Kodak Easy Share C533 Digital Camera

Our digital camera quit working in November. It was my amateur hobbyist photographer husband's camera anyway. The camera was heavy, and big, and had lots of settings and buttons I knew nothing about. It wasn't an easy camera to take along on playdates or other outings along with two children, snacks, diaper bags, drinks, and extra clothing.

So when the fancy-schmancy camera needed to be worked on, my husband bought me a small camera for myself. That camera was the Kodak Easy Share C533 5MP Digital Camera with 3X Optical Zoom. And as a bonus, he bought the printer dock with it. I love that little camera! And here are ten reasons why:

1. It's small. The camera fits in my pocket or my purse, making it the perfect camera for a busy mom on the go.

2. It's easy to use. I don't have time right now to figure out a lot of technical camera stuff. The programmed scene modes, like children, backlight, fireworks or self-portrait are clearly marked with little icons so easy to figure out my four year old knows what they are.

3. The pictures are great. I am always impressed at the quality of the pictures when I print them out or upload them to the computer. Snapshots of children are hard to take, but I haven't had any blurry or fuzzy pictures yet.

4. The pictures are easy to print. I was amazed at the simplicity of printing pictures from this camera. Mount the camera in the docking station, choose which picture you want to print by using arrows, and hit the print button. And reloading with ink and paper couldn't be any easier. You simply slip a cartridge in, and add a pack of paper. The ink and number of papers are calibrated together, so you won't have prints with poor ink when the cartridge gets low.

5. The print quality is marvelous. The printing station uses Kodak Perfect Touch technology that puts on layers of color by sending the photo paper back and forth. The result is vibrant color and dry prints without the smears you can get from wet ink. And while I haven't tested it, these prints are supposed to be water- and fingerprint-proof, too.

6. The Kodak Easy Share C533 Digital Camera takes movies, too. I mean, sure you aren't going to shoot a feature film with it or anything. But that minute or two when your girls are just so sweet, that minute right before all heck breaks loose? This camera is perfect for capturing those moments.

7. The in-camera editing features save so much time. I can crop a picture right on the spot, and print it out without uploading it to the computer, dragging it through a program, and then saving and printing it.

8. My four year old can use it. She loves to take pictures. And the instant gratification of a digital camera is perfect for the preschool set. The larger display screen on the Kodak Easy Share C533 Digital Camera, the small size of the camera, and the operating buttons make this camera a perfect match for her. She is really proud of the pictures she can take. And they are good pictures, too.

9. The Kodak Easy Share software makes it easy to email these pictures. You can resize the pictures quite easily for emailing with the included software. The Kodak Easy Share software is a lot better than it was four or five years ago, and works as easily as everything else about this camera.

10. It's cheap. For less than $200, we got the Kodak Easy Share C533 Digital Camera and the Docking Station along with ink and paper for ten prints. We use an SD memory card that cost about $25. A replacement pack of paper and ink for about 160 prints was close to $50. Since we don't print out that many pictures, and I didn't have to drag two children to Walmart, or spend hours uploading them to an online photo printing shop, the price is well worth it to me.

And just to be fair, I will throw in a couple of things about the Kodak Easy Share C533 Digital Camera that I am not thrilled about.

One is the length of time between pictures. Anyone who takes pictures of kids knows that while one shot is loading to the memory card, the moment can be lost. So I get a lot of shots of sides and backs of heads.

Two is that you can't play back your video with audio. To hear what you recorded, you must upload the video to your computer.

But these are minor inconveniences. When weighed against all the things I love about the camera, I would definitely recommend this one to just about anyone who takes pictures, young or old!