Kodak EZ200 review

It's tiny, it's cheap, it takes both single shots and movies.

Have we found our winner already?

Image quality

Oh dear. Anyone who buys the EZ200 as a digital still camera is going to be very disappointed. The pictures are simply too blurry to be useful for anything, and that's even taking into account the fact that many users won't be particularly demanding.

It's true that the EZ200 offers a resolution of 640x480 pixels, but that doesn't translate into a usable 640x480 image. In reality, you need to downsize your pics to 240x120, say, and run a sharpness filter over them to produce an image that looks even half-way crisp.

On the plus side, the minimal exposure controls do handle a fair variety of lighting conditions.

Features

How do you describe the EZ200's features? There aren't any. Not even a flash! You just look through the wonderfully clear optical viewfinder at the back, press the shutter button and the camera takes the picture. You check the little status LCD on top to see how many pictures you've taken, and that's about it.

Exposure is automatic, and the lens is a fixed-focus unit that clicks into a fixed 'infinity' position when you use it away from your PC. The fixed internal memory is a bit of a nuisance if you'd set your heart on a card drive, but the USB connection is a doddle to set up and the 4Mb internal capacity is ample.

Overall

If you haven't much cash, a Webcam that doubles as an ordinary still camera is very tempting. And the EZ200's 640x320 resolution sounds fine for most Web and on-screen use, doesn't it? True, the movie mode is rather neat, but for still photos, the Kodak's charming simplicity is - alas - the only thing it has going for it, because the picture quality is dreadful.

Author: Rod Lawton