology that we found worked as well and easily as it sounds.

In addition to an automatic point-and-shoot mode, there are preset modes for sports, night, portrait, landscape, macro (closeup) and video with sound. Just turn the dial to the appropriate icon and fire away. A flash option button lets you set flash modes for auto, off, fill or red eye, and the flash itself is unusually powerful for a compact camera–useful up to 20 feet. This feature is a welcome treat when taking indoor pictures of larger groups or sports events. For more advanced camera settings you can use the menu system and the mini-joystick control to set aperture or shutter priority, ISO (100,200,400) and other creative controls. Want a sepia-toned old fashion photo? Just set it in the menu control. The camera has 16MB of fixed internal memory, so you may never need to buy optional MMC/SD memory cards.

The back of the camera has a red jeweled button labeled "Share." Push this button, and a choice of share options is displayed on the camera’s 1.8 inch LCD panel: PRINT to select number of prints; E-MAIL to select from a list of pre-loaded recipients; ALBUM to select which pre-loaded album to save the photo in. A REVIEW button lets you see all the pictures you’ve taken so far, and a there’s a DELETE button for all those "oops" pictures. You can connect the camera directly to your computer with a USB cable, but with the great new printer dock (see below) why would you want to?

Just pop the camera onto the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock 6000 (Kodak, $199) and print pictures by just pressing a single button. The printer produces spectacular 4 x 6 inch borderless prints--as many copies as you want, in less than 90 seconds each. This compact printer requires AC power, uses thermal dye transfer and produces prints displaying amazing sharpness and color saturation that impressed us and our friends. The printer also layers a protective laminate over the picture so it emerges dry, waterproof, durable and archival. You can choose to print the picture currently displayed on the camera’s LCD, just the pictures you’ve selected for EasyShare or all the pictures in the camera. And, you can print directly from the docked camera, without being connected to your computer. Great party idea or business promotion opportunity--just bring along this small (about 8 x 6 x 4 inch) unit for "instant" spectacular pictures of friends or customers. The print refill kit comes in 20, 40, or 80 print sizes, costing $14.99, $24.99 and $39.99 respectively. This includes the ribbon cartridge, and each kit contains enough ribbon for the number of refills you buy. The printer dock also charges the camera’s battery in about three hours. Very convenient.

You can connect the printer dock to your computer, where a one button push downloads the pictures into the album (folder) you selected. On those pictures selected for e-mail, you can add a message if you want. Or use the pictures in the Kodak EasyShare 3.0 software for editing (cropping, red eye removal, color/brightness/contrast balance and the like), organizing or printing on either the printer dock or your "other" printer. You can also use the program to send pictures, on line, to a photo service to order enlargements or photo specialty items such as picture mugs, T-shirts, calendars and such. The EasyShare software, which is a pretty impressive editing and organizing program by itself, is included with the camera but is also available as a free download from Kodak.com whether or not you own the camera or printer dock.

Another EasyShare feature of the camera and the printer dock is the ability to display your pictures on a TV set, singly or as a slide show, for all to see and enjoy. And if you took a picture lengthwise, the camera will auto rotate it so you don’t have to turn your head sideways to view it.

All these new products from Kodak have many cool features and great pictures and prints to boot.

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