Back to basics

**** Introduction ****
With such a large range of digital cameras available from lots of different manufacturers choosing the right camera can be a daunting task. Buying the most expensive camera in the range is not always the best option, you may get an all singing and dancing model but if you don't utilize all of it's features you could find that you have wasted a lot of your hard earned cash. The Kodak C310 is at the lower end of the Kodak range but that is what makes it an ideal first digital camera.
**** The company ****
Kodak is a northern American company and has been linked to photography for over a hundred years. They are a well known brand and have established a well trusted brand over the years. With the advent of the digital age Kodak have began to leave the traditional film market to concentrate on digital products both in the camera and printer area but also in digital processing by means of the thousands of Kodak photo kiosks they have situated in retail outlets throughout the UK.
**** The product ****
The C310 is an entry level camera which is similar in size to a traditional 35mm camera (great for people who have large hands and don't like the minute sized Japanese products that are available today.).It is powered by 2x AA batteries and you should find this product retailing for between 50- 70 pounds making this product and excellent choice for fist time buyers who want to see if digital photography is for them.
**** The Specifications ****
4 mega pixels- This will give great quality prints up to 10 x 7 in size (which should be enough for most people)
SD card slot- The camera comes installed with 16mb of internal memory which will allow you to take pictures straight from the box. You will however at some point need to buy extra memory to increase the capacity of the product. This camera takes the secure digital (SD) format which is one of the cheapest and most widely used formats available in sizes from 32mb- 1 gig capacities. Below is an example of the approximate no of images each sized card should be able to hold on a normal quality setting.
32mb- 25-30 images
64mb- 50-60 images
128mb-100-120 images
256mb-200-240 images
512mb-400-450 images
1 gig-800+ images
Viewfinder-The camera also has a standard viewfinder which is great if you need to conserve battery power because it will allow you to turn of the LCD display and use the viewfinder instead. This will also suit people who have only just switched from traditional 35mm photography and is also useful in very bright light conditions where using the LCD display would be difficult.
LCD display-This model has a 1.6 inch colour display that is used for taking shots but also for navigating the various menu's and altering the different camera settings that are available. It is also used if you want to preview your images or delete any images if you need to create space on you media card.
Flash-the camera has a built in flash which has several settings, fill-in, auto, and red eye reduction. I personally leave it set to auto as I find this feature works best.
ISO-this model will allow you to set the ISO setting to values between 100-800,or you can use the auto setting(once again I find that leaving it set to auto allows for best use of the camera so you don't have to keep altering for different light conditions. For those of you who don't know the ISO settings control the light sensitivity of the camera. the higher the setting the more sensitive the sensor becomes, allowing you to take good looking shots in both low and high light conditions.
Zoom-Unfortunately there is no optical zoom on this model only 5x digital zoom .so remember the more digital zoom you use the poorer quality the overall image could be, how much zoom you use is dependant on the conditions that you are taking shots in from experience I find using a maximum of 3x zoom to be best without any loss of quality.
Power-the camera is powered by 2x AA batteries, to keep running cost's down I would advise to opt for a good quality set of rechargeable NiMh batteries rated at least 1800ma for the best performance. The advantage of traditional batteries is that you can carry a spare set with you just in case the power runs out at a critical stage.
Movie mode-this model will allow you to capture moving images but the quality is not fantastic and is best viewed back on a small preview screen on you PC.However it is ideal for sending via e-mail because the files are quite small in size.
Extra's- The package comes with a USB cable for connecting the camera to your PC to allow you to transfer and edit your images, and Kodak also supply a drivers and utilities cd with some basic photo editing software included. Great if you haven't got any third party software but the options are only basic.
*** Ease of use ***
The Kodak range is probably one of the easiest ranges to use and this camera is no exception. I have found it best to leave all the settings on auto as this works best and will make the camera extremely easy and quick to use. The instructions are well written and extremely easy to follow and the menu's on the camera are well laid out and easy to understand.
*** The results ***
The images taken by the camera are of the high quality you would expect from a brand like Kodak. The camera performs well both inside and out and in both low light and very bright conditions and use of auto setting will give colourful vibrant looking images that are the equal of many more expensive brands of digital camera.
*** Summary ***
An excellent priced entry range camera, very suited to first timers in the digital market, the results are excellent for a basic camera and the product is extremely easy to use. The camera is a bit on the larger size and it does lack some of the more advanced features but for the price you get a lot for you money. Overall this is a high rated camera for newbie's to the digital market