Kodak DC3600 Digital Camera

In Brief

Simple enough for anyone, the Kodak DC3600 makes pictures good enough for all but the most demanding users. It comes with a docking tray that you keep connected to your PC or Mac. To upload pictures to your computer, just place the camera in the tray and press a button. Kodak’s software does the rest. And the camera recharges as it sits in the tray. If you need a longer zoom, or higher resolution, Kodak (and many others) makes more powerful cameras.

Price

$399.95

Eastman Kodak
Rochester, N.Y.

Competition

It’s a crowded field. Argus, Canon, Epson, Fuji, Hewlett-Packard, Logitech, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba are among the better-known names.

Key Specs

4Image resolution:
2.2 megapixels

4Lens:
35-70 mm f/3.3-4.5 (35 mm equivalent), 30 mm threads, built-in sliding cover

4Zoom:
2x optical, 3x digital

4Focus distance:
0.5 m (1.6 ft.) to infinity, close-up mode 28-60 cm (10-24 in.)

4Exposure control:
Automatic; continuous automatic exposure during movie capture shutter speed 1⁄8 to 1⁄1200 second

4ISO equivalent:
100, 200 (automatic)

4Flash range:
0.5-3.2 m (1.6-10.5 ft.)

4Flash modes: off, automatic, fill, red-eye reduction

4Image quality modes:
Best - enlargement, up to 8" x 10" (25 x 20cm);
Good - snapshot/email, up to 4" x 6" (15 x 10cm)

4File format: JPEG

digital imaging

Kodak DC3600 Digital Camera

Rating:

By Patrick McQuillan

College is hard enough, so I sure don’t want to work any harder than I absolutely have to when it comes to setting up and using my digital camera. And uploading pictures has to be really simple.

Sitting in our dorm room, my roommates Sean B., Peck, and Sully decided we wanted a camera that’s easy to use and really easy to hook up to our laptop PCs. And we didn’t want to spend a ton of money, either. That’s why we chose the Kodak DX3600. We can transfer and share pictures with the touch of a button, thanks to Kodak’s EasyShare technology.

When you place the camera in the dock, your pictures are automatically uploaded to your computer and the camera’s battery is recharged

The EasyShare system features a camera dock and two digital camera models—the DX3500 and the DX3600 Zoom (which we tested). The camera dock connects to the PC (or Mac). It addresses two my pet peeves with digital cameras: easy connection and charging the battery.

When you place the camera in the dock, your pictures are automatically uploaded to your computer and the dock recharges the camera’s battery pack. The EasyShare system also includes software that allows you to connect to the Internet so you can to e-mail or print pictures.

The camera and dock are one part of the EasyShare system. The other part is Kodak’s Picture Software, the brains behind picture sharing. Several features are included.

Fast Picture Transfer: Press a button and the camera dock automatically transfers the pictures to your computer within seconds. You don’t have to plug a cable into the camera or load a memory card into a reading device.
Easy Picture Sharing: The Kodak Picture Software incorporated into the EasyShare system lets you simply e-mail or print your favorite pictures. A few more clicks, and you can also edit and enhance them.
Simple Picture Management: EasyShare lets you organize your pictures in folder by date, name or event. It also lets you delete pictures from the camera after they are transferred to a computer. That makes your camera ready for taking more pictures.
Convenient Battery Recharging: The camera gets a recharge every time you put it in the dock. A full charge takes about 2.5 hours.

We had a great time using the DX3600. We were all over the campus, indoors and out, taking pictures that some parents should never see. The quality was really good, but once in a while we’d see someone with “redeye.” That’s caused by the flash reflecting off the blood-rich retina of the eyeball. Or maybe they just had too much to drink.

We printed a bunch of pictures on 4" x 6" photo paper, and they looked great. But what we usually do is share the pictures via e-mail or by posting them on our own Web sites.

To me and my roommates, the idea of being able to take pictures and within seconds share them around the world is pretty powerful. I guess it’s not like the old days when you had to bring negatives to the photo shop and wait a week for reprints. Thank goodness.

Anyway, we all liked the Kodak DX3600. I wish each of us had one. Hey Kodak, are you listening?<

Yeas & Nays

Yea:

4Great-looking pictures

4Easy uploading to PC

4Easy photo sharing

4No need to plug cable into the camera

4Just place camera in the dock, software does the rest

Nay:

4Longer zoom lens would be nice

4ISO 200 is good; 400 and 800 would be better for sports

Pixelmania!!!

How many pixels are enough? Most entry-level cameras shoot at 2.1 megapixels (that’s 2.1 million pixels), good enough for snapshots. For more demanding work, or where you’ll be cropping pictures to use only a small portion of the image, you’ll want to consider a 3.3 megapixel camera. Olympus and Sony offer 5 megapixel cameras, but these are strictly high-end offerings.

Got Memory?

Most digital cameras store pictures on a memory card. Naturally, the greater the capacity, the more pictures it can hold. Cards holding 128 Mbytes or 256 Mbytes are a great value and have dropped in price over the past two years.
Carry a couple in your pocket and you’ll have more than enough for hundreds of pictures. And it’s a lot easier to carry than rolls of film.