Kodak MC3
The Kodak MC3 is so much more than an MP3 player. It is a Digital Still Camera, a Digital Video Camera and an MP3 Player all in one. It is still quite a small unit--about the size of a cigarette packet--with charcoal and purple colouring and a silver lens. The unit is fairly light and very strong, with the possible exception of the media card door, which seems a little flimsy.
The unit ships with a 16MB Compact Flash card (we were hoping for a bit more, considering all the different features the MC3 has). There is only room for about a quarter of an album of MP3s, one minute of "quality" video, or 160 still images. Larger Compact Flash Cards are available, however, in 32, 64 and 128MB sizes.
The display is a small, but high-resolution, colour LCD display, which is excellent for taking pictures or movie clips, and is complete overkill for playing MP3s. When you are playing MP3s the display shows a large volume bar up the left side, with EQ settings, track number, and total tracks at the top, then track name, artist name and album under that. play/pause, forward and rewind indicators are provided at the bottom. All of this is displayed across a cute and subtle background of concentric circles (the display actually turns off after about 10 seconds to conserve battery life).
The control panel starts with a purple slider to select Still Camera, Video Camera, Playback Mode or MP3 Player. Beside these controls is a series of four arrow buttons in a circle around a central play/pause button. Two further buttons, menu and select, give access to all the menu settings. The top of the unit has the volume controls, headphone socket and the shutter button, while the bottom has composite video out, USB, and a tripod mount.
Both MacOS and Windows software is provided. Though the supplied pre-production Beta CD did not support Windows Me properly, we were able to download a free update from the Kodak Web site that worked without a hitch. The software was very easy to use and files can be simply dragged into a folder on the camera for MP3s or opened directly for still images and video. We did note, however, that the MC3 did not support long file names, and had to truncate them to 8.3 characters. Transfer times were a little slow, and we also had to split the songs into groups in order to test the transfer speed (the test files were 28MB and only 16MB of storage were provided). First one group was copied over, then deleted and the remainder copied. Total transfer time was just over two minutes.
It is, of course, in the realm of "Other Functionality" where the MC3 really shines, with the ability to capture Digital Video clips at four seconds per MB at 320 x 240, 20fps (best quality) or 20 seconds per MB at 320 x 240, 10fps (e-mail quality), and 640 x 480 still pictures. We did not do any elaborate testing of the camera capabilities, but we did find them useful at a consumer level.
The MC3 runs on three AAA batteries (included) but no estimate is given on the battery life, as it depends so much on what you use it for.
This is a device that does almost everything for you. As an MP3 player it is quite good and its other features can only go to make it a better buy.
Kodak MC3
Company:Kodak
Ph:Ph:1300 650 168
Price:AU$499
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Overall Score:
14%
7%
