Kodak EasyShare C653 review

Performance
After taking 3 seconds to start up and capture its first JPEG, the camera could fire off a new shot every 1.7 seconds with the flash turned off. With the onboard flash enabled, that wait increased to 2.4 seconds.

The shutter lagged only 0.5 seconds with our high contrast target, and 1.4 seconds with our low contrast target. Finally, the camera could take a burst of 3 full-resolution stills in 1.1 seconds for a speedy rate of 2.8fps. Unfortunately, Burst mode is locked at three stills at a time.

While the C653 performed adequately in our lab tests, a strange quirk raised our eyebrows. If you press the shutter release down quickly, the camera will take a shot immediately, without getting a focus lock. Unless you want most of your photos to come out blurry and out of focus, you have to press the shutter release down halfway until it focuses, then press it down completely to take the picture.

We've seen this before in several of Casio's Exilim cameras as a 'feature' but in those cameras it could be disabled to allow for normal shooting. The C653 doesn't offer such a choice.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate faster performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35

1.4

1.4

0.4

Olympus FE-230

2.4

2.5

0.9

Kodak EasyShare C653

2.4

3

0.5

HP PhotoSmart M537

2

4.1

1.1

Typical continuous-shooting speed
(Longer bars indicate faster performance)

Frames per second

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35

2.8

HP PhotoSmart M537

2.1

Kodak EasyShare C653

0.7

Photos taken with the C653 look good enough for emails, Web sites and 150x100mm (6x4-inch) prints. Unfortunately, their flaws become quickly apparent as soon as you try to use them for anything bigger or more complex. At its lowest sensitivity settings of ISO 80 and ISO 100, we saw only minimal ISO-related noise but did see other image artefacts that caused some curved lines to become jaggy and often created off-colour pixels on edges between two different colours.

ISO-related noise becomes apparent at sensitivity settings as low as ISO 200. This grain becomes even more prominent at ISO 400, and by the camera's maximum sensitivity of ISO 1250, photos become a blurry, faded, noisy mess. Besides noise, the C653's photos suffer from extreme levels of fringing. Harsh, bright purple-pink auras appear around many white and near-white objects shot with the camera.

Conclusion
Between its ugly, chunky design and disappointing image quality, the Kodak EasyShare C653 is disappointing even as a budget snapshot camera. Five years ago, this 6-megapixel shooter might have barely passed muster but today it's simply unacceptable.

If you want decent pictures, you should seriously consider doling out the extra cash for a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35 or an Olympus FE-230 instead of this Kodak. For just a little more cash, you'll get a sleek, small, 7-megapixel camera that produces far nicer photos. The C653's £100 price tag might look appealing but it's simply not worth it.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday