Labs

Rarely do Kodak's digital cameras disappoint us, and the LS443 keeps up the high standard.

Image Quality

Overall, image quality was excellent. This is not just a matter of resolution, but accurate colour reproduction, a bright (but not too bright) flash and one of the best digital zooms we've seen. We worked this camera in all sorts of lighting and, in automatic mode, it handled itself incredibly well. You can experiment with manual settings too, but quick snappers will be more than happy with the results of the automatic settings.

Features

You can take movie footage with audio, continuous bursts of still images and use preset settings for portraits, night photos and sports events. To be fair,

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most of the cameras on test can do these things, but none makes these features quite so easy to access.

The Kodak has the usual macro option too, as well as manual settings that allow you to change the lighting settings, ISO speed and flash modes. It also has a self-timer that gives the photographer time to get in front of the camera and join the other subjects.

Design

Not only can you change every setting from a single menu, but every essential task is available from a physical button or dial. The back of the camera is not too crowded with buttons, though. When the menu system comes into play a little joystick is available to navigate it. It has a much more positive action than the Canon's joypad, and the LCD screen that displays the menu, images and framed scenes is clear and bright.

The camera itself is compact, comes with a small, rechargeable battery and an external recharger. There's also a spare memory slot that can take either a MultiMedia or SD card without having to ditch the 16Mb internal memory.

Overall

While it's not the cheapest camera we tested, considering its excellent picture quality and ease of use, the Kodak EasyShare LS443 is worth every penny you'll advisedly pay for it. Buy this one and you'll still be happy with it for many years to come.