Kodak EasyShare C643

Viewfinder
The C643 is a point-and-shoot beginner’s camera with an optical viewfinder—a nice touch. It tracks the zoom lens and has fair enough image brightness considering the camera’s price. We did a rough check of its coverage compared to the LCD screen image and would characterize the coverage as noticeably inferior. There was no diopter adjustment; since it’s just a window, but everything seemed to be in sharp focus regardless of distance.

LCD Screen
The EasyShare C643 has a 2.4-inch LCD screen with backlight brightness control. Its overall image quality is in line with other cameras we have tested; in an 8x magnification on the LCD screen, the image appeared equal to other cameras we have informally tested in this price range. We spotted no unusual color fringing, aberrations or obvious deficiencies. However, Kodak specifications gave no indication of total pixel count in the display. It displayed the usual image brightness falloff with angled view but is usable from about 30 degrees to either side with no difficulty. We had no way of evaluating the image in bright light conditions. Backlight brightness was adjustable as a menu setting.

Shooting information is displayed in two steps. In shooting mode, the display includes the usual details such as pictures remaining, battery life, flash setting, image size and ISO setting. However, also added to the mix are displays for zoom position, metering pattern, white balance, shooting mode, F-stop, shutter speed and EV compensation. It gets to be a rather busy screen to look at, with icons on three of four sides of the image—a bit much for our taste. However, holding down the shutter release button halfway causes many of the icons to drop to allow a clear view of the image.

Like other cameras in this category, the C643’s LCD takes up most of the back of the camera. It is integrated into the back in a way that looks polished; we like the overall proportions.

Flash
The C643 has the usual small rectangular flashtube located within "red-eye" distance to the lens. Its range is listed by Kodak as 2.0-11 feet in the wide position at ISO 140, and 2.0-6.9 feet in the telephoto position. These numbers are almost exact clones of the figures we’ve seen for other cameras in this price range. Three flash options are available: Auto, Fill and Off. In the Fill, position, the flash always fires; however, there is no adjustment for decreasing the fill intensity.

Red-eye reduction works in the usual way, and the C643 has an additional digital red-eye reduction which is available as a menu selection. This feature was not tested. Flash exposures on the Auto setting provided the typical direct flash look with good skin tones.

Zoom Lens
There is nothing spectacular about the Kodak lens attached to the C643. Kodak does not provide information regarding the number of elements, their materials of construction or their grouping. The 3x zoom range from 36-108mm equivalent covers the common wide-to-telephoto requirements of a beginner shooter—not too wide and not too telephoto. The f/2.7-f/4.8 maximum aperture range is typical of other manufacturers. Clearly, this is a lens designed for moderate lighting and not low light situations, as well as at moderate and not extreme distance settings.

Zoom adjustment is via the typical button pair located on the top right of the camera back. Its action was smooth and controllable, and not too fast. The camera refocused immediately after zoom.