Kodak EasyShare C663

Connectivity
Software
Kodak’s EasyShare software is supplied with the camera. It’s a simple but comprehensive image editing and organizing application. It can do most basic editing tasks, including cropping, red-eye reduction, color correction and exposure compensation.

Jacks, Ports, Plugs
The camera has a USB 2.0 connection, but no A/V output. For this ability, you’ll need the $49.95 camera dock, which acts as a battery charger and selectable NTSC/PAL video and audio output.

Direct Print Options
Both DPOF and PictBridge are supported on the EasyShare C663, providing flags on images for printing on printers with an SD card slot and direct connection to printers that support PictBridge. The Share button also allows you to flag images for printing with the EasyShare printer range, and for emailing with the EasyShare software.

Battery
The C663 supports CRV3, AA disposable and AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries, which are included with the camera. This flexibility is useful. If your rechargeable batteries run out away from the charger, you can buy some cheap AA disposable batteries to tide you over until you get back to the charger. Kodak claims that the included rechargeable batteries should last between 200 and 300 shots, which is a pretty typical figure for this type of camera. Kodak does not recommend alkaline batteries: they suggest the use of CRV3 lithium batteries instead.

Memory
32 MB of internal memory is built into the camera, 28 MB of which can be used to store images. Images can be copied from the internal memory to the SD Card that is used for image storage. 32 MB is generally the most included memory consumers can get with a camera, unless the camera is designed with photo viewer hybridity in mind.

Other Features
Perfect Touch – The C663 is the first Kodak camera to include their Perfect Touch technology, which processes the image to restore shadow details. We were unable to test this at the CES booth, but the examples that Kodak was using to demonstrate the technology were impressive, especially for flash shots where the background was lost because of the flash. Perfect Touch was able to restore the details of sections of the images that were almost lost in the shadows. It’s also non-destructive in that it creates a new image so that the original is not altered, which is useful if you decide you might be able to do a better job in an image editing program.