Oct
23
2011
3

The Kodak EasyShare Mini Review

0900688a80f837e2 EKN037308 MINI M200 red style 645x370

Kodak easyshare fjortis camera

The best budget camera around..


As Kodak was nice enough to send me a testing example of their new easyshare mini im going to make a very thorough review.
I knew from the unboxing that this camera was made for portability, social sharing and ease of use. It fulfills all of these, my first impression was that this is a very small camera. In most cases small cameras aren’t all that good, especially not the ones that are made to be easy to use. But from the first picture i realized that Kodak did not compromise quality for affordability. The camera has a function called Smart capture, what that is is basically an autopilot for cameras. It auto focuses, selects ISO and other values to make for the best picture in the shortest time without need for user interaction. Now if you are more of the advanced user type that likes to fiddle with settings to make for a unique photograph thats also very much possible. With the click of a button you can select different user modes, turn off flash, zoom and even set a picture to be shared to various social networks, eg. Facebook, twitter and others.

Click to enlarge

kodak easy share m200 mini QRkodak easy share backside back photo

As i said before this camera is made to be easy to understand and to share to social networks. There are other cameras like this that can share to the Internet with ease, but Kodak has covered a bunch of social networks which is great. Take the Flip camera for example, it could only share to youtube, while the easyshare mini can share to very many websites and even email your pictures or videos to people.

What you do is install a very nifty application on your computer and then it automatically uploads images marked for sharing to a social network of choice.

For only 99$ this 10MP camera is more than price-worth, its perfect for young people who want to bring a camera everywhere they go, or for people that travel a lot. I had this camera in my backpack for about a week and its awesome to be able to just take it out and snap a picture real fast. The battery time was also quite good, like i said a week of taking pictures on and off and then it recharged incredibly quickly.

It was however as all devices not flawless. The cons i could make out are first of all, it is sturdy and looks good but the feel is still very plastic and almost cheap. Then theres taking pictures in bad light, not this cameras strong side.. As soon as you didn’t have direct light picture became quite shaky and required many tries. But you can always use the flash as you know.

Well still my bottom-line for this camera is for 99$ what are you waiting for? I mean this is truly a camera to bring everywhere, and it most definitely takes better pictures than a mobile phone camera.

Pros

  • Inexpensive
  • Great pictures in good light
  • Social sharing ability
  • Looks good>/li>
  • Very portable
  • mirror on the front so you can take pictures of yourself and friends
  • fast recharge and good battery time>/li>

Cons

  • Bad image stabilization
  • Poor lowlight pictures
  • Feels plasticy

Specifications

Sensor type

1 / 3–type CCD
CCD total pixels

10.4 MP (3744 × 2790)
Effective pixels

10 MP (3672 × 2760)
Zoom

3X optical, 5X advanced digital
Focal length

29–87 mm (35 mm equiv.), wide-angle
Image stabilization

still: no, video: digital
Lens protection

built-in mechanical lens cover
Shutter speed

Smart Capture mode: 1/4–1/1400 sec.
long time exposure mode: 0.5–8 sec.

Display

2.5 in. 230K TFT color LCD
Storage

32 MB internal memory[1]available, SD/SDHC card expansion slot
Focus system

TTL-AF, multi-zone, center-zone, face priority
Focus range

Smart Capture mode: (wide) 0.5 m (1.6 ft)–infinity, (tele) 0.8 m (2.6 ft)—infinity
close-up mode: (wide) 0.05–0.8 m (1.9 in.–2.6 ft), (tele) 0.5–1.0 m (1.6–3.3 ft)

Focus control

continuous, single
Focus modes

normal, macro, infinity
Face Detection

yes
Face Recognition

yes
ISO sensitivity

auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000
Compensation

±2.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps
AE (Auto Exposure) lock

when shutter button is depressed 1/2-way to S1
White balance

Smart Capture mode: auto
P mode: selectable auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade

Flash range

(wide) 0.3–3.5 m (11.8 in.–11.5 ft)
(tele) 0.5–2.0 m (1.6–6.6 ft) at ISO 400 in auto

Flash mode

auto, fill, red-eye reduction, off
Shooting modes (still)
Smart Capture

yes
Scene modes

portrait, sport, landscape, close-up, sunset, backlight, candlelight, children, bright, fireworks, self-portrait, night portrait, night landscape, blur reduction, high ISO, panorama
Self-timer

self-timer (2 sec./10 sec., 2-shots), burst maximum 3 shots
Still capture/review
Still format

JPEG/EXIF v2.3
Picture size

10 MP (3640 × 2736)—4:3
9 MP (3640 × 2440)—3:2
7 MP (3640 × 2056)—16:9
6 MP (2880 × 2160)—4:3
3 MP (2048 × 1536)—4:3

Color modes

vivid, full, and basic color; black and white; sepia
Sharpness

sharp, normal (default), soft
Orientation sensor

no
Internal Memory

yes
Review options

viewing: Face Recognition (date, face), single-up, multi-up/ thumbnails, magnify, rotate pictures, fast scroll, multi-select, delete, undo-delete, slide show; tagging: Share, print, e-mail, favorite, keyword, keyboard input
Editing

crop, KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology (if not applied during capture), red-eye correction, date stamp, copy
Video capture/review
Format

Motion JPEG, AVI 2.0 with audio recording during capture
Quality

VGA (4:3), 640 × 480 @ 30 fps
Auto focus

continuous AE
Zoom during video

digital zoom
Image stabilization

digital
Microphone

yes–monaural
Speaker

yes–monaural
Length

VGA: < 2 GB Review options FF, rewind, pause, by frame, volume control Editing make picture, trim, 9-up action print, copy Share Share menu KODAK Gallery, KODAK PULSE Digital Frame[2], FACEBOOK, FLICKR, YouTube, TWITTER, ORKUT, YANDEX, KAIXIN001 Sites[3], and e-mail Customization Custom settings Share destinations, LCD brightness, camera volume, date & time, video out, language, reset camera, format, KODAK Camera Software, about Physical specifications I/O interface A/V output (NTSC or PAL selectable), digital USB 2.0 high speed Power KODAK Rechargeable Li-ion Battery KLIC-7006, USB/AC adapter for in-camera battery charging Dedicated buttons power, shutter, flash, mode, zoom, review, menu, 5-way controller, delete Share, info Tripod mount ¼ in. standard Dimensions W × H × D: 3.4 × 2.0 × 0.7 in. Weight 3.5 oz with in-box battery and memory card