EasyShare LS420
$300, By Kodak
For Windows 98 and above
Macintosh 9.2 and above
www.kodak.com
In an age when technology keeps getting smaller and more portable, Kodak’s newest digital camera delivers big time in both departments. It’s small enough to hide in the palm of a hand, and it delivers up to 49 still images that are stored in 8 megabytes of built-in memory.
Additional memory can be inserted in the form of the tiny MultiMedia Cards that come in 16, 32 and 64 megabyte sizes. A small LCD screen is both image finder and photo preview screen.
One of Kodak’s EasyShare line of cameras, the LS420 comes with a small-footprint docking station that links to Macs and PCs using the USB ports. The dock charges the battery and allows one to download images onto the computer’s hard drive.
This brushed aluminum gadget looks like a flyweight but it delivers respectable resolutions of 2.1 megapixels, high enough quality to deliver 8×10 prints with clarity to rival traditional chemical-on-paper photography. Kodak’s software points users to developing services.
If you want to sacrifice resolution but still get very fine images, a built-in 3x digital zoom makes the 38 mm lens deliver a lot like a 106 mm telephoto.
The camera also produces small-size QuickTime movies of up to half a minute with sound suitable for sharing as e-mail attachments.
