Fujifilm Finepix J38 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD

I was looking for a camera to replace my Canon G9. I love Canon products, and my G9 has served me well. However, I mainly shoot with a big DSLR, and use the G9 only occasionally for quick snapshots. I haven't really taken advantage of its many features in a long time, so I'd rather pass it along to someone who can get better use out of it. I wanted something inexpensive for myself, that would fit in my pocket, start up quickly, focus accurately and produce sharp images with fairly correct white balance, with little (if any) input from me. Also wanted something that would shoot a quick, basic video on occasion. This may not sound like a lot, but it's hard to find cameras in this price range that will do all of that.

The J38 fits the bill perfectly. It is a beautiful little device, seems to be built rather well and starts up in just a second. Focus is faster in low light than my G9, and while the images might be a little noisier in low light, they're still clear enough to work with happily up to 8x10. Indoor shots turn out beautifully, with good white balance and no magenta or cyan color casts. It does seem to have a mind of its' own while taking macro shots in low light, but I have yet to see a $100 point-and-shoot that does this flawlessly anyway. In daylight, macro shots are much easier! Also, it doesn't ALWAYS get the white balance right, but this is a common issue with digital cameras across the board. Simply metering off a lighter object (when possible) seems to solve this.

Video quality isn't on par with say, the new Sony CyberShot cameras, but they also cost $50-$100 more. For the price, I wasn't expecting much as far as video is concerned. The size is small, at 640x480, but it's smooth and sharp, with clear (mono) sound. I don't need more than this though, so I am happy.

The menus took some getting used to, especially after using Canons for years. Canon is known for their easy menu navigation. The J38's menu system could use some tweaking, but it works! The buttons on the outside of the camera are tiny, so this might not be a great camera for bigger hands. (Even my long nails get in the way). However, everything feels sturdy and nicely finished.

If you are looking for a sleek, simple digital camera that gives great results, this may just be the camera for you. Yes, it has some drawbacks, but overall it's an excellent camera for the money.

After owning this camera for a month, this is my second and final review of this camera. Of course, this camera has a lot of options. Not to mention, the 2.7 inch screen is pretty big for this size camera. Some bigger cameras do not have as big of a screen. It has a great picture when focusing. The picture is not as vivid as other cameras, but it is still takes sharp photos.

Features One feature I noticed is taken photos can be zoomed in on. After taking a picture, press the zoom button and it will zoom in on the picture. The photo can also be looked at in 360 degree angle. Also, the software can allow users to improve images of uploaded photos. This feature is called "Auto Adjust". For example, I took a few pictures, which were kind of dark. Well, clicking on "Auto Adjust" will show the taken image and an improved image. The improve image will be a little lighter and clearer than the original.

Shooting Options The shooting options are practically idiot proof. The SR Auto does everything for the user. The camera adjusts by which type of scene the user is in. Now, I did notice the SR Auto is not as effective in darker settings. Therefore, I decided to put the camera on Auto in a pitch black setting. I pressed the shutter and had a clear and bright picture, as if I took the pictures with lights on. This is no lie. This is due to the superb flash of the camera.

The face detection is good. I tested it. If the camera sees a face, it will put a green square around the face. Heck, it will even put one around a face on a TV screen.

Another cool shooting option is the automatic shooting mode. Just press down on the clock icon on the bottom of the menu button. Choose the duration of when you want the picture taken. It will be either 10 seconds or 2 seconds. Then, press the shutter lightly and the camera will countdown and take and automatic picture of a subject. This can only be done once. Therefore, if you want to take another automatic picture, just repeat the steps.

Battery Life The battery life is great for this camera, as well. The battery life indicator shows three bars as fully charged. At a football game, I was continuously taking pictures and turning the camera on and off. I left the football game with two bars left. That was pretty good. I cannot say that about the Kodak camera, which I previously had.

Movie Mode The videos on the Movie Mode show very clear. Not to mention, the audio is very good on playback, as well. Some reviewers on this website and others have said the camera cannot zoom, while recording videos. Well, it can zoom, but not optical. If you zoom in from afar on the optical zoom, the picture will be pixeled up. Therefore, it is only good for zooming in on items or people that are closer.

Downloading videos For those who are planning to download videos onto YouTube, be warned! It is not easy. I am only speaking for someone who owns a PC. With this camera, I found by using Internet Explorer, YouTube would only accept a small amount of shooting time from this camera, which is usually two minutes and under. If the user makes a video, which was longer, an unloading error would come on. This was weird. I tried to find solutions to this problem. I actually saw on YouTube, an internet program called Mozilla Firefox was supposed to be the solution, so I downloaded it.

Now, YouTube downloads my videos with extended time. It is weird, but I guess FireFox is more compatible with the FujiFilm format. Despite this, the videos do take a lot of time to download, though. For this camera, it takes YouTube 30 minutes to download a 10 minute video. That is craaaazy! I got to find out how to get a faster way of downloading. Disregard if you are not a YouTube user. The videos will still show on the software, which it came with. That takes virtually no time. The other two previously purchased cameras I had did not have this problem. Everything uploaded rather quickly.

The verdict After having this camera for over a month, I can honestly say this is a good buy. Not to mention, the price is continuoulsy going down on this camera. With all the features this camera has, a buyer will feel as if they have a steal of a camera.

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I unpacked this awesome little camera a few hours ago, and have been putting it through some paces. Overall, I'm impressed.

I'll start with the good. The portability is top-notch. To give perspective, its about a 1/3" shorter and twice as thick as my classic iPod, and roughly the same, dainty weight. The screen, while beautiful, will absorb fingerprints, so a cleansing cloth is a must if you're nitpicky. There are a grand total of eleven buttons on the camera, all of them about as ergonomically pleasing as you can get with a rectangle.

Now on still shots, it's been my experience that Fuji products tend to jack up the ISO on Auto mode. The J38 is no different. This will result in some noise, in any camera, but unless you go looking for it, there's no real glaring problem here. The pictures will look fine if you feel like having them printed out, and don't go over them with a magnifying lens. The Scene Recognition Auto a setting that decides what the shot should be taken as is good in theory but so far has been iffy indoors. I've gotten a few unwanted flashes with my pictures that I considered well lit.

Luckily, for all those snobs who want the finest Finepix, the manual mode is pretty deep, considering the point-and-shoot type of camera this is. You can change the ISO (100 will produce excellent photos in decent light), the exp. compensation, and the White Balance, along with turning the face recognition on or off. The results of tinkering will usually be obvious from the screen, so this will help ease newbies into exploring the camera's true capabilities. (A note: the macro mode is adequate but not mindblowing, and there is no super-macro mode)

Oh yeah, the screen. You're stuck with it, because there's no viewfinder to be found on this model, but for me that's a moot point. This type of camera is the kind you hold out in front of you and snap a picture. But the screen's only real drawback is the speed as which it "draws" your picture to be. There's just a hint of lag, nothing bad at all, but it will go blurry with fast movement, and at the moment I'm not sure if this affects the focus. I doubt it would.

Video is more than I was expecting. The quality is a smidge above your average professional Youtube video, and stays in pretty good focus as you move. I have a feeling really fast movement might become a blur, but so far it's been on the ball with recording. Oh, while the zoom doesn't work while recording (bummer), the built-in microphone seemed to pick up things rather well. I fussed with the buttons while recording, and the clicks and taps on the camera body were picked up a little too good: keep a firm, unmoving grip and you should be good to go.

Internal memory is severely lacking. Like, three 12MP pictures and it's full. Be sure to pick up a decent SD card, and you won't have any problems. My 2-gig card can hold over six hundred pictures, or over thirty minutes of footage, and the higher memory SDs are pretty cheap.

I'm totally happy with my purchase. For 100 dollars, I got a camera that needs considerably less of a babying through than my others. That said, it will take a degree of time for a newbie to get the best pictures out of the camera, so an optimistic outlook is needed. For those who are in a hurry to snap something good, or the semi-veteran who doesn't feel like lugging around his bigger camera, this is a great point-and-shoot with some (eventually) foolproof features.

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I decided to purchase this camera at the last minute because I was going on a trip. I am totally pleased with my purchase! The camera is small and very portable! It takes great pictures in any light and is easy to operate! I didn't look at the directions once to set up or use the camera. I charged the battery once I got it, and so far so good! I recommend this camera for the budget consumer looking for a good camera for the price.

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I don't want to take my Nikon D-40 out all the time. I tried the Nikon S-230 (same price and size) and took it back next day. All I ask out of a $100 or so camera is that it at least be as good as my cell phone. Got this one a good old Wal Mart. Compared the same pictures I took quickly around the house with the little Nikon and this was noticeably better and I did not have the anti-shake option on.

The menu system on this is the most user friendly of anything I tried. I have not tried the video option nor care as I have a small HD camera.

Samsung SCD23 MiniDV Camcorder with 2.5 LCD

Wow! What a nice little digital "starter" camcorder for casual, fun digital video! As far as I can tell from extensive comparison shoopping, its feature set is just about unbeatable at this price point ...The unit weighs little more than a pound, but has a quality aura about it, with all the buttons and switches feeling quite solid and substantial. I already had several Samsung multimedia devices (MP3 player and DVD player) before my wife bought me this camcorder for Father's Day (thanks, sweetheart!), so I had a certain comfort level with the brand's overall excellent quality.

Here are a few things any prospective buyer should know: Regardless of what the folks at the Samsung spare parts store may tell you, the SC-D23 absolutely DOES accept a memory stick for use as a digital still camera (640 X 480 pixels max resolution); but no stick is included with the camera AND the maximum-capacity memory stick the camera will accept is 16 megs. Also, the USB photo-download capability works only with PCs; therefore, Macintosh computer users will need to purchase a USB memory-stick reader to download their still photos.

Overall the controls are easy to use and fall readily to hand. The LCD display is bright; and the camera's "night pix" capability is lots of fun--it uses infrared light emitted by the camera itself to illuminate objects up to about 10-15 feet away; so you can shoot close-up video in total darkness. The "night pix" video function may not be very practical for the average casual user, but it's a lot of fun to play with and looks very cool green and "Desert-Stormish." The video color quality overall is good, and the sound picked up by the built-in external stereo microphone is also good; although the mic does pick up a bit of the camera's own operational sounds (whirring and such). There is also an external microphone jack.

Pros with this unit: Low price, strong feature set (including built-in light, digital still camera capability, FireWire and USB interfaces, and several video-outs including S-video), good manufacturing quality, nice picture and sound. Cons: No memory stick included, memory stick capacity limited to 16 megabytes; no USB video download capability; no FireWire or S-video cables included, no USB photo download capability for Mac users.

My wife and I plan to use this camera for taking casual video -mostly of our grandchildren; overall, we are extremely pleased with the Samsung SC-D23.

For the price that you're being asked to pay for a digital video camera, this is a great buy! The camera itself works great and I'm very happy with it. There are however, a few details you really need to know before making a purchase.

1. The included battery's life, I found, is really short. If I got two hours out of it, I was doing hand-springs. I ordered an extended-life battery and have been more then OK since. It was very easy to find and didn't cost too much.

2. If you REALLY want to take full-advantage of having a camera that uses DV, you HAVE TO HAVE a computer that has a 1394 Fire-wire connection and the horsepower to operate it properly. I didn't have that at the time and spent about another hundred dollars in extra RAM and a fire-wire card. Just a word of caution too, transferring DV is a BEAST on system resources; make ABSOLUTELY SURE to check your system specs to make sure you can cover the workload.

2a. ... there really is no reason Samsung couldn't have included a fire-wire cable.

3. The camera's quality in low-light (ex. a candle-lit wedding dinner ... grrrr) is really suspect. It's astoundingly good when the lighting is good, but the video quality is really grainy when it isn't. The built-in light certainly helps, but only to a degree.

4. The camera won't recognize more then a 16 Mg memory stick for pictures. I went out and bought a 64 mg card and had to return it.

All that said though, this REALLY IS a great machine. Just realize before you purchase it that there are DEFINETLY extras that you're going to need to pick up to go with it. I didn't do my homework and had to do a ton of running around I could have saved mself. I'd hate to see someone make the same mistake.

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After owning this camcorder for only 14 mos. with less than 5 hrs. useage, the CCD element failed rendering it useless. Samsung customer support would only direct me to a local repair shop. With only a 1 yr. factory warranty ( mine was expired by 2 mos.), it cost me a whopping $197.85 to have it repaired making it a low cost camcorder with a very high price. Samsung doesn't seem to care as they don't stand behind their product.

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Wow! I bought this camera just before Thanksgiving to record some Holiday gatherings. I serously looked at about 20 different units and was torn between the Sony and the Samsung. The Sony has better low light performance but it is 30% more money. This unit is perfect for what I need. I took a video of my Mother making a family receipe in a low light kitchen, at night with only normal lighting (2 60 watt bulbs) and the detail was very good. The more light you have the better the picture but this is true of all cameras not just Samsung. Next we went driving arround looking for property to purchase on a cold partially cloudy day shooting video through the windows or hanging out the door. The detail was amazing. I shot video for over 1.5 hours before the battery died and am very happy with the results.

I bought a 64mg Lexar memory stick and can take up to 340 pictures at 320x240 pixels. These are not high resolution pictures but are good for web. You can also copy pictures from tape to the memory stick with a click of a button. This appears to be a much higher quailty picture. If you want to transfer pictures from the memory stick to your PC you can use the USB cable. If you want to transfer video you must use a Firewire card. Buy an Adaptec card unless you just like to figure out problems. This camera is easy to use and you can just put in a tape and start shooting but you need to read the manual and spend a good 2 hours playing with the unit before you get comfortable with all of the features.

Many of the problems I read about can be overcome by changing settings on the Camera for light levels etc. A solid product with features nobody else has at this price.

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While in record mode, standby... point camera at bright sun or bight light bulb at close distance ... It may take five minutes but my camera started working again... !!! Alleluia!! Seems I have to do this every time I use the camera, but I am happy that this works even though it is less than desirable...Samsung SCD23 seems has a common problem... I have used it infrequently for 3 yrs and It has worked fine until now. All of a sudden and for no reason at all, the LCD went blank and will not record any image. This is due to a faulty CCD??? Still plays tapes and records video... My childrens "hot Wheels" camcorder lasted better than this one!!!! My new baby is starting to walk and I...

Toshiba Camileo S20 Basic Full-HD Camcorder (Silver/Black)

I've seen mixed reviews, but I've been using this video camera for months now. It works great. I can choose what quality to record, including full HD, which is fabulous quality. Or smaller quality if I want to fit more hours on my SD card. I bought a 32GB memory chip, which gives me 8 hours + of recording. The still image isn't great, but the video is wonderful. No reservations. Buy this camera.

This camera seemed like a good buy. For only $80 or so you get a 1080p video camera. Also it has a 16 mp camera and not just a 5 mp camera like it says. at least in the menu you can choose 16 mp for the pictures

The camera feels pretty flimsy and whenever I shift my hand (even just slightly) it makes a really loud noise on the camera. The big kicker for this thing was the sound quality. I dont know if it was just my model but the sound always had a hiss to it, and that is why I returned it.

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great deal, much cheaper than anywhere else. comes with camera and usb cable only. takes pretty nice videos (audio is mono, but sounds okay). if you want to take 1080p vid you'll need to buy a tripod, but 720p works well by hand with stabilization function. recommended for the average person wanting to capture some memories.

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This is a good basic camera. I bought it for my stepson on sale for under $100. He has been using it for a while with no issues. The video quality looks perfect and the camera is very easy to use. One thing that I am not happy with is the audio. There are no filter settings so when it records, especially outside, you hear a lot of popping/hissing. Another thing is that this camera produces AVI video files. We tried editing on a MAC with iMovie 11 and it does not recognize the video files. On Windows they play fine in WMP and you can edit them in Windows Live Movie Maker but you need to download and install the K-Lite Codec pack with FFDSHOW for the video/audio to play properly. My stepson got tired of Windows Live Movie Maker to edit videos so we got him Sony Vega Movie 11. With all the codecs installed the video plays but the sound does not. It's not a problem with the software because we tried another camera and everything works OK. It's just the way this camera encodes the audio doesn't seem to be standard.

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excellent was the order the video camera is very well recorded worldwide recommend the videos 100% ok was what nesitaba

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Prolite 2.8X DSLR LCD Screen Viewfinder for Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark II, 7D & T1i, Nikon D90,

I bought this LCD Viewfinder for making videos on my Caon 7D and Panasonic GF1. It works very well for what it was intended: an LCD sun shade.

You can find other LCD viewfinders that look very simialr to this but priced between $100 and $180. There are a few reviews on different websites that claim that cheaper LCD viewfinders are exactly the same as the more expensive ones, I cant say for sure if they are, but this one is very well constructed and works perfectly.

This LCD viewfinder comes with and adhesive backed thin metal mount that attaches to your camera. The viewfinder has magnets that securely connect to the thin metal mount. The only problem with the metal mount is that it isn't exactly the same size as the LCD on my GF1 so you have to be careful when sticking it on. It does not block any information on the display if you position it properly.

The inside of the LCD viewfinder is lined with felt to minimize reflections.

I was worried that this did not have an adjustable diopter. I think I read somewhere where the diopter was a -1 to +4 fixed diopter. I'm not sure what that means, but I normally wear +1.25 reading glasses but I do not need them with this LCD viewfinder. I also read that you can pop out the diopter and replace it with a lens from some inexpensive reading glasses with a little work.

An added benefit of using a viewfinder like this is that it stabilizes the camera a lot when you are shooting video.

I'm very happy with this purchase!

I bought this for my T2i thinking that there was no reason to pay upwards of $375 for a "modified loupe" but maybe I was wrong. My only expectation was that the viewfinder would focus on the LCD screen (and stay attached to the camera) but for whatever reason, the focus is off. I do not wear glasses (though occasionally I do wear 1.25 reading glasses for small print books). It is as if the length of the loupe is about a quarter inch too short. I can overcome the problem by wearing a pair of 1.25 reading glasses but that becomes cumbersome. Just for the heck of it, I held a photo loupe on the LCD and it was sharp. Well, maybe it is me old age setting in poor eyesight encroaching but I really don't think so. An adjustable diopter might have resolved the problem but a quarter inch is a lot to make up!

The magnetic frame system works well enough and holds the viewfinder okay.

The eyepiece has some trouble staying on you will probably need to secure it with some rubber cement or something as it will occasionally fall off.

Unfortunately, there are not many solutions for the LCD viewfinder at a reasonable price. Unless Prolite comes out with something that can focus on the screen I would stay away from this one.

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I have a Canon T2i, and a Canon 7D. The frame that sticks to the DSLR's it's the reason why I gave this viewfinder only 3 stars. the frame sticks well with the Canon 7D but it's a different story for Canon T2i, because LCD screen for that DSLR is smaller and has a small sensor right on top of the screen and when I stick the frame on the T2i, it covers the sensor.

But other than that, it works great on my Canon 7D and protects the screen out in the sun from direct sun light.

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Same experience as James Cooper this is out of focus (by a wide margin) when mounted on the viewfinder. It would need to be about 1/2" taller to be able to focus properly. And since the lens is not adjustable, it's useless. I returned it.

Note if you look at the photo you might think it is adjustable, because of the way it appears to have a knurled focusing area below the eye-cup. But that is merely decorative; it doesn't focus.

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It works and for the price, its OK. I bought it to see how a viewfinder works attached to the back of a DSLR, before I invested much money in a higher quality one. Now I know what I want. What I have learned is that its a deal because its not made to pro standards. There isn't any diopter adjustment OK I expected that for the price, but one of the little magnets on the back (there are 6 of them) kept pulling off of the viewfinder and sticking to the metal plate that you attach to the camera. Finally it disappeared and now I'll have to either do without, or contact the company for a replacement. Then I'll have to figure out how to glue it back in.

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PhotoAmerica Alcohol & Ammonia Free Screen Cleaning Kit (Apple iPad, Apple iPad 2, iPod, iPod Touch

Bought this kit for cleaning LCD TV, but have used it also for laptops, tablet, and car's touch display. Haven't used the brush, which looks cheap, but the cleaning liquid and the microfiber cloth alone are worth the price. It gets greasy fingerprints out easily, yet gently.

I got a new LCD television and my nephew touched with his greasy paws! I tried to clean the screen with eyeglass cleaner, but it made a bigger mess of streaky film over half my screen (this eyeglass cleaner technique worked fine on other LCD's for years). I bought this because It was fairly inexpensive, came with the duster and a microfiber cloth.

I don't know if the screen is just never going to be a nice as it came out of the box, but this is close enough for me. I did notice some slight, and I can't stress enough about slight film barely noticeable (I'd say 98% original), but I'm not sure if it's user error, or just the nature of the screen or product. I don't care to clean my lcd everyday to figure it out.

Works better than perfect on glossy lcds on my laptop and netbook.

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This is some really Great Stuff!!

Not very expensive and it works fine on all kinds of LCD/LED screens.

If U get the chance, buy it.

No smell or mess...

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Worked well on my : Monitor , Tablet, Phone, TV , clean nice without strips, make sure you not spray to much , from my bad experiences I never spray on the screen , I do that on the Cloth then clean the screen , but before that I wipe the screen from dust . wash the cloth by hand with 1 drop of dishwasher when get dirty , if you wash in wash machine it will lose it micro function

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used it to clean the notebook. did the work nicely. no smell of alcohol or any remnants. nice thing to have it in ur closet for intermittent use.

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Canon EOS Rebel T4i Digital SLR Camera Body & EF-S 18-55mm IS II Lens with 75-300mm III Lens +

I've waited a long time to upgrade to a new camera, and this was the perfect bundle and couldn't be happier with this purchase. Obviously the camera is very nice, but the accessories that came with it are a must have. I ordered this on a Thursday, had it the next day. Very satisfied with this and highly recommend to anyone wanting to purchase a Canon T4i bundle kit.

I must say that I got full kit, missed none of the purchased devices, as soon as a camera in my work complies to perfection in quality and I can make in my social activities the best works to deliver to my clients. Congratulations to the proveesor your responsibility. Thank you.

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Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

I am a photographic and computer enthusiast and having these two elements come together is a delight for me. So, I have all the very expensive stuff, including KODAK's $20m commercial digital cameras. So, I know what quality is and how much it costs. Bottom-Line as starters, the DC280 makes great color shots with very suprising Hi-detail. The Advertisments say "good" for 8x10 photos, however, as a very picky guy, when you get past 5x7 print sizes, the pictures start to turn fuzzy. But the 5x7 prints are shockingly clear with brilliant colors. But, so what, how many prints does one make larger than 5x7 anyway. This camera is easy to use & small, and I carry it on vacation locations, when I don't want to carry my larger and heavier commercial camera. I was truly shocked at the excellent picture quality of the 280. ALSO, KODAK includes great software, so after a picture taking day/nite, one can easily connect to the yellow video plug on your TV (or Hotel TV) for a slide show of the days activities. I would recommend purchasing a 64MB memory card with the camera purchase, so you'll get plenty of picture opportunities (75+ shots) without having to worry about using up memory. In other words, since you can erase shots you don't like, take MANY, MANY shots and pick the best ones you like for printing or e-mailing. I bring my laptop with me on trips, so in the evening, I can copy the photo-files to the hard disk, and erase the camera memory card, in preparation for the next days photo activities. KODAK provides serial, USB cables, and software to accomplish this simply. Definitely do NOT buy a digital camera with less than 2,000,000 pixels. (The older models, presently having good sale prices, are technology of 2/3 years ago, and you'll wish you spent the extra money for this camera). Since KODAK has been the color business for 100 years, (well...50+years) its no surprise that they have created an electronic imager (the CCD Chip) with the BEST Color quality and detail. This is a must have, you'll not be dissappointed. If you have another few hundred dollars, check out the SONY or OLYMPUS dye-sublimation printers, which produce actual photo quality continuous tone prints up to 4x5 sizes; These printers are not dot-matrix's with all the little dots. The camera and the printer makes for a great combo family gift for under $2m, that anyone in the family can use without having to even turn on a computer, as the printer prints directly off the camera memory card. SO that you don't make yourself craze, and since its slightly different than a typical film point and shoot camera, be sure to read the instruciton booklet, before pushing all the buttons. The documentation KODAK gives you is very easy to understand, so take it slow when you open the Box for the first time. It's so intuitive to use, after the first 2 outings, you NOT need to keep going back to the booklets. JLW/991203.

For the money you just simply will not beat the performance of the Kodak DC280. I have had mine for a couple of months now, and it has literaly replaced my regular 35 mm camera. I love the convience of taking pictures then making any edits i need from my computer. The software is easy to install, and only has about a one hour learning curve to master. Very good and fast usb connection. With a fully charged set of NI-MH, AA batteries it gets fantastic long life. And the 2.0 Megapixel image is nothing less than photo film perfect, must be seen to belive. I also like the smart card memory media included, I have upgraded the 8 mb, to a 24 mb card, and on the 24 mb, I can snap over 100 photos in the best quality mode on the lower size setting, and 34 of the highest quality photos in the huge mega resolution setting. Another great feature is that this camera is very easy to use compared to the other brands I have tried. I did not even have to read the instructions, (though I would read them if I were a beginer). Try the Kodak DC280 out if your in the market for a fantastic digital camera!

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Although it sometimes feels like we're all still beta testing various digital imaging technologies, including digital cameras, products like the Kodak DC280 make me believe the "dark ages" might be coming to an end.

This is a good mid-range digital camera, perfect for those who want to capture images that will look very good on the Web. The biggest plus of the camera is image quality; this is the best camera in this price range that I tested, with two-megapixel resolution. Having quite a bit of hands-on experience with various Sony cameras, I and my partner were actually stunned by how clear the DC280's images were in a variety of lighting conditions.

There is very little to complain about in terms of interface and usability. I scanned the manual, and then just started using the DC280. The menu system and buttons are quite intuitive. One minor quibble is that one is pretty much forced to use the DC280's viewfinder left-eyed; otherwise the LCD screen smudge factor so common to digital camera will rear its ugly head. However, I use the LCD for the majority of my shooting, so this isn't a huge factor.

The DC280 uses a USB connection to transfer images to your computer. The camera mounts as if it were a hard drive, and one can preview large thumbnails of images before copying them over to your hard drive. While I was able to open the images directly into Photoshop, Fireworks couldn't get into the camera; this may have been a problem with how I have my file associations set up, however.

The camera comes with a number of features and extras. The bundled software, Adobe's PhotoDeluxe and Pagemill, are more than adequate for editing images and creating Web pages. Various simple visual effects and borders can be applied in-camera, and you can run a slide-show right out of the camera using the supplied video cable.

The DC280 includes four rechargeable AA batteries, a recharger, and four AA alkaline batteries. You can get started right out of the box. My camera sucked the alkalines dry after about 50 photos and a couple of downloads; I would suggest buying an extra set of rechargeables to carry around with you, and an AC adaptor.

This is not the perfect camera for all applications. For one thing, there are few manual controls on the camera for focus, aperture or shutter priority, and the optical zoom limited to 2X. This will mean that photo enthusiasts might want to look at something the next step up, such as the wacky-looking Nikon Coolpix 950. As others have reported, low-light shooting is not at the quality that one would hope for from a camera at this level.

All-in-all, the DC280 is an excellent camera for the price, perfect for Web photos.

Read Best Reviews of Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom Here

With this camera, you will get great colors on your screen. I tryed the same picture with the three different qualities and with all I got excellent pictures. It has all the basic features you might need in any camera. It has a good zoom, the 'physical zoom' is not that good, then I discovered the digital zoom which is great.

It consumes a lot of batteries, but you have more than enough with the rechargable batteries and of course, the battery charger included in the camera. I bought an additional charger because I never found that the camera came with its own, so don't buy another charger.

I'm more than satisfied with the 8MB flash card. It is true that you can only take 12 pictures with the highest resolution (1800x1600) and higest quality, but with standard resolution(800x600) and the medium quality you still have very good pictures and can get about 52 pictures, which is good for a weekend. If you have a long trip and don't have a pc to download the pictures, then you might consider another flash card.

BAD THINGS: It weights a little bit more than a traditional camera of the same size, but still, it's much better that other big cameras. It doesn't come with a camera bag. You have to buy it appart.

In summary, a great camera.

Want Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom Discount?

I finally upgraded from my original 2 year old Digital Camera a Casio 5000SX that was great except for a poorly designed battery door. The Kodak DC280 Zoom is better in every category clarity, features, memory capability, analog zoom, except for one the delay in the time from pressing the shutter until it snaps the picture. Keep in mind, that the processing time is quite fast the Kodak is ready to take your next picture quite quickly, thanks to some in-memory processing, but the delay from when you click the button until the action is captured is quite lengthy. I find it nearly impossible to get good action shots with this camera. For example, I take quite a few pictures of sand volleyball on my weekends. Only the highest flyers the guys that can jump out of the sand and hang like Vince Carter were captured in the air, and only with me clicking the shutter button at least 2-3 seconds *before* they jumped. However, if you don't have to take a lot of action shots, well this this is an excellent camera for the money for both amateur and professional alike.