Kodak EasyShare-one Easy Digital Camera Review

The Kodak EasyShare-one was announced in January 2005 as the first wireless enabled digital camera for consumers. The compact model waded in the production stage for several months before its early October release. The EasyShare-one has 4 megapixels, a Schneider-Kreuznach 3x optical zoom lens, an unprecedented amount of internal memory, and a large innovative touch-screen – on top of its WiFi capability. The Kodak EasyShare-one retails for $599 and is available immediately.

This model starts a whole new genre of digital cameras. The Kodak one fuses a photo album and a digital camera in a compact 4.1 x 2.5 x 1-inch aluminum body. The back of the camera body folds outward and rotates to reveal the large 3-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD touch-screen. The EasyShare-one comes with a stylus that is integrated into the camera body when not in use. The tiny stylus touches the screen to scroll through menus, make selections, or “type” emails by pushing keys on the virtual keyboard.

Having wireless capabilities built in to the EasyShare-one gives you potential to connect with printers, computers, and other devices without ever having to unwind the USB cable. This means you can take pictures of your kids in the living room and pick up the prints at your home printer two minutes later.

 

In terms of performance, the Kodak EasyShare-one produces fairly accurate colors with its Kodak Color Science Chip. Pictures have relatively low noise in them and the resolution is certainly enough to make 8 x 10-inch prints. The one’s only weakness comes when the lights are low. A combination of the lack of an auto focus illuminator and the camera’s insensitivity make this EasyShare a fair-weather model; pictures taken in low light look quite dark.

If manual settings are important to you, then look elsewhere. The Kodak EasyShare-one omits manual and priority modes and instead includes 16 scene modes and a fully automatic mode. The following scene modes are available: Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Close-up, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Snow, Beach, Text, Fireworks, Flower, Museum/Polite, Self-Portrait, Party, Children, and Backlight. A movie mode is also available; it can shoot VGA-resolution video but only at 24 frames per second. These modes are showcased in colorful menus complete with large text and bright example pictures.

The Kodak EasyShare-one has 256 MB of internal memory. When most compact models are including 16 MB (if any at all), the EasyShare-one is far surpassing the norm. This model can store and organize up to 1,500 photographs in calendar or favorite albums. It can also display only recent pictures and is open to custom organization as well. The Kodak one is easy to use, but with all the new flashy features it is not as easy to use as some of its EasyShare comrades.

The Kodak EasyShare-one has lots of really cool features, but it is still a work in progress (we’re hoping, anyway). The one has the slowest startup time of any compact digital camera at a whopping 8 seconds, but almost redeems itself with a 2 frame-per-second burst mode. Its 3-inch touch-screen is fun to play with and beautiful to look at, but gets warm after a few minutes of use. Despite the few cons, the Kodak EasyShare-one is still an extremely innovative concept and houses some incredible features. With this wireless-enabled model, Kodak is hoping to take digital photography from its point and shoot status to the realm of point and share.

 

 

Kodak EasyShare-one - THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating:

Likes

- Wireless capabilities - Large 3-inch touch-screen - Email straight from the camera - Great software package - Responsive auto focus system - 256 MB of internal memory

Dislikes

- Slow startup time - LCD monitor gets warm - One image size in movie mode - Not many white balance options - Poor low light performance

Nikon Coolpix P1 Rating:319.31	Nikon Coolpix P2 Rating:	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N1 Rating:	Canon PowerShot SD430 Rating:	Fujifilm FinePix F440 Rating:275.96
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
-8.0 megapixels - 3.5x optical zoom lens - face priority auto focus mode - D Lighting - Aperture priority mode - 2.3 fps burst mode	- 5.1 megapixels - 3.5x optical zoom lens - face priority auto focus mode - D Lighting - $399.95 price tag - 7 white balance modes	- 8.1 effective megapixels - Aperture and shutter priority modes - ISO 64-800 - 30-1/1000 shutter speeds - 6 white balance modes	- 5 megapixels - Includes wireless printer adaptor - $499 retail price - 0.9-inch thick, better-looking camera body - cool My Color modes - faster 30 fps frame rate in movie mode	- 3.4x optical zoom lens - 2.35 seconds startup time - Includes USB cradle - $349 price
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
- WiFi capability - 16 scene modes - in-camera red-eye fix	- WiFi capability - 16 scene modes - in-camera red-eye fix	- 3 inch touch screen, 230k pixels - One-inch thickness - 3x optical zoom lens	- WiFi capability - 3x optical zoom lens - +/- 2 exposure compensation range	- 4.1 megapixels
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
- 2.5 inch, 110k LCD - 32 MB internal memory - 1.5-inch thick camera body	- 2.5 inch, 110k LCD - 16 MB internal memory - 1.5-inch thick camera body	- No wireless capability - 26 MB internal memory - 8 scene modes - Must have Sony Memory Stick Pro to capture 30 fps video	- 2 inch LCD with 118,000 pixels - no internal memory - only 8 scene modes	- 2 inch LCD screen - noisy images - inaccurate colors - 10 fps movie mode at 320 x 240 pixels - no burst mode - 4 scene modes