Obviously, the Kodak DC280 is a better camera. What I want to know is how much happier I will be with the DC280. The prices I have seen are $~450 vs. ~$280. Important to me are decent quality pictures for 4x6 prints and the speed with which the camera recycles. I know the 215 comes with a USB card reader and the 280 comes with a USB connection. The 280 also comes with rechargeable batteries. Neither comes with an adapter cable. The 280 comes with 20 megs, the 215 with 8.

I am on the Mac platform.

Is it worth the extra $170?

Thanks much for your suggestions.

Sam V.

-- Sam V. (volcs@hotmail.com), May 15, 2000

Answers

Well, I suppose I'd be as good a choice as any to answer your question since I bought a DC215 and then upgraded to the DC280. The quality of twice the number of pixels is quite noticable between the two and that's why I upgraded. I'm much more satisfied with my new camera however, there is one thing the 215 did better and that was low light shooting. The ISO of 70 on the DC280 is a bit of a problem and even with "software" compensation within the camera itself (Auto ISO) turned on the images are quite noisy and the camera just won't focus in low light. A tripod helps but the camera just about refuses to lock focus in anything but normal room light. I may be trying to push the technology a bit in this area since I'm talking shots in low light without flash. Photoshop is useful for all but eliminating the noise however some contrast and focus is lost in the process.

If doing it all over again I'd still choose the 280 over the 215 but I think the 215 is a heck of a bargain and produces the same fully saturated colors (that I like) as the 280 and IMO, better color than many cameras costing twice as much. Good luck!

-- Steve Steinberg (ssteinb1@tampabay.rr.com), May 22, 2000.