Kodak Camera Merges Sound and Image
New MC3 puts an MP3 player into a small digital camera destined for teen photo buffs.Tracey Capen, PCWorld.com
ORLANDO, FLORIDA-- Kodak is taking convergence to the youth market with a camera that puts music into digital photography.
In today's digital world, even teenagers can get bogged down carrying numerous devices for images, music, and communications. But with the Kodak MC3 camera, teens can carry one $300 digital camera for both photo ops and listening pleasure. Kodak unveiled the camera here at the big Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show, where all things digital were hot items.
Multimedia on the Go
Kodak's contribution to the digital theme of the show, the MC3 is a small digital camera that adds MP3 playback and video capture to digital still-image capture. Aimed squarely at the youth market, the MC3 is designed to be simple to use, and at $299 with a 16MB CompactFlash card, relatively cheap. The package includes USB connection cables, headphones (or ear buds), and a video cable for showing video clips on TV.
Kodak also put together a comprehensive bundle of audio and imaging software: RealJukebox for ripping MP3 files and downloading them into the MC3; Apple QuickTime for playing video clips; ArcSoft VideoImpression for editing clips; and ArcSoft PhotoImpression for editing still shots.
For the most part, the camera succeeds in its mission to be fun and easy to use. Small enough to fit in your palm and weighing around half a pound with its three AAA batteries, the MC3 can be carried along to any event. It has extremely simple controls: A slider lets you switch between still shots, videos, image playback, and MP3 music. However, you can't take shots at the same time you're listening to tunes. Other buttons give you the usual controls for MP3 playback, and a tiny built-in speaker lets more than one person listen to the music.
Kodak is not alone in adding MP3 playback to a portable device designed for something other than music. Samsung's Uproar SPH-M100 combines a mobile phone and MP3 player into a single $400 device.
Low Cost Brings Drawbacks
As you'd expect for a convergence product at such a low price, there are going to be some compromises, and the MC3 exhibits some big ones. There's no flash on the camera, which makes shooting indoor parties tough. The camera also has no optical viewfinder, which would be OK if images on the reflective LCD screen were easy to see. As it is, the screen is difficult to view in anything less than bright light. And with a maximum still-image resolution of 640 by 480, you'll also have to keep your image quality expectations in check.