Kodak EasyShare C713 Digital Camera
- Digital Zoom: 5x
- Camera Type: Compact
- Weight: 0.3 lb.
- LCD Screen Size: 2.4 in.
- Resolution: 7 Megapixel
- Optical Zoom: 3x
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1360
The Kodak EasyShare C713 Digital Camera as seen from a reluctant shutterbug's point of view
Pros
Easy to use, relatively affordable, uploads photos to computers easily
Cons
LCD screen is hard to see in sunlight; accessories are not cheap!
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Even if you're not a wannabe Bob Capa, this camera should serve most people's average photo shooting needs.
What Came Before: Adventures and Misadventures of a Reluctant Photojournalist:
Even though I was more of a reporter/entertainment editor/op-ed writer when I was a mass communications student at Miami-Dade Community College (now called Miami-Dade College), there was one occasion when I also had to be a "staff photographer."
The time was the Fall of 1988. President Reagan's second term was in its final legs and Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush was in a bitter political campaign against Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis to replace him. In the then-still existing Soviet Union, Communist Party General Secretary M.S. Gorbachev was trying valiantly to save communism while trying to reform it with his glasnost and perestroika policies. And on TV, The Golden Girls and Miami Vice were still airing on NBC and there were no shows along the lines of Survivor, The Bachelor or Get Me Out of Here...I'm a Celebrity!
This was also the time when I'd impulsively volunteered to serve as my campus' student newspaper's first true foreign correspondent. I had already signed up for a Semester in Spain stint to complete my foreign language requirement for graduation; being still somewhat ambitious and having a desire to make my mark as a great student journalist, I asked my editor (Ana Valle) and my journalism professor (Peter C. Townsend) if they liked the idea.
Not only did they like it, but they thought it would a great thing for both the paper and me. Prof. Townsend even thought I'd be able to send home some good photographs, so he handed me one of the college's Canon Sure Shots and taught me some of the basics on how to use it more or less like a true pro. (One hint he gave me: For vertical objects such as people standing or buildings, turn a camera on its side so the shot captures the object more dramatically and draws the viewer to the important element you want to capture.)
And, for the first few weeks of my stint in Seville, I roved around as much as i could with that Sure Shot camera. I can't claim that I was ever as great as famous LIFE magazine photographer Bob Capa, but until one of my roommates accidentally dropped the Sure Shot from its shelf in my room and broke it, I was getting fairly good at the elements of journalistic photography. I managed to avoid cheesy "grip and grin" pics and captured instead "slice of life" shots that gave readers an idea of what our three-month stint in Seville had been like.
The Sure Shot probably could have been repaired, but even though I packed it in my bags for the return trip to Miami, it never arrived. When I - embarrassed as hell - told my prof that the camera had not returned to the States with me, he said, "Oh, well. Probably got stolen by the baggage handlers either there (Spain) or here (Miami)."
This experience, along with the fact that my routine from the late 1980s to the present time has become pretty dull and sedentary, put a damper on my development as an amateur photographer. I had a Polaroid 360 given to me on my 20th birthday, but I rarely used it even when it was new; the photos I took were never really interesting or well-composed, and of course the nature of the Polaroids didn't lend the pictures for cropping, enlarging or any of the techniques that are par for the course in photo editing.
Going Digital
Thus, when digital cameras started becoming really popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I never imagined myself owning one. The last camera I briefly had here - before December of 2008 - was a Kodak disposable camera, sent to me by a female friend from the Internet who wanted to see what I looked like. (My Epinions profile picture is from that particular "photo op" in the summer of 1999.)
The lack of a camera didn't really bother me until I became a member of both MySpace and Facebook. With rare exceptions, all of my friends in those social networks have either digital cameras and/or scanners, and many of them posted photos of their kids, their significant others, their pets (if any), their latest outings on vacation, their cars, houses and - of course - themselves.
Now, I'm no narcissist and I don't really like having my photos taken, but I do not like feeling as though I can't participate fully in MySpace and Facebook without at least giving it a touch or two of humanity.
At the same time that I was having this digital world angst, in December of 2008 I received a tentative invitation to visit one of my Internet friends and her family in another state. Turns out she has a digital camera, but I didn't want to be constantly borrowing hers all the time while I was there.
And even though the out-of-state trip was never more than tentative even then, I decided to go ahead and buy a digital camera regardless. Vacation plans come and go, after all, but that empty pair of photo albums on MySpace and Facebook still bugged me.
Indeed, the trip to visit my out-of-state friends was canceled eventually, but by then I had already gone to Amazon and ordered a Kodak EasyShare C713 Digital Camera and an Kodak battery charger.
The Kodak EasyShare C713 Digital Camera
Technical Data:
Brand Name: Kodak Model: 1849769
Optical Sensor Resolution: 7 MP
Optical Sensor Technology: CCD
Optical zoom: 3 x maximum_aperture_range: F/2.7-4.8 Minimum focal length: 36 millimeters
Maximum focal length: 108 millimeters
Lens Type: Zoom lens optical_sensor_size: 1/2.5"
Included Flash Type: Built-in flash Display Size: 2.4 inches light_sensitivity: ISO 100, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 80, ISO auto (80-200), ISO 1250 Image types: JPEG
Shooting Modes: Frame movie mode
Exposure Control Type: Candle, Beach, Document, Snow, High sensitivity, Landscape, Portrait mode, Close-up, Museum, Back light, Night portrait, Self-portrait, Children, Fireworks, Night landscape, Flower, Sports mode, Sunset
Viewfinder Type: None Width: 3.6 inches Depth: 1.5 inches Height: 2.6 inches Weight: 4.8 Ounces
Although this was and still is my first digital camera, I had seen similar ones in the hands of my friends. Thus, I already knew that my C713 would be light even with either two AA batteries or a single Kodak rechargeable battery in it, that when you turn it on the lens extends outward and the shutter opens, that the old-fashioned viewfinder from "old school" film cameras had been replaced by a 2.4-inch liquid crystal display screen in which various prompts - including a nice center-of-shot/frame boundary one - appear. It's almost like a mini-video camera, since those often have little OPTIONS prompts visible to the "shooter".
Like many non-professional photographers, I was not looking for one of those huge cameras that resemble their film-using forbears externally (down to those super-huge and super-fragile-looking lenses). Not only are those expensive (at least for my budget), but they also require manuals that seem as thick and as complex as those used by the Apollo astronauts on their epic voyages from the Earth to the Moon. I'm comfortable with modern tech and tech toys, but if I have to wade through a thick and drily written manual, I tend to be intimidated and avoid products which require said wading.
Of course, the Kodak C713 does have a manual, a multi-lingual one at that, but it's relatively thin and is confined to brief but clear information on the specifications, the camera's features, what kinds of batteries it uses (alkaline AA batteries will do, but rechargeable ones are recommended), how to properly handle the C713 and what each of the buttons on the camera does.
The camera I bought in December came with the following items:
A USB cable that is necessary to transfer your photos from the camera to a computer or even a USB-equipped LCD TV or one of those new "digital photo frames"
A CD-ROM with Kodak EasyShare Software. This not only helps users "synch" their cameras with a home computer, but it also allows them to set up a Kodak Galleries account to store photos and buy prints online.
Two AA batteries (the latter already in the camera's battery compartment)
A Docking Station insert which serves as a stand for the camera when it's not in use.
My Experiences: Because I'm not a professional photographer, much less a compulsive one, I have not taken hundreds of photos with it. So far, there are just a few albums of activities in which my family here (my mom, my older sister and I) have participated, along with a few experimental "slice of life" albums where I have taken a few shots of my immediate surroundings and a few non-candid shots of Yours Truly at such places as a McDonald's, my favorite barber shop, at the optical store where I bought my latest pair of glasses, and - rarer still - outings with friends from out of town.
Though there is a 'video" setting on the control knob on the C713's upper right hand corner, I've never used it.
I have, however, used the digital image stabilizer function that compensates for motion and helps avoid blurry or jittery pictures. I have a mild variety of cerebral palsy which affects fine motor functions, and even though I did take good pictures with traditional film cameras when I used them, I still sometimes take the odd bad picture because of an untimely movement of my hands or head. The stabilizer/motion compensator is not perfect; I've deleted a few pictures because I moved slightly while pressing the SHOOT button and the compensator didn't help much, but I've taken more good ones than bad, so I'm pretty pleased that the feature exists.
Other settings include:
Auto (for general picture taking)
Video (use to capture video and sound)
Digital Image Stabilizer (discussed above)
Close Up (For use in shots of subjects less than 28 inches/70 cm away)
Night Portrait (To capture subjects or environments in dark or low-light conditions. This requires the camera to be held as steady as possible for best results.)
Product Features
7-megapixel resolution for stunning prints up to 20 x 30 inches
3x optical zoom lens,
5x digital zoom;
HD still capture and VGA video
2.4-inch indoor/outdoor color LCD
Digital image stabilization reduces blur
Compatible with SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
User's Comments: Though for the most part the C713 does take good pictures (see my Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/alexfardreamer?ref=profile after adding me as a friend and check out the ones I posted), the C713 doesn't perform too well outdoors unless you are standing under some shade. The LCD screen which serves as your viewfinder allows, in indoors and some low-sunlight outdoors environments, great images of what you're about to shoot and you can pretty much spend some time deciding what zoom option to use or mess around with the composition of the shot.
However, if you attempt to shoot a photo or even look at the 2.4 LCD screen in bright sunlit environments, the screen is way too dark to even divine whether or not what you want to capture is going to be "in picture," especially if it's a living creature (such as a duck I was trying to photograph while it swam on a lake) that's also moving.
Like with most electronic products, Kodak only provides consumers with the bare essentials needed to use the camera. This probably allows the company to price the C713 at affordable levels, sure (at the Kodak web site it's currently priced at $73.99), but the box only contains the following items:
KODAK EASYSHARE C713 Zoom Digital Camera
KODAK Alkaline AA Batteries or equivalent
USB cable
Wrist strap
Getting Started Guide with KODAK EASYSHARE Software
Custom camera insert for optional KODAK EASYSHARE Camera and Printer Docks
I was still thinking that I might go on my out-of-state trip, but realizing that I might need rechargeable batteries and a device to give those juice, I also ordered one KODAK Ni-MH Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KAA2HR and a recharger, which also comes with a KODAK Ni-MH Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KAA2HR.
However, knowing consumers want to make sure their devices last and remain clean and in good shape for years, Kodak sells a plethora of accessories, such as docking stations, carry cases and cleaning equipment. Prices vary, and some items are not too bad, but there are a few things that cost just as much as the camera itself.
Ease of Use: Except for the problem with too much sunlight "darkening" the LCD screen, this is essentially a GEICO-style product...so easy to use that even a caveman can take pictures (if he doesn't try to eat it or use it as a hunting instrument). Essentially, it's a point-and-shoot camera, with zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities via a button on the upper right hand corner of the camera's rear panel; this panel has also a handy "delete" button, and info button, a menu button, and a review button, the latter being useful to preview the pictures one just took before deciding which to keep and which to share or store online.
The USB cable allows users to transfer the photos into a computer or other compatible device. Once you connect the tiny jack into the camera's port, all you need to do is insert the USB plug into an empty USB port and if you have batteries in the camera, you don't even need to turn the C713 on. The computer will recognize the camera in a matter of moments, then after both devices are in sync, your photos go to your PICTURES folders in Windows, as well as the Kodak EasyShare site and/or any other photo site (Flickr, Snapfish) you tend to prefer.
Even though I was more of a reporter/entertainment editor/op-ed writer when I was a mass communications student at Miami-Dade Community College (now called Miami-Dade College), there was one occasion when I also had to be a "staff photographer."
The time was the Fall of 1988. President Reagan's second term was in its final legs and Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush was in a bitter political campaign against Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis to replace him. In the then-still existing Soviet Union, Communist Party General Secretary M.S. Gorbachev was trying valiantly to save communism while trying to reform it with his glasnost and perestroika policies. And on TV, The Golden Girls and Miami Vice were still airing on NBC and there were no shows along the lines of Survivor, The Bachelor or Get Me Out of Here...I'm a Celebrity!
This was also the time when I'd impulsively volunteered to serve as my campus' student newspaper's first true foreign correspondent. I had already signed up for a Semester in Spain stint to complete my foreign language requirement for graduation; being still somewhat ambitious and having a desire to make my mark as a great student journalist, I asked my editor (Ana Valle) and my journalism professor (Peter C. Townsend) if they liked the idea.
Not only did they like it, but they thought it would a great thing for both the paper and me. Prof. Townsend even thought I'd be able to send home some good photographs, so he handed me one of the college's Canon Sure Shots and taught me some of the basics on how to use it more or less like a true pro. (One hint he gave me: For vertical objects such as people standing or buildings, turn a camera on its side so the shot captures the object more dramatically and draws the viewer to the important element you want to capture.)
And, for the first few weeks of my stint in Seville, I roved around as much as i could with that Sure Shot camera. I can't claim that I was ever as great as famous LIFE magazine photographer Bob Capa, but until one of my roommates accidentally dropped the Sure Shot from its shelf in my room and broke it, I was getting fairly good at the elements of journalistic photography. I managed to avoid cheesy "grip and grin" pics and captured instead "slice of life" shots that gave readers an idea of what our three-month stint in Seville had been like.
The Sure Shot probably could have been repaired, but even though I packed it in my bags for the return trip to Miami, it never arrived. When I - embarrassed as hell - told my prof that the camera had not returned to the States with me, he said, "Oh, well. Probably got stolen by the baggage handlers either there (Spain) or here (Miami)."
This experience, along with the fact that my routine from the late 1980s to the present time has become pretty dull and sedentary, put a damper on my development as an amateur photographer. I had a Polaroid 360 given to me on my 20th birthday, but I rarely used it even when it was new; the photos I took were never really interesting or well-composed, and of course the nature of the Polaroids didn't lend the pictures for cropping, enlarging or any of the techniques that are par for the course in photo editing.
Going Digital
Thus, when digital cameras started becoming really popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I never imagined myself owning one. The last camera I briefly had here - before December of 2008 - was a Kodak disposable camera, sent to me by a female friend from the Internet who wanted to see what I looked like. (My Epinions profile picture is from that particular "photo op" in the summer of 1999.)
The lack of a camera didn't really bother me until I became a member of both MySpace and Facebook. With rare exceptions, all of my friends in those social networks have either digital cameras and/or scanners, and many of them posted photos of their kids, their significant others, their pets (if any), their latest outings on vacation, their cars, houses and - of course - themselves.
Now, I'm no narcissist and I don't really like having my photos taken, but I do not like feeling as though I can't participate fully in MySpace and Facebook without at least giving it a touch or two of humanity.
At the same time that I was having this digital world angst, in December of 2008 I received a tentative invitation to visit one of my Internet friends and her family in another state. Turns out she has a digital camera, but I didn't want to be constantly borrowing hers all the time while I was there.
And even though the out-of-state trip was never more than tentative even then, I decided to go ahead and buy a digital camera regardless. Vacation plans come and go, after all, but that empty pair of photo albums on MySpace and Facebook still bugged me.
Indeed, the trip to visit my out-of-state friends was canceled eventually, but by then I had already gone to Amazon and ordered a Kodak EasyShare C713 Digital Camera and an Kodak battery charger.
The Kodak EasyShare C713 Digital Camera
Technical Data:
Brand Name: Kodak Model: 1849769
Optical Sensor Resolution: 7 MP
Optical Sensor Technology: CCD
Optical zoom: 3 x maximum_aperture_range: F/2.7-4.8 Minimum focal length: 36 millimeters
Maximum focal length: 108 millimeters
Lens Type: Zoom lens optical_sensor_size: 1/2.5"
Included Flash Type: Built-in flash Display Size: 2.4 inches light_sensitivity: ISO 100, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 80, ISO auto (80-200), ISO 1250 Image types: JPEG
Shooting Modes: Frame movie mode
Exposure Control Type: Candle, Beach, Document, Snow, High sensitivity, Landscape, Portrait mode, Close-up, Museum, Back light, Night portrait, Self-portrait, Children, Fireworks, Night landscape, Flower, Sports mode, Sunset
Viewfinder Type: None Width: 3.6 inches Depth: 1.5 inches Height: 2.6 inches Weight: 4.8 Ounces
Although this was and still is my first digital camera, I had seen similar ones in the hands of my friends. Thus, I already knew that my C713 would be light even with either two AA batteries or a single Kodak rechargeable battery in it, that when you turn it on the lens extends outward and the shutter opens, that the old-fashioned viewfinder from "old school" film cameras had been replaced by a 2.4-inch liquid crystal display screen in which various prompts - including a nice center-of-shot/frame boundary one - appear. It's almost like a mini-video camera, since those often have little OPTIONS prompts visible to the "shooter".
Like many non-professional photographers, I was not looking for one of those huge cameras that resemble their film-using forbears externally (down to those super-huge and super-fragile-looking lenses). Not only are those expensive (at least for my budget), but they also require manuals that seem as thick and as complex as those used by the Apollo astronauts on their epic voyages from the Earth to the Moon. I'm comfortable with modern tech and tech toys, but if I have to wade through a thick and drily written manual, I tend to be intimidated and avoid products which require said wading.
Of course, the Kodak C713 does have a manual, a multi-lingual one at that, but it's relatively thin and is confined to brief but clear information on the specifications, the camera's features, what kinds of batteries it uses (alkaline AA batteries will do, but rechargeable ones are recommended), how to properly handle the C713 and what each of the buttons on the camera does.
The camera I bought in December came with the following items:
A USB cable that is necessary to transfer your photos from the camera to a computer or even a USB-equipped LCD TV or one of those new "digital photo frames"
A CD-ROM with Kodak EasyShare Software. This not only helps users "synch" their cameras with a home computer, but it also allows them to set up a Kodak Galleries account to store photos and buy prints online.
Two AA batteries (the latter already in the camera's battery compartment)
A Docking Station insert which serves as a stand for the camera when it's not in use.
My Experiences: Because I'm not a professional photographer, much less a compulsive one, I have not taken hundreds of photos with it. So far, there are just a few albums of activities in which my family here (my mom, my older sister and I) have participated, along with a few experimental "slice of life" albums where I have taken a few shots of my immediate surroundings and a few non-candid shots of Yours Truly at such places as a McDonald's, my favorite barber shop, at the optical store where I bought my latest pair of glasses, and - rarer still - outings with friends from out of town.
Though there is a 'video" setting on the control knob on the C713's upper right hand corner, I've never used it.
I have, however, used the digital image stabilizer function that compensates for motion and helps avoid blurry or jittery pictures. I have a mild variety of cerebral palsy which affects fine motor functions, and even though I did take good pictures with traditional film cameras when I used them, I still sometimes take the odd bad picture because of an untimely movement of my hands or head. The stabilizer/motion compensator is not perfect; I've deleted a few pictures because I moved slightly while pressing the SHOOT button and the compensator didn't help much, but I've taken more good ones than bad, so I'm pretty pleased that the feature exists.
Other settings include:
Auto (for general picture taking)
Video (use to capture video and sound)
Digital Image Stabilizer (discussed above)
Close Up (For use in shots of subjects less than 28 inches/70 cm away)
Night Portrait (To capture subjects or environments in dark or low-light conditions. This requires the camera to be held as steady as possible for best results.)
Product Features
7-megapixel resolution for stunning prints up to 20 x 30 inches
3x optical zoom lens,
5x digital zoom;
HD still capture and VGA video
2.4-inch indoor/outdoor color LCD
Digital image stabilization reduces blur
Compatible with SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
User's Comments: Though for the most part the C713 does take good pictures (see my Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/alexfardreamer?ref=profile after adding me as a friend and check out the ones I posted), the C713 doesn't perform too well outdoors unless you are standing under some shade. The LCD screen which serves as your viewfinder allows, in indoors and some low-sunlight outdoors environments, great images of what you're about to shoot and you can pretty much spend some time deciding what zoom option to use or mess around with the composition of the shot.
However, if you attempt to shoot a photo or even look at the 2.4 LCD screen in bright sunlit environments, the screen is way too dark to even divine whether or not what you want to capture is going to be "in picture," especially if it's a living creature (such as a duck I was trying to photograph while it swam on a lake) that's also moving.
Like with most electronic products, Kodak only provides consumers with the bare essentials needed to use the camera. This probably allows the company to price the C713 at affordable levels, sure (at the Kodak web site it's currently priced at $73.99), but the box only contains the following items:
KODAK EASYSHARE C713 Zoom Digital Camera
KODAK Alkaline AA Batteries or equivalent
USB cable
Wrist strap
Getting Started Guide with KODAK EASYSHARE Software
Custom camera insert for optional KODAK EASYSHARE Camera and Printer Docks
I was still thinking that I might go on my out-of-state trip, but realizing that I might need rechargeable batteries and a device to give those juice, I also ordered one KODAK Ni-MH Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KAA2HR and a recharger, which also comes with a KODAK Ni-MH Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KAA2HR.
However, knowing consumers want to make sure their devices last and remain clean and in good shape for years, Kodak sells a plethora of accessories, such as docking stations, carry cases and cleaning equipment. Prices vary, and some items are not too bad, but there are a few things that cost just as much as the camera itself.
Ease of Use: Except for the problem with too much sunlight "darkening" the LCD screen, this is essentially a GEICO-style product...so easy to use that even a caveman can take pictures (if he doesn't try to eat it or use it as a hunting instrument). Essentially, it's a point-and-shoot camera, with zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities via a button on the upper right hand corner of the camera's rear panel; this panel has also a handy "delete" button, and info button, a menu button, and a review button, the latter being useful to preview the pictures one just took before deciding which to keep and which to share or store online.
The USB cable allows users to transfer the photos into a computer or other compatible device. Once you connect the tiny jack into the camera's port, all you need to do is insert the USB plug into an empty USB port and if you have batteries in the camera, you don't even need to turn the C713 on. The computer will recognize the camera in a matter of moments, then after both devices are in sync, your photos go to your PICTURES folders in Windows, as well as the Kodak EasyShare site and/or any other photo site (Flickr, Snapfish) you tend to prefer.
