Kodak EasyShare C663
Digital Camera Review
Aug 31, 2006
- By Emily Raymond
1.5
The EasyShare C663 joins Kodak's entry-level series with 6.1 megapixels of resolution as well as manual and automatic controls. It offers basic features like a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 3x optical zoom lens and a 2.5-inch LCD screen, along with 15 scene modes and a movie mode that records 640 x 480 video at 24 fps. The EasyShare C663 has in-camera editing features and is among the first batch of Kodak digital cameras to have built-in Perfect Touch technology. The Kodak EasyShare C663 retails for $299.
| Top Point & Shoot Cameras |
|---|
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| Likes |
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- Large LCD screen
- Manual and automatic controls
- Kodak Perfect Touch technology
- Huge menu font
- Albums to organize pictures
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| Dislikes |
- Substantial shutter lag
- Harsh flash
- Uneven coverage on built-in flash
- Poor color reproduction
- Cheap body
- $299 price tag
- Open power adaptor port
- Poor LCD resolution, viewing angle
- Impossible to see LCD in daylight
- Tiny buttons
- Joystick has sharp edges
- All the cool playback features require hours in the software |
Conclusion
This digital camera has few pros and a lot of cons. It has a nicely sized LCD screen, but poor resolution and a narrow viewing angle. The 6-megapixel Kodak EasyShare C663 has manual control over shutter speed and aperture, but doesn’t have a custom white balance setting. It has a 3x optical zoom lens, but it doesn’t work when recording movies. The C663 has cool in-camera features to email and sort pictures into albums, but the setup requires connecting to the included software and tinkering around for much too long. The camera is easy to use if you’re just taking pictures, but it’s hard to change any settings with the tiny buttons and painfully sharp joystick. Its image quality doesn’t help. Most pictures in anything but bright daylight are plagued by uneven shadows and spots from the substandard flash; the ones that are spared by the flash have unrealistic colors. The shutter lag may cause the user to miss the moment. Some of these issues can be cleared up with Kodak’s built-in Perfect Touch technology (which can be applied in the playback mode), but there is much to be desired with the C663’s pictures. In the end, the cons outweigh the pros for the Kodak EasyShare C663 – especially considering the $299 price tag.