Kodak DC3800 Review

Overall Rating

Small, neat and compact, lightweight, excellent quality pictures, fast transfer to pc, looks awesome!

Power hungry, shutter delay time, slow exposure time, no built-in USB connector.

This is a lovely little camera. Designed for the point-and-click brigade rather than the professional, it is incredibly simple to use and gets great results nearly every time.

The standard 4mb card can take between 30 and 60 pictures on it (there is a very high res mode which means 15 shots but the difference between high and very high is negligible). If like me you get a 32mb card as well, then you'll have enough shots to keep you going for a few weeks away from home without having to download your pics back to your hard drive. High and Very High res pics are 1792x1184 pixels, with the lowest res being a still acceptable 896x592 pixels. In real terms, the higher res means a 1200dpi inkjet will print a pic onto a full piece of A4, and on glossy paper you've got yourself a 35mm rival for sure.

The rear LCD screen can be used whilst taking pics as well as reviewing pics already stored in memory. It's a nice little screen although it's hard to see in bright sunlight. The built-in digital zoom is practically worthless as it just crops part of a high res pic and makes it a lower res version, giving the impression of zooming. Don't be taken in!

Transferring pics from memory to your pc involves using the usb card reader which comes with the camera. It's literally a case of dragging your jpeg pics from the card reader device to your c: drive. Having said that, it would probably have been better to have a direct usb link to the camera for portability between different PCs.

Outdoor pictures taken in good light are always the best, but there aren't many places where the camera won't take a good picture. The most frustrating thing about it however is the slow exposure time, meaning fast-action shots have a tendency to get blurred quite easily, especially indoors with the flash on. It is also annoying having a small delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken. It might be only 1/4 of a second but it can mean losing the shot you've been waiting for.

Battery life is not very good with standard Alkalines or rechargeable NiCd's, but with a set of NiMH's in you get 5-10 times the battery life and is well worth the investment.

In summary, this camera "does exactly what it says on the tin", ie. it's for those who want quick pics without SLR complications. The tiny size and low weight make it ideal as a go-anywhere do-anything camera, and with it's sleek sexy curves and shiny silver body, it's a nice show-off accessory to boot!

I definitely recommend it to anyone new to digital photography who wants something better than the entry-level models.