Kodak DC290 review

[Unknown user 84208]

After 15,000 photos and 16 months of usage I have to tell that this camera produces wonderful pictures. When it functions at all and the subject is waiting an eternity for the camera to boot (that it sometimes refuses to do at all!!!) and another 2-3 seconds to exponate. Then of course the image will be processed for an other eternity. You will not believe how many pictures I have lost due to its slowness. An other problem is its constant hangup, usually with the buffer full (loss of four more pictures). I have a huge quantity of unsharp pictures - no visible reason!!! - where the autofocus resuses to do anything sensible and fuzzy pictures at low light levels. But if you have sunshine on full throttle and your subject is not moving (preferably dead) you will produce the best pictures with wonderful colours and contrasts. Generally I develop 10*15 cm photos that are easy to confuse with that of mid-range analogue cameras. One more good point is the sturdiness. The camera has survived a 20 km/h fall to ice without any injuries. It is easy to use, absolutely handy and ergonomic in design.

Problems:

* slow to boot (8-40 sec)
* slow to shot (2-3 sec)
* slow to process pictures (oo)
* slow to show pictures
* needs to process picture to show for audio recordings (40-60 sec!)
* hangs constantly
* 80% performance of autofocus
* very fuzzy pictures
* menu system is slow to handle