Panasonic KXL-600A-N review

Digital cameras have been around for a while but they're not exactly challenging the dominance of 'normal' cameras at the moment.

This is due to a number of factors, cost and image quality being the chief culprits. The Panasonic CoolShot KXL-600A-N camera, priced at just £255 (£300), while not as cheap as a 35mm compact, is certainly a lot more affordable than earlier digitals.

The Panasonic is well-equipped and comes complete with a serial cable which allows shots to be downloaded to your PC where the images can then be viewed, manipulated and saved in JPEG, BMP or TIFF formats. The CoolShot stores the pictures on a 2Mb compact memory card and because photos are saved in JPEG format (a space-efficient way of storing photographic images), this is sufficient for 24 shots at 640x480 resolution or 96 at the lower 320x240 resolution. In both cases shots are saved in 16.7m colours. A PC Card adapter is included that the memory card can be fitted into so images can be read directly by a notebook.

The storage capacity of the CoolShot is very good for the price and the unit is extremely neat. It weighs just 140gms

(without batteries) and is small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. There's a small LCD status panel which gives a range of information, such as how many shots you have left, together with the status of the four AAA size batteries.

If you need to know immediately if your shots are any good, you can view them on the optional 1.8in colour LCD display or connect the camera to any TV with a Video In jack. You can then opt to delete selected shots or the entire contents of the memory card.

The CoolShot is a budget camera and one of the compromises that Panasonic has made is the omission of a flash. A small green LED flashes when there's too much or too little light, which at least stops you from wasting time lining up shots. This happens a lot when the subject is in shadow; this is where fill-in flash would be so useful. That said, with enough artificial light you can shoot indoor and outdoor shots without a problem.

To get up close to your subject the CoolShot offers three focus modes, which means you can shoot objects as little as 13cm away.

The actual picture quality was acceptable, although the colour vibrancy was not as good as you'd get with a traditional camera. You also lose some of the sharpness because the JPEG format loses some pixel information in order to keep the file size small. This probably won't bother people who want to keep the images electronic, for inclusion in Web sites for instance, but it may put off hardcore 35mm fans.

Having said that, the CoolShot still takes decent pictures. It goes without saying that a normal 35mm compact camera is far cheaper. But a digital camera does offer cheap running costs (especially if you use rechargeable batteries) and instant 'development'. When you bear in mind that at least 50% of processed films are made up of shots that aren't much cop, the ability to only keep the ones you like is very useful. It also represents a step forward from the Casio QV-10 we reviewed in Issue 62 (July 96), with its ability to take photos at twice the Casio's resolution.