Conclusions
At first glance, the Kodak EasyShare C340 has a unique design with darker silver tones, textured panels, and elements of both plastic and metal on its compact body. While this is more interesting to the eyes than the traditional light silver finish, some of the flashy features are not completely logical. For example, the right-hand grip is a smooth lump of plastic, while the other side is textured and metal. It would have made more sense to include some texture or increased gripping surface on the right-hand grip, however, the rest of the C340’s design makes sense. The buttons are labeled clearly, logically placed, and easy to use. Menus are easy to navigate with large text and icons. There are very limited manual controls on this point-and-shoot model; instead, Kodak has included 12 scene modes and a reliable auto mode. A movie mode is also included, however, it shoots at an incredibly slow frame rate and looks a bit choppy — more like a rapid slide show. The Kodak EasyShare C340 is best suited for daytime shooting, as evidenced by its limited white balance options and inadequate flash. Although, even with the minor drawbacks, for the $249.95 price tag, the C340 is a solid buy; a 5-megapixel digital camera with an aspheric, all-glass 3x optical lens and simplistic interface should be ideal for the point-and-shooter who wants to lie back and let the camera do all the work. The C340 will debut in May.