Product Reviews

Kodak claims the DC200 is a breakthrough in the professional digital camera market - an entry-level device capable of capturing professional quality images at resolutions up to 1152 x 864 pixels.

It offers very good results at a comparatively low price, although £449 can no longer be considered entry-level, and only in the broadest sense is the output quality 'professional'. However, it's attractive for anyone looking for a little more than the standard 640 x 480 pixel resolution.

The DC200 looks and feels like a normal compact camera - with a few exceptions. One of these is the 45mm colour LCD on the rear of the case. This is for previewing pictures, reviewing captured images and selecting options from the menu of preferences. Next to the LCD is a thumbwheel so you can move between capture, review, connect and preference modes quickly and easily. This works well, although the layout of the options could have been better thought out.

Before capturing any images, you have to select the resolution, quality and file format (JPEG or Flash pix) that you want. This is frustrating because the preferences and capture selections are at opposite ends of the thumbwheel.

There are two options for resolution and three for quality. These dictate the quality of the final image and the number of images which can be stored on the camera. The model we tested came with a 2Mb Compact Flash card which stored 29 images at the lowest quality and resolution settings and six images at the highest settings. The DC200 will ship with a 4Mb Compact Flash card as standard. Another LCD display on top of the camera provides information on the quality and resolution settings, the number of pictures remaining, battery status, whether the self-timer is switched on, if a memory card is installed, and the status of the flash and

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The camera is very simple to operate. There's a power switch on the top-right of the case, just behind the large black button which takes the pictures. Once the preferences have been set, it's simply a matter of deciding whether to preview the picture using the viewfinder or the LCD display. Like all cameras of this type, what you see through the viewfinder is slightly different from the image captured by the lens, due to its positioning above and to the right of the lens. This means the LCD display gives a more accurate preview, particularly for close-ups. But using the LCD rapidly reduces battery life, so it's a trade-off.

Once captured, images can be viewed on the LCD and deleted if required. Battery life is a major restriction on the camera's usage. The DC200 takes standard AA batteries, and four are supplied as standard. But these last no time at all, and if you want to take more than 12 photos at a time, using the LCD to preview each one, you'll need a spare set of batteries. It would have been useful if Kodak had provided some kind of rechargeable battery unit. There is a socket to connect a DC mains lead, but the lead is not supplied with the camera, so unless you buy one separately, you'll have to use the batteries when downloading pictures to your Mac.

Downloading is carried out using a serial cable and Kodak's PictureView software, which takes the form of either a Photoshop plug-in or a standalone application. The software is straightforward to use and works well. You can download all the images or select just the ones you want. If all the connections are functioning and the preferences have been set correctly, downloading should be swift.

The images captured are of a high quality, with none of the artefacting often associated with digital cameras. Pictures taken at the highest resolution and quality setting are bright and sharp.

All in all, the DC200 is a decent camera which takes high-quality pictures. Its big brother, the DC210, has macro and zoom facilities, and it would have been a big improvement if Kodak had included the macro on the DC200.

The digital camera market is constantly expanding, and it's no easy task to make a device stand out from its competition. But if you want a basic camera that can take high-resolution pictures and you're prepared to fork out £500, you could do a lot worse than the Kodak DC200.