In early May 2005, Kodak USA announced the release of the Kodak EasyShare Picture Viewer. Today we were able to get our hands on one for a close up review.

The size of the Picture Viewer is similar to a credit card (87×58×12mm) although 4-5 times thicker and very light weight at just 68g. Finished in metallic pearl/white it has a large 2½ inch LCD screen and just eight buttons to run all of its functions. And in a way looks a little like a Mac iPod!

The LCD on the monitor is bright producing good colour with a 201,000 pixel resolution. The Picture Viewer plays Jpg format images and has the capability to play Jpg images downloaded from the net or images created in any software program saved as in Jpg format.

There is a handy 32MB onboard storage, although this can fill up quickly if your files are 3MB each – allowing around 10 images at any one time – or more if they are lower resolution. But at the end of the day, the picture viewer has been designed to read off SD/MMC cards so storage is not really an issue.

As the Picture Viewer is part of the EasyShare line of products, Kodak have included a mini cradle that easily attaches to the EasyShare Printer Dock Series 3 so you can easily print off your favourites photos at the push of a button. Images are also easily transferable to a computer via the USB connection if you wish to archive burn the images to CD or work on further developing your images within a software program.

Other functions on the Picture Viewer include a ‘slide show’ (with selectable interval times & selectable slideshow transitions), zooming in on images or viewing 9 thumbnails at once to quickly browse or locate an image.

The Picture Viewer does not come with power leads, as it recharges when placed on the EasyShare Printer Dock or plugged into a computer via a USB plug. The battery is not replaceable as its fixed inside – although it only just under 4 hours to get it back up to full strength lasting for 3 hours on non stop viewing.

Overall, the Kodak Picture Viewer is quite easy to use and a handy little photo album that will fit easily into a shirt pocket or small handbag!

---