Product Reviews

The Kodak DC260 Zoom camera is one of a new breed of digital cameras intended to bridge the still substantial gap between traditional and digital photography.

To anyone used to a traditional 35mm SLR camera, the DC260 will feel comfortable. It's solid with a well-designed grip, and the weight is about right for a camera. It also boasts a zoom lens with quoted focal lengths, and a number of other photographer-friendly features. The bundled 8Mb memory card holds almost 100 images at the lowest resolution, and can be swapped out for fresh cards when full. It's also one of a small but growing number of 'megapixel' digital cameras, capable of delivering more than one million pixels per image - the DC260 reaches 1.6 million pixels at its highest resolution.

However, some aspects of the Kodak DC260 may not be to everyone's liking. At the rear, the viewfinder is located on the extreme left of the camera body, and its relatively small size can make it difficult to use. Light enters the viewfinder directly above the lens. For close work this helps reduce the accuracy problems usually associated with rangefinder cameras.

Some of the DC260's idiosyncrasies can be irritating. There's a distinct delay between turning the camera on and being able to take a picture, largely caused by the lens system expanding to its operating size. There's also a slight delay when taking a picture which means action shots aren't always caught properly, although many people will get used to this. When the camera is turned off, the zoom lens resets itself to a moderate wide-angle setting. This can be frustrating if you generally use a longer zoom setting, although correcting this each time just involves flicking the zoom switch.

When a shot is taken there's an amusingly accurate 'ker-chunk' sound normally associated with 35mm SLR cameras. As digital cameras are virtually silent, this is obviously designed to make those used to more traditional cameras feel at home, but those who find it annoying can turn the volume down via a thumbwheel control. The support for sound goes further than this, however, as individual images can be given voice annotations via a separate Record button and built-in microphone. This can be useful for adding simple notes to shots as memory joggers, although you may get strange looks if you're seen talking to your camera.

The DC260 includes some subtle touches for which, although relatively minor, Kodak should be congratulated. For instance, when you take a photo the LCD display briefly shows the image - just long enough to check that it worked properly - then goes

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dark again. In addition, portrait-oriented shots are automatically rotated in-camera both for the built-in LCD display and in exported image files.

The Kodak Ektanar zoom lens is rated as a 38mm to 115mm equivalent (in 35mm camera terms), which equates to a 3x zoom, and the aperture equivalent is f3 to f4.7. The sensitivity is equivalent to ISO 100 film, and the different resolutions cover 768 x 512, 1152 x 768 and a quite impressive 1536 x 1024 pixels.

You can set the built-in flash unit to kick in automatically as required, act as a fill flash, work in the red-eye-reducing 'stutter' mode, or you can turn it off completely. In keeping with Kodak's desire to capture the more discerning photographer, the DC260 can also connect and sync to an external flash unit via an industry-standard flash socket.

Auto exposure can also be controlled to a reasonable degree, with steps from -2.0 to +2.0 exposure compensation provided in 0.5 step increments. This is a feature that's rarely found in digital cameras, and indicates Kodak's desire to lift digital photography to where more professional users will take it seriously. These features, combined with the standard tripod mounting socket in the camera's base, open up some interesting possibilities for using the Kodak DC260 in studio settings.

Battery life is a constant worry for digital camera users, and can virtually negate the cost savings of avoiding traditional film developing and printing. The DC260 shows three different battery states: full, low and virtually empty, which, although technically adequate, is a little uninformative. We had some battery problems which may indicate difficulties using the camera in chilly conditions: during one session the camera kept powering down without warning, and photographs weren't recorded properly, or at all. However, in better conditions, the camera behaved more reliably.

The camera comes with an auto-sensing power adaptor and a number of power cable connectors to fit most power sockets around the world. The video-out feature can be switched between NTSC and PAL for use with most video display devices, and pictures can be organised into different 'albums' for grouped, sorted playback. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test the final image quality as the review camera came with incorrect software and cables.

The standard camera kit includes PC software for accessing the camera directly, but although a Photoshop plug-in is included, Mac users appear to have to use a separate SCSI card reader to access photographs. iMac owners will be interested to note that there's a USB cable supplied with the standard kit, but there were no Mac drivers available at the time of writing.

Overall, the Kodak DC260 is a mixed bag. At £899, it's certainly not a low-end device. Some of the features it offers are excellent, but others are less attractive. The lack of decent Mac support is painfully crippling, particularly in a camera apparently aimed at the more professional end of the market. It's one of the few cameras to offer critical photographers a viable way into the digital photography age, but it needs to be improved before it could be seen as a good buy.