Kodak MC3 Camera Review

This was another impulse buy, thanks to amystuff.com and the folks from the Yahoo! tinycams group. The commercials didn’t sell me on it – it was an overpriced GenX toy from the way they were pitching it. When it was new, at $299, it was an overpriced, poorly performing combo device. At $60 on Ebay, however, it’s a decent little MP3 player with a still/video camera built-in.

I use this device every time I run. I load it up with music, then if I see something I want to capture while I’m running, I can switch to still or video mode, take a shot, then go back to music. The images are digital-holga-ish, sharp in the center, some vignetting and softness of focus on the edges – a not unpleasant effect. It emphasizes the subject nicely.

The movies aren’t bad – they save as Quicktime format. I haven’t gotten around to editing QT movies yet, but it seems like it would be fun to make/edit your own movies with it. I use it alongside a film camera as a “video tape recorder” to capture site information and dictate exposure info.

The LCD is reflective, not backlit. It works well in bright light, is almost unusable in low light. That’s not a major problem however – the device’s design and fairly wide-angle lens makes it easy to eyeball.

 

 

Lens Focal Length 37 mm (35 mm film equivalent)
Focus range 2.3 feet (0.7 meters) to infinity
Viewfinder Color LCD 1.6 inch diagonal; reflective type
Operation Preview at 20 FPS
Image Storage External only (CompactFlash Type I)
Power Supply 3 AAA cells (Alkaline, Ni-Cd, or Ni-MH)
Capture Modes Still image, still image Self-Timer, motion audio
Output Still Image File format: EXIF 2.1
Resolution: 640 x 480, 24-bit color
Thumbnail: 160 x 120, 24-bit color
Motion audio Resolution: 320 x 240 (10 or 20 FPS)
Compression: MPEG4
Audio: Mono, 8 kHz
File format: QuickTime (.mov)
Audio Player File Format: MP3 compatible
Output: Stereo through headphones or stereo line audio out from AV jack (using optional AV cable)
Video Video Out NTSC or PAL from AV jack (using optional AV cable)
Host Interface USB

Posted on September 23rd, 2008 in | No Comments »