Product: Kodak EasyShare LS743 Price: $2,890 Pros: Clearly labelled buttons, easy to operate, good quality images Cons: Lack of manual functions means you have little control over the outcome of the image
I am no fan of Kodak's low-end digital cameras because they are thin on features and I like having a set of manual options to play with. But the EasyShare series has been selling very well worldwide because of its simplicity.
Kodak knows that packing in too many features will confuse users. So, when it came to getting my parents a gift last Christmas, I picked a Kodak digital camera because they are so easy to use even technophobes have no problems.
The new Kodak EasyShare LS743 retails at $2,890 but a friend picked one up recently in Mongkok for just $2,000.
It is a four-megapixel, fully autofocus digital camera about the size of a small mobile phone encased in a sleek aluminium body. The optical zoom is just 2.8x using a relatively good lens from Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon.
You can also record mpeg 4 movies of up to 80?minutes at either 13 or 20 frames a second.