Model Design / Appearance
As is the case with the competition, the C643’s design is influenced by the large display screen on the rear. It forces the camera into a somewhat boxy shape in order to fit the vertical dimension of the screen. It fits easily into a pocket, however, and the proportions are pleasing. We do take notice of its thickness, 1.3 inches, as just a bit wider than other cameras in this class, adding to its blocky look. This added thickness allows a shooting mode dial on the top surface.

Handling Ability
The big problem with cameras such as the C643 is finding room for the buttons and controls after the screen has taken up most of the room on the back. With this camera, as with its competition, every square inch is taken up with some control or function, and thus there is little breathing room for the person with large hands and fingers. They are likely to cover up the viewfinder at the right top corner, or accidentally engage the controller switch on the back. If the user keeps their paws on the right side grip area, the camera is easy to hold, and this is how the camera should be used in practice.

You can hold the camera in both hands, with the index finger of the right hand poised on the exposure button and the left thumb and index finger on the top and bottom. Or you can just hold the camera in the right hand; however, the plastic front surface has no rubberized surface and could get slippery. Overall, it’s not an especially stylish design, but it is entirely functional, and quite typical in its control arrangement.

The carrying strap can be attached to a lug at the top of the right side; the C643 is suitable for one-hand carrying.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
Kodak has put the additional camera thickness to use by placing the shooting mode dial on the top of the camera rather than on the back. This opens up some room on the back; the “OK” button in the center of the controller switch is large enough to be poked with a man’s finger without difficulty and there are no switches near the four quadrants of the controller, so clicking through menu choices is fast. They’ve done a nice job addressing this ergonomic problem, though there still isn’t quite as much space as I’d like.

The buttons for camera functions are just the right size and the “click” to them feels solid. The only possible criticism is the small size of the text descriptions for the buttons on the back.

Menu
The C643 uses a nested menu structure, navigable with the four-way controller switch. In general, the operation was intuitive after a few minutes of navigation.

Navigation starts with the Menu button on the back, which brings up the main menu items: exposure bracketing, picture size in megapixels, white balance, ISO setting (Auto and 100-400 manual), focus zone (multi or center), color mode (color, B&W or sepia), long time exposure, image storage (internal or memory card), camera sounds, auto power on/off, date and time and blur warning setup. They appear on a light blue background with white letters, and contrast between the two was not as good as on some other cameras we have tested. Offsetting this was the use of both icons and word descriptions of each option, and clear return paths to the top menu. There are no live previews of the color settings.

Ease of Use
Setting up and using the C643 was generally pleasant. The camera, like its competition, has a tremendous amount of functionality for a beginner’s camera, so the trick is to “hide” the functionality options to prevent scaring the casual user and help ease them into photography. At the same time, the functions can’t be so inaccessible that the operator never uses them. It’s a balancing act that Kodak has performed successfully. The C643 really is easy to use without having a specific “easy to use” setting that blocks off menu choices.

The top-mounted mode dial and on/off switch allow the user to enter the most common shooting presets: Auto, Landscape, Macro, scene rendering menu, movie and image favorites (a file tagging option). Separate buttons take care of automatic printing, flash, burst shooting and LCD information. In other words, the camera makes good use of separate, dedicated buttons.

Of course, Kodak has written the book on docking station solutions to printing, so the C643 benefits from this experience. All the user needs to do is put the camera on the docking station and click through the images after pushing the Review button. At that point, an image can be tagged as a “Favorite”, and an entire shoot reduced to just a few “favorite” images for printing. At that point, the printing function selects just these images and images come out of the Kodak printer in just over a minute. This is more satisfying for the beginner than a straight download through the USB port into a computer and printing from there, which is a workflow that recognizes the user’s desire to edit the images chosen for printing.

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