A review of the Kodak Easyshare C663 digital camera
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| Features | ||||
| Large images can be produced with the Kodak C663 thanks to the 6.1 mega pixels, even up to 20x30” (50x75cm). Zooming in to your subject with the 3x optical zoom is simple and so effective with the Kodak Schneider lens. The Kodak C663 is the first to include the Kodak Perfect Touch technology which claims to ‘improve the images by altering the dynamic range to boost dark areas and bring out shadow details’. The C663 has a full manual mode which is pretty rare on a digital camera these days but we think it’s quite important so you can vary the shutter speed and aperture. The view finder hasn’t been removed on the C663 which is a great power saving bonus and in some bright lights we found the LCD screen a bit difficult see so the viewfinder was essential. The 2.5” LCD screen, with a resolution of only 115,000 pixels, is bright enough in most conditions, but not as good as others we’ve seen, however you can zoom in on images up to 8x so you can zoom in to check the focus of an image before you print it. There are loads of scene modes to choose from, accessed through the mode dial on top ranging from flower to party and some modes will automatically disable the flash which was impressive, saved a lot of fiddling about. On the mode dial Kodak have preset the most used modes being landscape and macro which automatically set the camera when chosen. | ||||
| Performance | ||||
| Very similar to the other c-series models from Kodak, the Kodak C663 is so easy to use, you could give it to your 5 year old kid or 80 year old Granny and they would get along with it just fine. There are many examples that display the ease of use on the C663 such as the shortcut buttons, mode dial, red-eye reduction, and the on screen menu. The menu is laid out very clearly and logically and everything is explained fully so there is no confusion, the paper manual stayed in the box with a few exceptions. The image is shown behind the menu and the most commonly used option are the first you come to with the navigation joystick being very easy to use too. The battery life of the camera fared quite average with us managing to get around 260 from the included lithium rechargeable battery. Kodak recommend lithium over alkaline but it does also take 2 AA as well as the rechargeable kind which is quite handy if it runs flat, you can whip in your AA’s. The images we achieved were of a high standard with true, bright colours and minimal digital noise. The Perfect Touch technology did improve underexposed images and displays them on screen side by side with the original and you can see an obvious difference. As, we mentioned in the intro, Kodak claim to do these improvement s at the touch of a button, but it was more like 8 buttons as the feature was well hidden in the menu. A very similar process to Photoshop. By no means is the Kodak C663 a quick camera as it took nearly 5 seconds to start up and get ready for the first shot with an annoying Kodak logo on the LCD which, even when looking through the manual and on screen menu, we couldn’t remove. | ||||
| What's In The Box? | ||||
| Kodak EasyShare C663 digital camera. • Wrist strap. • Getting started kit with software CD-ROM. • Kodak NiMH rechargeable battery pack. • USB cable. • A/V cable. • Plastic camera dock insert. • Operating manual and registration card | ||||
| Overall Opinion | ||||
| The Kodak Easyshare C663 is a very easy to use camera which could do with a bit updating in the looks department. All features are pretty average and we think that it is a little expensive for what it offers. There are many other C series models by Kodak that are just as good and a bit cheaper. | ||||
| By Hayley Malyon |
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Pros + Perfect Touch technology + 6.1 mega pixels + Good clear 2.5” LCD + Good manual controls + Good battery life |
Cons - No image stabilisation - No manual focus - Old fashioned appearance |
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Picture Quality 8/10
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Battery Life 8/10
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Setup Simplicity 9/10
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Build Quality 8/10
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Ease of Use 10/10
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Overall Rating 
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7/12/2006
at 10:55:45am
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