Kodak Easyshare CX4300
The CX4300 offers a professional looking camera and the most pure megapixel grunt of any camera we've looked at in this roundup. If you're after a camera that's capable of more than simple photo prints at a sub-AU$500 price point, the CX4300 should be right up your alley.
The CX4300 also has a number of stylistic differences from its other CX brethren; it has a removable lens cap rather than a shutter, so its on/off button is purely single-function.
Setup of the CX4300 is identical to the other Kodak cameras, and, indeed, pretty much identical to all of the USB-connected cameras we've looked at here. Install Kodak's reasonably friendly EasyShare software, connect the camera with the provided USB cable, reboot and you're ready to go. The CX4300 uses either a supplied non-rechargeable Lithium battery or standard AA cells. Kodak rates the supplied Lithium battery as being good for up to 425 pictures. If you want to go into Kodak approved rechargeable batteries though, you'd need the Kodak camera dock, which will set you back a further AU$149.
The CX4300 also shares the same menu setups as the other Kodak cameras we've reviewed in this roundup, including the star system to select image quality. In the CX4300's case, a three-star picture measures in at a relatively whopping 2080x1544. That added resolution doesn't entirely come for free, though; the 16MB of onboard memory is only good for around 11 shots, compared to the 20+ that the other two Kodak cameras were able to muster up.
The CX4300 met our testing photographic challenges with aplomb, delivering crisp and clear shots and bypassing the flash problems of its similar Kodak brethren. Although it (like every other camera in this roundup) is fixed-focus, it also managed to avoid too many blurry shots.
If Kodak included an optical zoom on the CX4300, we'd have an absolute clear winner for Editor's Choice. As it is, the choice is left up to the consumer; either have a larger-resolution camera, or one with optical zoom.
Kodak CX4300
Company: Kodak Australia
Price: AU$399
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 03 9353 2222
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I have just seen an advertisement for the CX4230 in a pop up when I went to the Korean Herald newspaper at http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/index.asp . It was selling there for 185000 Won which equals AU$204, half what we would pay for it. I wonder why we can't get it at that price here?