Kodak EasyShare C913 Digital Camera Review

It's amazing how much the technology in digital cameras has advanced in the last 8-10 years, and it's amazing how much more you can get for your money now.  I bought my first digital camera about 8 years ago.  It cost $50, it had no external memory and no zoom, it could hold 32 pictures of "normal" quality and 16 pictures of "fine" quality, and I believe the resolution was 1-2 megapixels.  The next digital camera I got cost over $200 (I think, it was a gift), it's resolution was 3.6 megapixels, it had a 2x zoom and it used memory sticks.  I had external memory in the range of hundreds of megabytes.  I bought the Kodak EasyShare C913 on sale for $80.  It has a resolution of 9.2 megapixels and a 3x zoom.  I bought a 2 gigabyte memory card to go with it for about $12.  God, I love technology.

 The Kodak EasyShare C913 comes with just about all that you would expect the typical digital camera to come with.  It comes with a disk with a photo-managing program (EasyShare).  I did not use this disk at all, so I can't comment on it; I just stick the memory card in the card reader on the front of my computer and go from there.  The camera comes with a cable for connecting it to your computer, and it comes with an EasyShare dock for connecting it to a printer with EasyShare, which I don't have.  The camera takes videos, and it also has a variety of settings for taking various types of pictures in various types of environments (portrait, landscape, sports, beach, etc.).  I found the "auto" setting to be best for most everything, with the exception of close ups of small text.  In that case, I use the macro setting with good results (see my Quaker Honey Graham Oh's review).

The Kodak EasyShare C913 does have a couple of really unique, cool features.  As I mentioned before, the camera takes videos.  With the Kodak EasyShare C913, you can review a video frame by frame and capture any frame as a still picture.  You can also rotate, crop, and enhance pictures (Kodak Perfect Touch technology) while they are still in the camera.

The one thing the camera lacks that I wish it had is an audio/video cable for connecting it to your television.  My previous camera had one, and I was able to review my pictures and videos on a 37" screen.  It's not a huge loss, though, since my computer monitor serves that purpose adequately.

As proof of the camera's quality, I have added some pictures to this review from my recent trip to Washington, DC.  All of these pictures were taken with the Kodak EasyShare C913, using the "auto" setting.  I'm no photography expert, but I think they came out pretty good.

I found that the batteries I used in the Kodak EasyShare C913 held up well.  The camera takes two AA batteries.  I took over 150 pictures on my trip to DC.  Mixed in with that was some time spent reviewing and deleting pictures.  I used up the original two AA batteries that came with the camera, but not the rechargeable batteries I replaced them with.  I would say I took about half of my pictures with the original batteries.

The Kodak EasyShare C913 is a great camera for the average, everyday user like me.  It's a good camera at a very reasonable price.  You can spend a lot more for a digital camera, but unless you have a specific need to do so, I just don't see why.  I think 9.2 megapixels is plenty sufficient for the average person going on vacation or to a family outing.  Also, the 2 gigabyte memory card I bought holds over 1,000 pictures taken at the highest resolution.  If you're looking for a good quality digital camera that won't break the bank, I definitely recommend the Kodak EasyShare C913.