Kodak CX4230

Kodak launched a revision to its Easy Share software in May, promising that this would make it easier to organise and edit your digital photos.

The CX4230 is a 2megapixel digital camera with 3x optical and 2x digital zoom and is the first to be packaged with the software.

The CX4230 is simple to use. Four buttons on the back give you access to the main menu, flash menu, review screen and Easy Share tagging menu, which allows you to select photos to email or print when you connect the camera to your PC.

There are also Select and Delete buttons and a scroll button that doubles as the zoom control. There is both a viewfinder and a 1.5in LCD screen which, although bright, is almost inexcusably grainy.

We have two main ease-of-use gripes. First, if you want to change the flash settings you need to go through a separate flash menu screen. This can be irritating if you want to take a picture quickly.

Second, you have to access the main menu to enable the macro function, by which time the dragonfly you were trying to snap is likely to have fluttered off.

Surprisingly for a camera at this price, it comes with 16MB of internal memory. However, the CX4230 also has a Multimedia Card/Secure Digital card expansion slot.

Easy Share is straightforward to install and intuitive to use. The software opens once the camera is connected via USB to a PC and lets you organise, print and edit images.

Easy Share also has an in-built email application and address book, so you can email images quickly. Editing tools are simple to use and include sepia and black and white effects, red eye removal and cropping.

Image quality is excellent for a £250 camera. The pictures we took were bright with crisp edges, even in macro mode.

Specifications:

• 1,632 x 1,232 max resolution
• 3x optical, 2x digital zoom
• 36-108mm focal length (35mm equivalent)
• Red eye, auto, on and off flash modes
• 1.5in LCD
• 220g without batteries and SD card
• USB connection
• Dimensions: 115 x 40 x 66mm (w x d x h).

Price: £250 (£212.77 ex VAT)

Contact: Kodak 0870 243 0270
www.kodak.co.uk