In 2001, going with 3.1 megapixels was a big splurge. Today its still a pretty high resolution, despite the 4 and 5 megapixel models now available. But I feel no need to upgrade. I honestly dont believe the average user needs to go higher than what the DC4800 offers. At this resolution, you can get good prints up to 8x10. Extra megapixels just mean more space wasted on your memory card.

The body is still sturdy, with a bit of damage from wear and tear. The worst is a hairline crack above the zoom dial. Additionally, the silver finish is wearing away at the corners. These signs of age are pretty minor considering the abuse Ive put this camera through. I dont even own a proper camera case - I just throw it in my bag and go!

The inside mechanisms continue to work perfectly. Ive taken over 9000 shots with this camera, so thats saying a lot! Even the battery charges fresh and new as the day I bought it.

If youre in the market for a used camera, I would definitely recommend the DC4800. Id advise buying this even over newer Kodak models, which Ive heard are not great. Kodak made a rare gem with the DC4800, and Im hanging onto mine!

The flash is terrible though, no good for low-light typical indoor/outdoor shots. Though I did use it quite a lot for concert photography - slow shutter speed (.7 secs) and also used the flash and the end result was quite pleasing.

Also, I have the wide-angle adaptor lens - forget using the flash with it! It casts a horrible shadow! No good!

3.1 megapixels suited me for a long time - although I didnt print a whole lot of the photos I took with this camera, the few I did print came out well at 8x10 and slightly larger.

I am now ready to move on - my next purchase is the 4 megapixel Canon G3! But I will keep my trusty Kodak, as it has served me well.

Based on my experience with this product, I would highly recommend a Kodak digital camera.

For the price and quality, it is a 4 stars no doubt. If the flash was better, it would have earned 5 stars.

Best regards
J @ Sadoun Satellite Sales

You can use the 4800 in a number of modes, as a simple point and click mode, or for the more professional photographer you can get into aperture, light, exposure etc...

The resolution at 3.1 Mega Pixel is excellent and when pictures are printed out using services like ofoto or shutterfly the quality is exceptional. The camera has a 3x Optical zoom which is excellent, I choose not to rate digital zoom as attribute of a camera.

My only dislike with this camera is its size, there are a lot of smaller cameras out there, however I am not sure if there are many with the same kind of quality.

As close to perfect as it is, there are some minor gripes. The manual exposure control dial seems a little flimsy like it might come off one day, fortunately it is rarely used. Second there is a little door that you open that covers the USB and battery ports that also seems a little flimbsy. Also, the button you use to turn on/off the camera is a bit too close to the shutter button. If someone else is taking our picture, they invariably press the wrong button unless we make it clear which button to press. The flash is somewhat weak (although comparible to small film cameras). Another gotcha is that you have to press the shutter button half way down to lock in the auto focus, speed and f-stop settings before pressing the button the rest of the way down to take the picture. Although this is standard with nearly all but the most inexpensive cameras, it is something that you have to carefully explain to anyone else who you want to take a picture or the picture will likely be out of focus. But then again, it is digital so you can look at the picture right away and determine if it needs to be re-shot. Finally, I think that the 16 meg card is much too small for any type of vacation use. At the highest resolution but least compressed JPG, each photo is about 700-900 kb. We purchased an additional 64Mb card which are quite cheap now and have yet to run out of memory (and if we did we could go out and buy another from any electronics store).

All in all, a great camera!!

Bottom line I am not happy with the camera at all and would recommend NOT buying one.

Its great for outdoor shots of both landscapes and people. Indoors is more problematic. In low light conditions, especially with a nearby artificial light source, pictures are hit or miss. Some come out OK; others are blurry. And unfortunately, they look fine on the little LCD so I think the photos are OK; its only when I see them on screen that I discover theyre out of focus. Ive tried fiddling with the manual settings for this with little success.

For a travel/vacation camera, its superb. If all youre doing is taking quick indoor shots of family and friends, you might want to think about another camera.

Also, unlike many other cameras which make you buy several key components separately, the DC4800 comes complete with everything you need to take great pictures right out of the box, including Lithium rechargable battery, AC adapter, 16MB memory card, and all cables. The only things you may need to buy later are a carrying case and possibly more memory for longer outings. The Lithium battery is key - Ive been thouroughly frustrated with other digital cameras that use AA batteries which they use up after 5 or 6 pictures.

Ive also found the instruction manual to be extremely well written and indexed - the best instructions out of four digital cameras Ive used - and the camera itself has proven very durable - I must admit Ive dropped it several times, but it still works as good as new.

The best thing of all about the DC4800 though, is the outstanding picture quality. Compared to pictures I took at the same resolution with other cameras, the DC4800 pictures are always a little sharper and a little more vivid. The colors this camera produces are really outstanding. Even the lowest resolution is pretty darn good.

I would take this camera over several cameras that are almost twice the cost - I am thoroughly satisfied with this camera.

That said, Im glad I own it. Ive gone almost entirely digital in my life, and if it werent for the digital camera I probably wouldnt take pictures at all. The picture quality is good, and you have some (not a huge amount) of selectivity in how your photo will be framed and exposed. (You can select the lens opening, for example.)

I recently changed computers, and I had no problem installing the software on a Windows Me box without a patch from Kodak.

I earlier installed the firmware upgrade and have had no problems with low-light focusing or exposure. The camera does well in remarkably little light.

The zoom control has not worked on three or four occasions. One moves the switch and nothing happens. I am not sure yet whether its a camera defect or I whether I may have had something set wrong. I hope the latter.

Generally speaking, the camera is a nice handling, nice feeling little piece of machinery. I just wish Kodak had taken a little more care with the software rather than leaving it to customers to put Humpty Dumpty together post-purchase. Oh well, at least Kodak was responsive -- after I told them that if I hadnt heard back by a certain date, I would publicize their non-response here.

However, Kodaks rebate system is very, very poor. I received almost immediate acknowledgement from thier rebate center that they had all the necessary documents. Now after 6 weeks and a phone call to the rebate center, Im told it will be ANOTHER 30 days before I get my $... rebate.

DONt do as I did and put too much emphasis on the rebate when making your buying decision.

The Kodak software provided is also excellent - easy way to save, print, and view photos.

A great package for the price. The best value for a 3 megapixel camera I could find at [price]after rebate.

1) No lens cap cord so the cap wont get lost. That is a chintzy omission by Kodak. The cap is small and would soon be gone. I jury-rigged a rubber band as a temporary attachment until I can devise something prettier.

2) I purchased the DC4800EZ kit which includes an extra battery and a 64MB card. But its still incomplete. The kit should also include the outboard battery charger, and a camera case. Shortsighted marketing by Kodak.

3) The camera literature speaks of Windows 98 and 2000 but not Windows Me. I have Windows Me. There may be a minor software conflict. When opening .JPG files from Windows Explorer, with the DC4800 camera software installed the thumbnails that come up are badly distorted. You can open the photos themselves and work on them full-size OK, attach them to emails OK, etc., but the thumbnails are unviewable. I uninstalled and reinstalled the DC4800 software several times. With the DC4800 software absent the thumbnails are fine. With it present they are unusable. It appears there is some glitch between the DC4800 software and Windows Me. I have emailed Kodak to that effect and am awaiting a response.

I would like to add this information that might help in purchasing this camera. At the default setting of 3.1 MP the resolution is 2160 X 1440. This is an approx. file size of 960 KB. That means you are going to get just a little over one picture per MB. So a 65MB card = 65 pictures or 128MB card = 128 pictures. I recieved a 16MB card with my camera and sixteen pictures just doesn`t get the job done. I purchased a 128MB and think this was a wise investment for me. When ordering a camera just figure about how many pictures you want to be able to take without changing cards or downloading and that will tell you what size card you need to purchase to accommodate your needs.

One more thing I would like to add is that when you take a picture it is not like useing a regular camera. You push the button to take the picture half way down to set the focus and exsposure, the press it all the way down to take a picture. If you press the shutter all the way down in one complete movment your pictures will be out of focus and the exsposure will also be wrong. This is one of the few things I had to read the manual on to find out how to do correctly. Somehow I think that a lot of the problems people have (if not all) could be eliminated by spending some time learning how to use the camera correctly. It is different from a 35MM or a plain point and shoot camera. Like I mentioned in the title , this is my first digital camera after using a 35MM for 30 years and I think it works great.... YES I DID TAKE TIME TO EXSPERIMENT WITH IT before comming to my conclusion. If I had made a quick judgement before learning how the camera works I would not have rated very high.

Again I would like to say that I am very pleased with this camera. GO BUY ONE!!!!

First off let me start by saying there is definitely a manufacturing glitch somewhere, as there have been numerous accounts of the cases of this camera developing cracks. I for one have one with cracks. It typically appears around the LCD, and zoom lever. Kodak is repairing this under warranty, but who needs a new camera that develops cracks?? If you are interested in reading more about this, please see this forum: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1011 specifically this thread: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1011&page=1&message=1107683 I just think potential buyers should be aware of this problem.

Now on to the picture taking ability. I had a DC290 before, and this one comes no where near the quality of the Kodak DC290. I did the firmware upgrade, it DID NOT help my indoor shots, which usually turn out terrible. In low light, this camera doesnt do its job effectively. I can tell you that outdoors the picture quality is great, but who uses a camera outdoors 100% of the time? I know I dont. But for the price, it was an okay deal for me. With the rebate I ended up paying 375.00, which is pretty good.

Ive been reading some of the negative reviews and I have to say that the gripes that people have can be solved through a bit of personal involvement, or cannot be solved, because almost every other camera out there is the same!

Im glad Kodak uses lithium batteries, because my other camera drained four (name brand) alkaline batteries in 10 minutes. Its no different with any other camera. My dad works with lots of video equipment, and he said that there are no digital cameras out there that wont significantly drain batteries within a few short moments.

As to software flaws Ive read about, being unable to delete photos and send email are hardly huge issues that deserve giving this camera 1 or 2 stars. AOL, Outlook, or any email program gives simple instructions on how to attach photos to your emails in mere seconds, and deleting files is something easily learned and done through the use of a basic Windows or Macintosh file manager. These are basic computer user skills; if you cant do this, then should you be using a digital camera?

My only disappointment with this camera regards a personal issue. Im scared to take this camera outside my home, for fear of getting mugged for it. :) Its beautifully constructed, easy to use, not that heavy for a digital camera, and quietly functions. I am shocked how well my pictures come out in natural light without using the flash.

This camera was one of the best presents Ive ever received, and I think everyone who wants a high - end digital camera should purchase this one :)

I wont get into all the details-- theres a great write-up of this camera at

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DC4800/D48A.HTM ,

but basically, the gist is that there are more options than you could shake a big stick at (perfect when you want to setup a nice photograph), which are all very easy to access (so you wont spend an hour doing it), that also works very well in automatic mode (when you want to take that on-the-fly shot), but also lets you combine any degree of automatic and manual functionality.

Two great things I want to specifically mention about the camera, though, are its terrific options for color adjustment, as well as the ability to combine and adjust the automatic functionality.

The options for adjusting color are amazing-- again, I wont go into all the different options (Id be writing for about an hour if I did-- the article above describes the options very well), but the options are numerous, and are genuinely useful (i.e. produces real differences in the final shot-- theyre not gimmicks). For instance, saturated color does amazing things to green-- great for outdoors shots!

But the really great thing about the camera is the ability to combine automatic and manual functionality. Instead of forcing you to choose between fully automatic and fully manual mode, instead you can choose any number of settings manually, and let the camera do the rest. Often times I will set the f-stop, or the color scheme, or the film speed, or the sharpness, or the white balance, or any combination of those, and let the camera do the rest. This is absolutely WONDERFUL for people (like me) who often wish to add some specific element to a photo without having to take full control of all settings. The only exception to this is shutter speed selection-- if you choose a shutter speed, you must also choose the f-stop. Nonetheless, Kodaks implementation of automatic and manual functionality is really slick.

You wont find this many options on any other 3.1MP camera that prices for <= $600.

Warning to potential buyers: buy a case, it doesnt come with one.

1. Rechargeable Li-On battery. No more messing with batteries. I simply plug the camera in and I have a freshly charged battery. It lasts a LONG time. If you need more battery time, you can get an extra battery to plug in.

2. 3.1 Megapixel pictures rival film. Great, clear, pictures.

3. Easy to use, yet very powerful. This camera can point and shoot, or you can control every settting via a menu, dial, or switch. It couldnt be easier to use, but its nice to know that you can tweak settings such as ISO, F stop, etc.

4. 3X optical zoom. Most cameras are 2X. I dont use digital zoom, but its here too.

5. Uses inexpensive and reliable compactflash media

I could go on and on. This is a great camera.

Buy it! You wont be sorry.

Its not often you hit the ball out of the park in your first at-bat. The DC4800 is a great camera! I didnt buy it here (mine came with an extra battery and a 64MB CompactFlash card instead of 16MB), but I had to tell SOMEBODY! ;-) I was tossed between the Sony Mavica that writes to mini-CDs and this camera. The Mavica sells for $1300, and is only a 2.1 megapixel. The money I saved on the DC4800 went toward two extra batteries (4 total), a battery charger, an extra 64MB Compact Flash, an external USB card reader, and a trip to Boston for summer vacation!

After installing the new software, E-Mails sent through the Kodak software are now delivered , but I still cannot print in the format of the photopaper furnished with the camera. The software is unstable. Pictures selected for printing, for example, suddenly are eliminated.

When I E-Mailed Kodak about these issues, customer service said "I suspect that you will find similar hold times if you purchase a competitors product, since were pretty much all in the same boat." It seems that Kodak is shooting for pretty low goals in providing service.

The battery life is extremely short so add the price of new batteries to the purchase price.

The DC 4800 actually provides all the needed traditional film camera flexibility I want in a much more manageable outfit than my old SLR. When you register the camera on the ..., they will send you a ... lens adapter free. I plan to get the telephoto lens and with the built in zoom lens I will have nearly all the focal lengths I had with my SLRs three lenses and 2X tele-extender - all in a form factor that fits in a fanny pack.

I downloaded the firmware version 1.04 and have had no trouble with low light focusing. I have had excellent results with picture quality and my results continue to improve as I learn to use all of the cameras features.

There has been some criticism of the flash. The DC 4800s flash capabilities are at least as good as my P&S cameras, which I realize is ... with faint praise, but this cameras features allow you to easily overcome this limitation. Heres what you do: Buy an inexpensive tilt head automatic flash ( I got the Vivitar 2000, under ... at the countrys largest retailer), and then purchase a flash shoe bracket that attaches to the tripod mount on the camera. This costs ... for a straight bar or about ... for an L bracket. If your local camera store doesnt have these, they are available on-line. Plug the flash into the cameras flash terminal. The extremely handy f-stop selection dial can be set to 5.6 for straight flash or 2.8 for bounce flash (I have always had better results with bounce). One caveat: As the lens zooms in, the f-stop setting will close down somewhat - I find you can zoom 1x to 1.3 x before this happens. Usually indoors this is not a problem as you can move closer to your subject instead of increasing the zoom. Bottom line is I get the same flash quality and convenience as on my SLR for only a ... investment - try this on most consumer digital cameras!

(album "Kodak DC4800 test")

CONS: Battery drains fast, bad focus in low-light conditions

Kodaks DC4800 gives you easy access to manual functions, offers a direct USB connection to download photos to desktop and notebook, more sturdy than other cheap cameras, accurate colors that rivals film cameras. Having access to higher resolutions (such as 3.1 mega pixels) is is important as well, b/c you want your picture to be sharp and crisp.

Ergonomics are great and your hands will feel at home when using it! The casing feels very solid, but the two plastic doors (for connectivity and the memory card) looks like they could break at any time.

Here are the functions accessible manually: - Self-timer: to chose the moment your camera will triggers itself. - Burst mode: to take 4 pictures in sequence (at the lowest picture quality, you can take up to 16). - Landscape: to prevent the camera from focusing on a near subject and have the horizon in focus. - Close-up: To let the camera adjust the focus to take a subject between 0.7-2.3 feet in great details. - Flash and flash settings: Will let you chose between flash, no flash, red-eye - Exposure compensation (from -2 to +2): This will let you chose to over- or underexpose your subject, to adapt to various light conditions. - Aperture (f/8, f/5.6, f/2.8): You can decide on the depth of field, so that you can have sharpness and blurriness where you like it on your photos. You can also choose P for the automatic settings to take over. - Zoom in/out: You get a 3x physical zoom, and also a 2x digital (which adds up to the 3x automatically when you press the zoom button long enough). You could also choose to block your camera from entering the digital zoom mode, to prevent yourself from using it (I have yet to see a photo which benefited the use of the digital zoom... theyre always grainy, not only with the Kodaks digital zoom, but with all those I tried).

The Kodak DC4800 comes with a 16 mb Compact Flash memory card, which is a complete nonsense for a 3.1 mega pixels camera. You should buy at least 64 MB. Amazon has great prices on this.

The BAD part of the DC4800 is its inability to focus in low-light conditions. It rarely focuses on the subject but looks for any source of light and focus at that point.

The main complaint with the DC4800 goes to the battery.Kodaks proprietary Li-Ion battery thats used in the DC4800 doesnt impress at all. With the LCD on, it doesnt last more than 40 pictures, after which the LCD turns itself off. Get a charger and solve your problems.

ALL digital cameras have their shortfalls, but this one has the least. Its simply amazing when you consider the price!

CONS: Battery drains fast, bad focus in low-light conditions

Kodaks DC4800 gives you easy access to manual functions, offers a direct USB connection to download photos to desktop and notebook, more sturdy than other cheap cameras, accurate colors that rivals film cameras. Having access to higher resolutions (such as 3.1 mega pixels) is is important as well, b/c you want your picture to be sharp and crisp.

Ergonomics are great and your hands will feel at home when using it! The casing feels very solid, but the two plastic doors (for connectivity and the memory card) looks like they could break at any time.

Here are the functions accessible manually: - Self-timer: to chose the moment your camera will triggers itself. - Burst mode: to take 4 pictures in sequence (at the lowest picture quality, you can take up to 16). - Landscape: to prevent the camera from focusing on a near subject and have the horizon in focus. - Close-up: To let the camera adjust the focus to take a subject between 0.7-2.3 feet in great details. - Flash and flash settings: Will let you chose between flash, no flash, red-eye - Exposure compensation (from -2 to +2): This will let you chose to over- or underexpose your subject, to adapt to various light conditions. - Aperture (f/8, f/5.6, f/2.8): You can decide on the depth of field, so that you can have sharpness and blurriness where you like it on your photos. You can also choose P for the automatic settings to take over. - Zoom in/out: You get a 3x physical zoom, and also a 2x digital (which adds up to the 3x automatically when you press the zoom button long enough). You could also choose to block your camera from entering the digital zoom mode, to prevent yourself from using it (I have yet to see a photo which benefited the use of the digital zoom... theyre always grainy, not only with the Kodaks digital zoom, but with all those I tried).

The Kodak DC4800 comes with a 16 mb Compact Flash memory card, which is a complete nonsense for a 3.1 mega pixels camera. You should buy at least 64 MB. Amazon has great prices on this.

The BAD part of the DC4800 is its inability to focus in low-light conditions. It rarely focuses on the subject but looks for any source of light and focus at that point.

The main complaint with the DC4800 goes to the battery.Kodaks proprietary Li-Ion battery thats used in the DC4800 doesnt impress at all. With the LCD on, it doesnt last more than 40 pictures, after which the LCD turns itself off. Get a charger and solve your problems.

ALL digital cameras have their shortfalls, but this one has the least. Its simply amazing when you consider the price!

Obviously for any camera buff image quality is paramount. The DC 4800s high resolution pictures will blow up to 8x10 easily, and even up to 11x14 with a good quality shot. There are a large number of controls that allow the user to adjust for a particular look (saturated color, neutral color, b&w, filtered) or for unique lighting. We found that the image quality on this camera was excellent compared to the other digital cameras that we tried out. Some of our shots showed some aliasing (jagged lines) in compressed modes. However, it disappeared once the images were shot in uncompressed mode (and without digital zoom). As noted by other reviewers, getting the firmware upgrade from the kodak website is important for the quality of low light shots.

Another important feature is ease of use. The camera software is easy to install, the manual is well written and the placement of most common shot settings on a dial on top of the camera is very helpful. I wanted simple point and shoot, which this camera easily supports. On the other hand, my girlfriend is a commercial artist and wanted to be able to operate with manual settings on a traditional camera. Both of us are very happy using the camera.

The only negatives are lack of twain compliance, the small memory card and the long battery charging time:

- TWAIN is an industry standard interface that will allow you to connect your camera directly to numerous photo imaging software packages. This is not supported by the DC 4800 so most file transfers are a two step process. - A 16 MB compact card will only hold 10-15 images with standard compression. ... The battery charger takes four hours. A faster charger is available with a second battery but again it costs a little much

Overall, this was a great deal (note it pays to shop around as the price on the camera varies greatly) for a camera that will grow with your experience. From day one, you will get great quality shots and as you become more confident, you can manually adjust many functions to produce your own look.

As a novice user, I found the automatic settings worked really well (from a novice point of view). However, I believe the manual settings will meet our needs as well. The menus on the LCD are very easy to read, even in sunlight. This is something Ive had trouble with on other devices.

We tested our new camera at a conference in Anaheim. This meant that we used it in a wide variety of lighting senarios, ranging from indoor/night/mood lighing of a restaurant to outdoors at Disneyland with bright sunshine. Having used a Canon S100 in similar scenarios, I can tell you that the DC4800 performed tremendously better than the S100. Indoor pictures rarely required the use of the flash, although pics using the flash tended to wash out a great deal. However, this was easily fixed by adjusting the white balance. Overall, we were very happy with our photos.

I have to admit that our originally purchased camera had to be returned to because it had severe focusing problems, [....] Our replacement unit performed much better and we are happy with our choice.

A couple of tips for this camera:

- Our lens cap has trouble staying on. We may purchase another one.... along with an idiot cord to keep us from losing it[g].

- While we thought the battery life was very good, we will be purchasing a second battery and charger -- specially since the camera takes 4 hours to charge the battery (with no camera use while charging but the stand alone charger takes only a hour.

- The 16 meg CF card that comes with this camera will not be enough. Consider purchasing the biggest card you can afford.

Overall, I like this camera.

In addition to picture quality, the price is excellent and the cameras portability may attract many more users. A fully charged battery lasts about 35 pictures (with the LCD panel turned to Power Save Off). I suggest taking pictures with the LCD panel completely turned off. According to PC World, one can take 171 pictures this way.

In spite of all its pros, the battery system is designed for use near home and in North America only. If you travel abroad, good luck finding a UL-certified step-down transformer with proper plugs and sockets. Also, if you want to take the camera out on a moments notice, you have to wait four hours until the battery is fully charged. In summary, the battery system for Kodak 3400 that uses 4 AA batteries is a more sensible one, though that may add a little weight to the machine.

I took pictures in total darkness (with the flash of course) and they came out perfectly. I took low-light shots with a longer shutter setting (no flash) and those came out well too. I took action shots, still shots, light-saturated, low-light, indoor, outdoor, with people, with distant scenery, and more... All came out as well as could be expected from any analog camera.

The USB connection is fairly straight-forward though it could use a better user interface. The battery does get drained pretty quickly, so you cant just leave the camera on as you walk around on a tour. But its only flaws (besides a cheap lens cap) can be fixed with an extra battery and larger compact flash. All around though, I havent seen a digital camera yet that can even compete.

Quite frankly, short of buying a $6,000 Kodak professional digital camera, this is the best deal I found.

3x optical zoom is a definite selling point. Never believe digital zoom ratings on cameras, while they might enlarge the image, they lose clarity and sharpness. Most other cameras out there offer 2x optical, and 3x digital. This camera has 3x optical, and 2x digital. A definite advantage.

The Li-ion battery is an advantage and a disadvantage. It has a nice long life, and it is certainly more environmentally friendly). It is definitely cost effective, digital cameras eat batteries. But, there is one problem. It is not easy to just pick up and charge on the road. If you plan on taking the camera away from power outlets, buy a spare battery and charger. With regular batteries, any newstand can sell them to you. The spare battery isnt cheap. But, it is worth it. It will pay for itself in about 10 sets of batteries (not long if you take a lot of pics).

But most important is that the pictures really outshine others. I have compared this camera to the best 3+Mpixel cameras, and although in some areas it was not the best, the overall picture quality was consistantly the best....

All an all it is truly a great camera for people who are starting with digital imagery and like some advance feature to play around with. It also has the work and feel of a normal camera. Hope you enjoy yours.

To make a long story short, my batteries ran down by the 5th day of a 17 day trip and I was unable to find a transformer in Europe to step the voltage down to 110v. Therefore, I had to resort to the good old 35mm. I blame myself for this mistake, but I think that Kodak should provide a universal 110/220 charger for [this] camera.

The default color choice out of the box I guess is suppose to emulate kodachrome. Sometimes it is a little too much, but the camera has a easy override which takes neutral coloration pictures when you want them. I think people and their clothes look better with the saturated color on but when you need accurate color it can be yours immediately. The zoom has a stop before it gets to the digital, it isnt that hard to detect it for me. The flash works with the auxiliary lenses which block the nikon 990.

I will say that while the flash is not physically blocked with any of the auxiliary lenses, the professional quality wide angle lense is very large and does cast a shadow on wide angle shots of art work in the lower right corner from a distance of three or four feet. How many times you use wide angle lenses in a dark room from four feet with the flash will determine how big a problems this is. The camera has such good low light capability you can, I feel, get around this.

The batteries are suppose to be expensive. Why? because they allow you to shoot, with the LCD ON, 40 pictures or so without a problem. The cheap AA batteries belong on a cheap camera. This is suppose to be a nice camera and have a power system that has some oomph. It does. This camera should be about 1100 dollars with the other top prosumer cameras. That it costs only what it does is the achievement to fixate on.

Now, prospective wise, this is my very first digital camera so I can offer my opinion with no previous digital camera experience. I have used several upper high end 35mm cameras in my life and do know a little more than your average shooter; with that in mind, I will continue with my review.

First of all, I got much more than I actually expected. All of my enlargments and prints have been done on my HP Deskjet 970CXI printer with Kodak Glossy Inkjet 45 pound paper...some were enlarged and printed from the lowest megapixel level (.8) and others were done with the highest megapixel (3.1) The results have been much better than expected...the color was terrific and the detail was excellent.

The only pictures I took which I considered below excellent quality were, for the most part, due to my mistakes regarding settings, movement when shooting in low light and perhaps greater expectations from the flash than you would normally get with a good 35mm camera...now, a couple of the reviews have mentioned that the flash and focus when taking pictures inside or with low light were far below the quality they were expecting. They may well have a point, however, I attributed these lower quality shots more to my inexperience with the camera and wrong settings than I actually was willing to blame on the camera....when I became more familiar with the limits of the camera, I was able to overcome 95 % of my original poorer quality shots...in other words, when I actually understood the limitations of the camera, I was able to take much better photos with clearly focused shots and excellent color...

Now, a word about expectations; I never really counted on any camera giving me 100 % of everything I expected...it just isnt reality. Different cameras within different price ranges simply are not going to hit our needs 100 % of the time. With my zero level experience with digital cameras and years of amateur level 35mm work, I simply was willing to forgive a few shortcomings if I got what I consider excellent pictures 95 % of the time.

Some have commented on the lame flash which is built into the camera...I never actually expected a lot from it so I was not disappointed when the shots taken from more than ten feet were not as good as one might expect. On the other hand, the camera does have a connection to attach a higher end external flash unit so I would tend to think that even this objection might be overcome if one were to use a good external flash unit. I would be interested in hearing some reports. Like any other camera shooting in low light, if it drops to a longer shutter speed, you had better keep it still or go to a tripod for more stability. I actually attributed a couple of my poor shots to this rather than a focus problem.

Having said the above, I do consider myself a novice digital photograpy buff, however, I can tell you, if you want a camera which is a whole lot of fun and gives you excellent options to venture more into creative control, I would consider getting one. If, however, you are expecting an end all, do all, camera, I seriously doubt if you can find one on the market. Perhaps the extremely high end professional cameras can give you lots of what your looking for, however, I tend to think that even they have limitations...

However, the recent purchase of DC4800 led to disappointment, as there are two major problems apparently due to the specification error at design stage.

1. Out-of-focus when pictures is taking indoor under normal environment with or without flash. This is due to the new design of the auto-focusing function, which uses a diode (CD) to detect distance and exposure, unlike the previous models that were using Infrared. The CD technology is fine as many SLRs do use diodes to assist AF and Exposure, however, there are faults in the current design that leads to picture taken indoor completely out-of-focus.

2. The software available to be used in the computer for picture handling has a problem with the Delete function, which does not work properly. It works in one instance and fail in another. The software I used is for the Apple Mac G3 computer.

The first problem has resulting the camera unusable in many circumstances and it is a serious fault. Is there anybody out there experience the same problems?

I agree with a previous reviewer where the extended lense is visible through the viewfinder. I havent received my extra lenses yet (wide angle, tele, closeup), but Im sure that will be even more of a problem with those. I suspect with lense attachments this is not uncommon. In those cases you may want to use the LCD screen for direct through the lense viewing anyway.

The 3.1 megapixel resolution is really, really nice. I cant believe I ever lived without it. When you printout a large format image, you can really see the difference. This aspect of course will be true of any 3.x MP camera. By the way, somewhat unrelated, dont bother using the digital zoom. The optical one is excellent, and for digital zooming, its better to do the very same effect in Photoshop where you have better control. I just turned that effect off on my camera which is a real nice thing to be able to do by the way.

The real excitement, however, happens when you venture into any of the manual settings. You have really nice control over white balance (e.g. setting Kelvins directly or adjusting based on known lighting, or adjusting based on a white card in the image, etc.), over color modes (sepia, B&W, several color modes), exposure metering, ISO, exposure settings, and shutter speeds. I think Kodak has done a real good job with these. It also puts some of the settings physically on the camera so you can adjust them without going into the menu (on the LCD screen) including f-stop, exposure compensation (handy to quickly deal with backlight subjects), distance/closeup (which forces a fixed focus), delayed snap, and burst mode. The burst mode is really cool, but I find it only interesting when using in the smallest resolution (1080x720) where you get a burst of 16 pictures.

What can I say, this is really fun. When my wide angle attachment arrives, I will also venture into using this along with my kaidan attachment for VR photography. The software is pretty reasonable and allows full control by an attached laptop in those professional situations where youre taking thousands of images for a VR tour. By the way, the included AC adapter will be a life saver in that case too. Also, if you really want to get exotic, Kodak makes all of the software development kits free so you can develop your own software to manage the camera or the resulting collection of images. But that is probably going a bit far for most people.

But dont be fooled by its size, this monster has enough manual features to substitute a studio cam.

Camera is very sturdy, comes with everything you need, and in fact includes the great Arcsoft Panorama maker software, which is not mentioned anywhere. It created stunning panoramas and 360 degree views.

Complains: 16Mb is too little RAM. However, camera price is relatively low compared to all other 3 MPX ones.

Would recommend to get the expansion pack with it, which includes an extra battery, charger and a GREAT camera bag with enough space for all cables, accessories, etc.

That given, lets examine the Kodak DC4800.

The positives -

For me, after the 3MP resolution and the 3X lens, what impresses me most about the DC4800 is the high quality, high contrast, high resolution, high brightness backpanel LCD, which is now truly useful, unlike that on the DC280. The backpanel controls have also been improved somewhat with a 4 axis "joy" button. The camera has a strap post on each side of the body so one can use a neckstrap; the wide/telephoto control is a "wiggle" switch under the thumb; and the viewfinder has a diopter control for those of us needing glasses. The DC4800 communicates with the computer through USB only (and unlike the DC280 can be used at the same time as other USB devices) and acts just like a flash card reader appearing to the computer as a external, removable drive, with the fast downloading of a reader. The front of the DC4800 lens is well protected, unlike the DC2800. The manual is typical Kodak well done, but strangely enough, as with the DC280 manual, the markings in the viewfinder are not explained. Exposure after pressing the shutter button in almost instantaneous and despite the larger file size of a 3MP file, saving the the file to the CF is considerably faster that the DC280. Digital zooom is surprisingly good, thanks to the 3MP high density.

The negatives -

I was very surprised to find that the lens barrel appears in the lower right corner of the viewfinder at 28mm; I dont know if this is not unusual for a point and shoot as Ive never owned one before, but I come close to finding it unacceptable. The battery situation with the DC4800 is not much improved so far as I can tell, even though the camera uses an expensive (proprietary?) Kodak lithium-ion battery; the user will surely have to invest in a $80 battery and charger kit if extended and away-from-the-home use in anticipated. Like the DC280, the battery cover of the DC4800 can be knocked open by a blow to the bottom of the camera body - those comtemplating active use should secure the battery cover with tape. The DC4800 is supplied with only a 16MB CF card and the buyer can expect to spend an additional $200+ on a large CF card, which along with the $80 extra battery and charger will amount to an additional $300+ investment. The camera acts only as a CF reader and is not TWAIN compliant, which leads to lots of inconveniences in saving files. The backpanel LCD gets dark in sunlight. As with the DC280, the tripod mount is plastic and apparently not intended for serious use.

One additional comment - those buying a digital camera should check back with the manufacturer for updated firmware - in Kodaks case there were lots of early complaints about battery life problems with the DC280 which were largely solved with later firmware.

And I use Windows 2000 which the camera works with without exception.