Kodak Easyshare CD80: A Review

The Kodak Easyshare CD80 is a great first camera or a good back up camera. Light weight, it is perfect for special occasions such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, or any other time family memories need to be captured. Whether you want to print, or have printed at a Kodak Kiosk, 6X4 inch photos, or enlargements up to 30X40 inches, this camera provides 35mm equivalent quality photos.

The HD picture capture mode gives the ability to take 16:9 format images for viewing and sharing on your HDTV. A built-in self-timer gives you up to 10 seconds to get into the picture, so you can be a part of family memories. With a 10.2 Megapixel CCD sensor, 3X optical aspheric AF zoom lens, and 5X digital zoom, this camera is definitely more than a toy. The 5x digital zoom works with the crop tool available through the menu to zoom in and crop the perfect image, rotate the image, or enhance it while it is still in the camera. Though it comes with a 2 GB Kodak SD memory card, the camera also has internal memory. The 2.4 inch indoor/outdoor color display allows you to frame images before shooting. The CD80 will auto-focus on the image inside the frame if you hold the shutter button half way down.

Not only does the auto focus locate and focus faces automatically, the blur reduction feature prevents lost shots due to hand shakes. The built-in flash gives excellent indoor or dark outdoor photos. Anti-red eye means less time on the computer trying to fix damaged photos. Images can be tagged with dates or names. You can protect images to prevent accidental deletion.

For anyone interested in uploading videos to YouTube, this camera captures videos at 30 frames per second, though the sound won't be heard until you transfer the file to the computer. The VGA video capture setting has a maximum video resolution of 640X480 pixels, which is all you really need for YouTube videos. The Share button and Kodak EasyShare software make uploading videos to YouTube or Kodak Gallery a breeze.

Kodak.com provides a downloadable PDF 26 page user guide or a 57 page extended user guide, but a built-in help system describes and explains how to use every setting for every menu choice. Compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X, this camera is a great gift for anyone, even if you don't know what computer system they have. Images load quickly to the computer using either the included USB connection cord (Model U-8) or the SD memory card. For computers without a memory card reader, USB memory card readers are available at a reasonable price.

This camera comes with a built-in automatic lens cover that prevents lens damage while the camera is turned off. Whether you are looking for a point and shoot camera, or a light weight video camera for the Kodak Easyshare CD80 is a great buy. It comes with a 2 GB Kodak SD memory card, a camera wrist strap, a soft shell camera case, 2 AA alkaline batteries, the USB connection cord mentioned above, and a 90 day limited warranty.

I received this camera as a gift from my husband and have enjoyed taking great photos of important events such as baptisms and trips. If you plan to use this camera, or any other digital camera for that matter, I highly recommend using rechargeable batteries. Digital equipment seems to suck batteries dry very quickly. For vacation and travel, I recommend also getting a DC to AC power converter to allow you to recharge batteries on the go.

Should you decide to purchase the Kodak Easyshare CD80, or any other product from this page, I will receive a small commission.  In which case, I thank you.