Digital Trends

Kodak EasyShare One October 31st, 2005 | by David Elrich

The EasyShare One hardly looks to be dancing on technology’s bleeding edge. When off, it’s about the size of a deck of cards (4.1 x 2.5 x 1, WHD, in inches) and weighs 9 ounces loaded with a lithium ion battery and SD card. When closed it looks like a silvery bar (front and rear) with white plastic accents on the edges. However, when you flip open the LCD panel, things start to get interesting. The camera powers up and the screens jumps to life in about three seconds while the 3x Schneider Kreuznach optical zoom lens extends from the camera body if you’re in the capture mode (there’s a built-in lens cover). Controls for capture/playback are on the side of the LCD as is on/off for the onscreen displays. The lens translates to 36-108mm in 35mm terms, the typical point-and-shoot range. (Total “boot up” time is around seven seconds, hardly the speediest digicam on the block.) Now you have a good not great 4MP camera in your hands and you can easily frame your shots and replay them on the high-quality (230K pixel) touch screen. 

There are just a few controls on the right side of the screen including the wide-tele rocker switch, Menu, Share, Back and Delete keys as well as a four-way controller with an OK button. There’s really nothing unusual here. The fun begins when you take the stylus out of its holder near the shutter key. With it you tap on the screen to access the major settings of the camera. By tapping on the flash icon you can adjust its setting (auto, red-eye, fill, off). You change the brightness of the screen by hitting a sun icon. On the bottom left of the screen is the Auto icon. Tap here and you have access to 16 different scene modes, each with its own description and a sample image. This is really wonderful for photographers of all levels and Kodak should be commended for it. When you press the Menu button another raft of options await. On the capture side, there are the usual choices for resolution (but no compression options), white balance, ISO (Auto, 80-400), type of focus, exposure metering and so on. This is all fairly standard with no surprises for anyone who has ever used a digicam before.

Tap the “Contact” option and you’re guided by a helpful menu to add a series of names and email addresses to share your photos. A virtual keyboard pops up and you enter the information with the stylus. It’s very, very simple. You can also set a group to email just like using Outlook Express. Now realize this is not a Blackberry-type device that lets you send/receive emails anywhere or anytime. Here they all go through the EasyShare Gallery web site. And that means you and your friends have to sign up with the service. This isn’t onerous since there are no fees but you definitely have to become part of the Kodak family to share this way.    

Kodak helpfully supplies a “Start Here” guide and it’s absolutely imperative you read the instructions, following them step by step. No computer machismo please; this is Wi-Fi and one wrong step and you’re screwed. Having spent many miserable hours working with wireless routers, believe me this is true. Wi-Fi reminds me of the early days of modems and the Internet when every step was a struggle until manufacturers finally woke up to the fact consumers just wanted to go online and created simple wizards. Perhaps the brainiacs at Cisco/Linksys will realize this some day. If I’m never asked again about SSID settings or TCP/IP protocols during an install I’ll be a happy camper. Anyway back to the EasyShare One…

The camera kit is very solid. You get the Wi-Fi card, two lithium ion batteries, A/V and USB cables, a fairly attractive leather case, Kodak EasyShare 5.1 software, wrist strap and a plastic insert so you can place it on an optional Printer Dock Series 3 dye sub printer. You won’t find an SD card in the box, given there’s so much onboard storage. As always, I recommend a hefty, high-speed card. There’s also a printed tri-language owner’s manual (111 pages in English), a CD ROM with the manual on it as well as a superb DVD that walks you through the camera and its capabilities. The company is to be highly commended for it. Kodak is running a promotion through the end of December offering 30-days of free access to 6,000-plus U.S. T-Mobile hot spots and another 16,000 around the globe. 

Image Courtesy of Kodak