Kodak EasyShare C663

Front
The front of the C663 is dominated by its lens, which extends about an inch from the body when the camera is in use and takes up almost half the front. At its eleven o’clock position is the viewfinder, while the flash straddles across twelve and one. The self-timer light and a light sensor are at the lens’ seven o’clock, with the microphone for recording sound in videos at five o’clock. (We’re glad to see the microphone on the front; that’s the best placement for picking up unobstructed sound.) It’s a very symmetrical arrangement.

The handgrip is a boxy rectangular shape that juts outward on the left, with "Kodak" written on top and a promotional sticker on the bottom. Kodak bucks trend here by going with a more classic and less curvaceous ergonomic shape.

Back
The back of the C663 is dominated by the LCD, a 2.5-inch screen with 115K pixels. It leaves a thin strip of real estate up top and towards its right for all the controls.

Along the top of the screen, moving left to right, are the status light, the viewfinder, the share button and the zoom control, the last of which is comprised of two separate buttons rather than a whole toggle. Below the zoom buttons in the upper right, moving downward, are the delete button, the LCD enable/disable and info button, the control joystick, the menu button and the review button. Next to the delete button are six tiny raised dots that act as a thumb grip. It’s a bit crowded.

Left Side
The left side of the EasyShare C663 is home to the power socket (3V: the power supply is not supplied with the camera). There are no other ports or sockets present, just a silver band running down the center and emblazoned with "6.1 mega pixels."

Right Side
On the right side of the camera, we have the cover for the SD card slot, and the A/V Out and USB ports. This cover slides back, and appears to be relatively robust. It also requires quite a lot of effort to open, so you aren’t likely to do it accidentally. At the top of the right side is a lug for a wrist strap.

Top
On the top of the boxy case of the C663, we have the playback speaker at the far left, followed by the button for the self-timer & burst mode to the right. On its right is the flash control button, followed by the shutter button situated in the center of the mode dial. The shutter button only requires a relatively light touch to trigger, but it’s not light enough that you trip it if you pick the camera up and brush against it accidentally. The encircling mode dial has 8 settings.

Bottom
On the bottom of the case is the tripod socket (located underneath the lens), the dock connector and the cover for the battery compartment. (The model we photographed has a large "Area 4" sticker over the battery compartment cover, in case you had trouble locating this feature in our image.)