Kodak EasyShare Mini M200 review

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Verdict:

Image quality is basic at best, but the tiny dimensions and low price mean it still holds some appeal for younger photographers.

Review Date: 19 May 2011

Price when reviewed: £72

Supplier: http://www.amazon.co.uk

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

The EasyShare Mini lives up to its name in more ways than one. It's genuinely tiny, measuring about a centimetre shorter and narrower than most compact cameras. Children will love it, which is just as well because the fiddly buttons don't suit big fingers. The 2.5in screen is small by today's standards but it's as big as the camera can accommodate. We're impressed to see that it has the same 230,000-pixel resolution as bigger screens. The price is decidedly small, too, so parents won't feel too worried about handing it over to the kids.

The plastic shell feels reasonably durable, although the exposed USB socket is liable to gather dirt. There's a little mirror on the front to help with self-portraits – just the thing for updating a Facebook profile picture. The meagre 3x zoom range is a little disappointing but it starts at a reasonably wide-angle 29mm equivalent focal length, so a couple of friends can squeeze into those self-portraits too.

Performance was surprisingly fast, taking just 1.6 seconds between shots, although it slowed to a less remarkable 2.3 seconds after five shots. Flash-lit shots were between four and eight seconds apart, but the camera filled the gaps with extra shots without the flash – an unorthodox approach that makes some sense. The photographic options could be more plentiful and quicker to navigate, but this isn't much of an issue on a point-and-shoot camera. A dedicated video record button would have been welcome, though. Then again, the basic VGA resolution and noisy soundtrack aren't up to much.

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