Manual Control Options
The Kodak EasyShare V603 isn’t really intended to appeal to the photographer seeking manual control options. Instead Kodak chose to emphasize automatic features. The manual control options for the V603 are limited to ISO levels, exposure compensation settings and exposure metering modes. While it’s all well and good to focus on automatic controls, the lack of manual options means that if beginning users become comfortable with shooting and want to move beyond auto mode, they will need to purchase another camera.
Focus
Auto Focus
Auto focus settings are located within the regular shooting mode, with two submenu options. The first menu setting, in the Auto Focus menu, allows the user to select between single AF and continuous AF. The second menu option, located directly beneath, allows the user to select between different AF zones to better tailor the camera’s optics to the intended shooting pattern of the user. The AF zones for the Kodak EasyShare V603 are multi-zone or center zone.
In practice, the auto focus reacted quickly in well lit situations and appeared to handle reasonably well when shot into spaces of lower light. Further testing will be needed to properly evaluate the camera’s autofocus capabilities, with various degrees of contrast and lighting. Check back for our full review for the final verdict.
Manual Focus
There is no manual focus control on the Kodak EasyShare V603, which really isn’t a surprise since this Kodak series is intended and marketed towards the fans of automatic control. If the user is interested in a camera with manual focus options, cameras manufactured by companies like Canon will provide a better beginning point for digital control over manual focus.
Metering
Although few manual control options are provided with this camera, the V603 does give users with access to the metering mode settings. The metering mode options are located within the shooting menu in the exposure metering submenu. The metering options for the Kodak EasyShare V603 are all TTL metering modes; they provide settings of multi-pattern, center-weighted, and center-spot. With this range of control users should find that the V603 reacts successfully to scenes with complicated multi-source lighting and situations with backlit subjects.
Exposure
Exposure can be manually controlled by the user through an exposure compensation scale. Interestingly, the exposure compensation setting isn’t located in the shooting menu. It takes further investigation to reveal that the left and right arrows on the four-way controller are intended to function as up and down controls for an EV compensation scale. Once engaged, two arrows appear on either side of the LCD which indicate the direction the user can navigate to alter the exposure compensation levels. The exposure compensation scale has a range of +/-2 EV with a step every 1/3 stop. Having this control immediately accessible is a benefit to users looking to avoid menus, though better labeling would be even more beneficial.
Users can adjust exposure in playback as well with the Perfect Touch imaging system, which automatically adjusts exposure levels. When this mode is selected the user can select the photograph and then the Perfect Touch option, and the user will be provided with a before and after split screen. Users can scan from right to left across the enhanced image prior to saving both versions of the photograph to memory.
White Balance
The white balance control options for the V603 allow partial although not full manual control with a series of preset options accessed through the shooting menu within the white balance submenu. The white balance options are displayed as full text descriptions in a linear menu structure, easily scanned via the up and down arrows of the four-way controller.
The white balance preset options are Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent and Open Shade options. While not an overwhelming number of options, and certainly not enough to cover every situation, this handful of preset options are a good start, although a manual control setting thrown in would have been even better. Of course, Kodak compacts and point-and-shoots generally omit the essential manual control.
ISO
ISO settings on the Kodak EasyShare V603 are located within the shooting menu, accessed by pressing the menu button on the back of the camera. The ISO settings submenu allows the user to select between 80, 100, 200, 400 and 800 with ISO 800 at a reduced resolution setting of 1.8 MP. The inclusion of an ISO 800 setting, while perhaps functional in some situations, did show hefty noise in our initial evaluation, although we will have to wait for our full review to explore images quality further. The auto ISO range is quite stunted and only provides a range of 80 to 160.
Shutter Speed
The user of the Kodak EasyShare V603 will have the opportunity to select between nine shutter speed options for longer shutter speeds. The Long Time Exposure submenu is located within the standard shooting mode menu and provides shutter speed settings of 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, and 8.0 seconds. While this is not an overwhelming number of settings, and certainly does not cover the faster end of the shutter speed range, this does at least provide the V603 with manually selectable slower shutter speeds for low light situations or motion blur.
Aperture
There is no manual aperture control on the Kodak EasyShare V603, so the user will need to rely upon the automatic aperture range of the camera. The aperture range of the V603 is f/2.8 at wide and f/4.8 at telephoto. If more an aperture priority control is desired, models from manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, or Sony would be advisable alternate options.
