Kodak C643 Review

The Kodak EasyShare C643 combines a six megapixel CCD imager and a Kodak-branded 3x optical zoom lens with a fairly standard 36 - 108mm equivalent focal range. For framing images, there's both a 1.8" LCD display and a real-image optical viewfinder - an increasingly rare option these days and one that adds a good degree of versatility, letting you get the shot when you can't make out the LCD in bright sunlight, or save battery life by disabling the LCD when accurate framing isn't vital. Images are stored on Secure Digital / MultiMediaCards, or in 28MB of internal memory.

The Kodak C643 has 13 scene modes to help beginners achieve the results they're looking for without the need to understand subtleties like shutter speeds, apertures and the like. The C643 determines exposures with a center-weighted TTL metering system, and offers 2.0EV of exposure compensation in 1/2EV increments. Four white balance settings are available including an auto mode, and ISO sensitivity is controlled automatically or manually, ranging from 80 to 400. The EasyShare C643 also offers a movie mode, capturing VGA or QVGA clips with audio, at a framerate of 30 fps using MPEG4 compression - which offers higher quality and better compression than the MotionJPEG compression used in most cameras.

Images and movies captured on the Kodak C643 are transferred to your computer over a USB 2.0 Full Speed connection, rather slower than the USB 2.0 High Speed connections offered on many cameras these days. Power comes from two standard AA batteries - either alkaline or lithium disposables, or NiMH rechargeables. List pricing for the Kodak EasyShare C643 is set at $229.