Kodak digital camera - any good?

[aloha]

Am absolutely terrible photographer. Can easily take 26 unusable photographs of dd and ds with a regular camera so a complete waste of time, effort and money - and very disappointing and frustrating. Am thinking of buying a decent digital camera and see the Kodak Picture Share ones (?think this is the right name) are on offer everywhere with a free printer thrown in so you can get paper copies of your photographs. Does anyone have one of these? Are they any good? is it easy to use the printer bit? If they are rubbish, what should I buy?

my sister has just rung me to say that she has got one - she loves it, she sent me some pix and I have to say they arent fantastic quality but pretty good value.

Hi Enid, did she sent them to you digitally or have you seen the printed out versions? Is she a good photographer normally?

the batteries go on them quckly. had one of the earliest ones, and had to send it back twice as the batteries wear out quickly. (recharagable when on doc). the pics on my yahoo album are all done with the kodax digital. heres one

Gorgeous picture - but then I'm not sure how much of that is due to the subject rather than the technology
do you think they've improved the battery longevity? Are they easy to use - esp the picture printer dock thingy? I'm not v technical...

we have one fab pics in my opinion
des mini vid clips too

oh we dont have one you plug into prunter but have kodaj easy share
euther prinr pics ourselves or take to asda a fiver for 50 pics,,,,

well mine is about 4yrs old now, so hopefully they have improved the battery problem. TBH if going out for a day with the camera or on holiday i always take spare batteries with me. the easy share option, and downloading the pics to the pc as well is easy. u literally do just press the button.

she's quite good photographer and the picture is nicely shot but the colours are a bit flat.

We have a canon and I love it - I am a TERRIBLE photographer but even I can do the odd decent one with it - still not as many as dh though

Popsy, is that one which has a special camera dock that you can use as a printer?

Enid - is that a Canon digital camera?

this one

Right, then it is similar I think. The one I was considering is on offer in Argos and Dixons with the printer dock free. We don't have a working printer atm with our computer and anyway I find downloading pix etc really complicated! I wanted something easy where I could ditch my most useless shots instead of paying to get depressed about them!

we love ours best thing we hve bought in a while

Thank you - think I might get my poor tired credit card out again...

It's worth checking Fotothing's Camera Chart as they list the top 50 cameras that Fotothingers use (it's a photography community where people put pics up each day and can comment on them) - then you can click through and see examples taken by that camera.

I personally would rate the Canon Ixus (the highest one you can afford) if you're looking for a point & shoot. Constantly winning best buy awards for quality and pricing.

Also, whatever camera you go for do shop around - there's some fabulous prices on the net if you're prepared to do the legwork - much better than highstreet prices.

Failing that, Jessops is one of the more competitive high street shops and has staff that know what they're talking about. Whichever camera you go for, pop in there and actually hold the camera and see if you get along with it. Feeling comfortable with your camera makes a huge difference.

I am such a terrible photographer I don't think that holding the camera would make much difference to me tbh - I think they all feel fine and then am mystified by my truly appalling prints! The camera I am interested (Kodak CX7 525) in costs 179pounds with the printing bit free. I like the idea of that because I hate the idea of a/having to research and buy a decent printer that is compatible with my iMac and b/dowloading pix to the computer and then printing them out. If the one touch thingy is really easy that would be a huge bonus.

A couple of tips for some good pics

Pics of children: wherever possible, always get down to their level to photograph them and ESSENTIALLY take TONS of pictures of each thing (with a digital that's easy - especially if you invest in a larger memory card) then ditch the ones that didn't work as well.

Rule of Thirds: Imagine that the picture is divided by two lines horizontally and two lines vertically ( into a total of 9 squares like this hash - #) Try and get the subject of interest where a line intersects rather than dead centre. Also line up lines (like the horizon) on one of the third lines rather than dead centre. Easy trick and makes the composition more balanced.

Have fun