Small, compact and shaped as you'd expect a film camera to look, the CX6330 carries all the features from the Kodak EasyShare range. A jog wheel on the top of the camera offers access program settings, the choice of auto mode, as well as the five pre-programmed cameras settings; sport, landscape, portrait, macro and movie mode is enough to get any newcomer started with without confusion.
Our quick take
Without a doubt this is a great camera that while not necessarily offering tonnes in the features department certainly makes up on the picture side of things. The camera is simple to use, offers great functionality and better still with the addition of the camera dock (sold separately for around £50) makes this a great camera to start with at a relatively low price. At £240 this is the lowest of the current three mega pixel bunch but the price tag's the only thing cheap about this camera.
Kodak EasyShare CX6330 - 4.5 / 5
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As with all cameras in the EasyShare range the camera features the Kodak EasyShare button. This lets you to decide in advance whether you want to print, share or set as a favourite when you dock the camera with either the Kodak Printer Dock 6000 or Docking Station. The camera is powered by two AA batteries, but has the added benefit of being able to be charged via the docking station as well. It goes without saying that rechargeable batteries with the highest rating you can afford (up to 2300mAh) will become necessary as you take more pictures, together with a standby set of Duracell Ultra M3s or even Energizer Lithium Ions (the latter costing £6 per pair).
Pictures can be viewed on the 1.6” LCD screen and then saved onto the cameras 16Mb of internal memory. The camera does have the ability to take SD/MMC memory but none is shipped in the box.
A 3.3mp CCD sensor gives an effective pixel rate of 3.1 million pixels and images can be saved in four different sizes depending on your needs; 3.1mp (printable upto 11”x14”), 2.8mp (printable up to 4”x6”), 2.1mp (for small prints), and 1.1mp supposedly the right size for email. The camera also offers 3x optical and 3.3x digital zoom via the Kodak Retinar f2.7-8.7 lens and is the equivalent of a 37-111mm lens on a 35mm camera.
For a 3million pixel model that's supposedly bottom of the Kodak EasyShare range the images that it produced were very good. Images held plenty of detail (see tower of London shot right). The camera also coped well with a number of different subjects in one picture (also see Tower of London shot right) capturing the sky, the grass and the reflective building in the background. When it comes to close-up shots the macro mode does the business as well. The plant shot (see right) shows how the camera copes with the depth of field at close range and yet still produces a focused, crisp and vibrant image.
To recap
With a £10 price difference this and the Olympus MJU 300 or their successors, they need auditioning together, but power performance may ultimately decide for you.