Kodak EasyShare V803

Guide price: £149.99

Compact eight megapixel digital camera. This camera is one very neat, stylish package available in many attractive colours such as 'pink bliss or 'mystic purple', I would have chosen 'red shimmer' myself! but the test model was black! This Kodak is extremely well made and just the right size with a huge 2.5" HiRes LCD screen and neat trim in brushed aluminium, it certainly looked it meant business and with an 8 megapixel CCD I was expecting great results. After inserting the battery, initial charging of the battery only took a couple of hours and blue lights confirm state of charge-three blue lights and it's ready for use.
Start up is very quick and the rear screen is of exceptional quality, clear, sharp and colour accurate, a giant leap up from previous Kodak offerings, completely grain free and fast(no blurring or smearing)The splash screen is now sharp and previews are immediately available in full resolution. The display is also good in all lighting conditions, including bright sunshine.
I tested the V803 in Auto mode and various 'Scene Modes' and was very impressed, even left in auto mode the camera was quick to select focus and exposure was spot on every time without fail! The Kodak 'Colour Science' chip has been honed to perfection and colour accuracy is now truly superb, photos are captured with clarity and realistic natural colour, no fiddling in Photoshop necessary here! Wonderful! Skin tones, skies and greens are rendered exactly as you remembered them, with no boosting of reds or yellows or nasty magenta fringing, this is all very good news and shows serious development work has gone on at Kodak and all to the good! Photographs are also noise free at ISO 64 and shadow areas are easily lightened with onboard 'Perfect Touch Technology' if necessary.

V803 Pros:
Fast Start-up
Superb build quality
Available in 8 great colours
Very easy to use
Ability to save settings
Accurate HiRes 2.5" LCD
Low noise ISO 80/100
Useful ISO 1600 (for use in very dark conditions)
3x zoom covering (35mm equivalent) 36-108mm
Favourite setting (stores your best pictures)
24 Scene Modes including the fantastic 'Panorama Mode'
Full LCD information available including live histogram, blur warning and grid.
On board photo editing with Kodaks's 'Perfect Touch Technology'
Adjustable in-camera photo sharpening
Quick focus locking
Superb colour accuracy
Crisp and highly detailled photos
Advanced video capture VGA @ 30-fps with sound
MPEG-4 compression
Onboard video editing, including bookmarking and still photo recording from movie.
Generous 32mb internal memory
Digital Image Stabilization with 'Anti-Blur Mode'
PictBridge and ImageLink Compatible
Good battery life

V803 Cons:
Needs a fast SD card ('Pro' or 'Extreme' cards rated at 120x speed work best)
Body a little slippery with it's satin sheen finish
No case supplied!

As you can see from the list of V803 Pros this is one very likeable camera, with very few cons! Everything works as it should and it is so easy to get really superb results without any delving into menus or button pressing. The zoom lens is fast, quiet and produces truly exceptional results, battery life is good and apart from buying a fast card and a case, even a photo editing programme is completely unnecessary!

Hilary's Conclusion:
A 'Best Buy' with absolutely no reservations, and at such a great price!

Memory card type: SD
Battery: Re-chargeable Li-Ion

Box Contents Kodak V803:
Camera
Battery
Strap
5v AC Adapter with power cord for in-camera battery charging
Getting started guide with software(CD)
Camera to USB cable
Dock insert (For Kodak's range of printers)