Kodak EasyShare C360 [5MP, 3 x Optical Zoom]

The camera boasts a nice 5 Megapixels for printing picture HOOO-UGE. You can change between 5, 4.4, 4, 3.1 and 1.8 mps. The picture quality is great seeing that the lens isn't cacked up with dust and over air particles (as i discovered with a HP camera which was a magnet to dust and stuff). Also the flash isn't over powering.. unless you get really close (like, 2cm away, close). just incase the flash is too powerful, or you want to catch some natural light, maybe night photography, you can turn off the flash. There is also a red eye setting mode which i haven't tested.

There are loads of modes on the camera to take pictures in different settings. Some i haven't even used my self. I generally use the 'auto,' 'portrait' and 'sport' mode myself as i find most of settings i will never probably use, although its there just incase. Check the kodak site for all the shooting modes, there's loads! Aswell as the different modes, there is also burst and timer mode. Timer can be set to either 10 or 2 seconds and burst can take 3 pictures a time (not using the flash).

Filming on the camera is jaw droppingly good. The quality is somewhat compressed, but mainly not to lossy so you shouldn't notice any pixelisation or blotchy-ness about it. It films at 640x480 (so you can put in onto DVD safely with it looking shabby on TV), at 24fps. You can also select a 320x240 setting if you're filming for web. The audio quality is also a strong point, i've taken this to gigs, been pretty much at the front and only had a the odd crackle and pop (mic distortion). If i could suggest one improvement: external mic input/line-in. You can aslo film to the length of the card. I have a 256Mb card in there at the moment and can film 7 minutes 30 seconds at 640x480, and it does 24 mnutes on the 320x240 setting.

One thing i'm quite dissapointed about is the 2" screen. Its fine for scoping around, here, there.. everywhere, clear and shazamed! But to look back at the pictures you've taken is somewhat distorted alittle. This is understandable because the pictures are resized from an extreme 2576x1716 (which is huge.. probably rocking on A3 and more). Also another thing that annoys me is the internal speaker. Yes, i may have recorded sound, but seriously when you hear it back you think, what the hell happened.. until you stick on computer and discover everything is fines, but my point is that the speaker lacks detail in sound. But then again, all cameras have the same "poor speaker" attached to them, i shouldn't really be expecting a 2.1 system here.

Also the size is right. Small enough to fit into your pocket, big enough to be noticed its (still) there. my HP was huge, you couldn't fit that into the worlds biggest pocket.. im glad i've broken it now so i could carry around something sleek, lightish and small.

I'm also not at all impressed with the software, i'd rather pull the pictures off the memory card myself (card reader). The software may look nice and sleek, but oh dear does it crash and mess up alot. Better off using the windows camera wizard think.

Other than the odd niggles, which aren't major enough to effect the cameras usablity, you have a perfectly good peice of kit which i highly recommend to anyone considering buying a new camera. And the price... whats holding you back?

The Easyshare software is a bit basic but does the job. The video option is great as it had sound and turns out quite well when playing it back on the camera and PC. Even live music sounds good when recorded - I've used it when I've been playing guitar.

I can't really compare this camera with anything more expensive as I haven't tried anything other than a lower spec one but I still think it's brilliant. Overall I'm surprised how much I got for my money with this camera. I really can't find any faults with it, its my new best friend and goes everywhere with me!