The latest of their entries into the compact camera market, Kodak's EASYSHARE C763 is a solid, but not outstanding digital camera. It doesn't have much in the way of manual features, but the pictures are of reasonable quality and the slim, sturdy build should appeal to some users.

As usual, we ran our standard combination of subjective testing and Imatest analysis to determine the quality of the C763's pictures, and the results were quite good. Imatest did pick up some over sharpening in the sharpness test, giving it a score of 21.6%. This is quite a bit higher than most other models, and made itself evident in pictures with some extremely strong emphasis on certain edges. However, it isn't too bad compared to other models that have achieved similar over sharpening ratings, and shouldn't have a huge impact unless you make sizeable enlargements.

High over sharpening scores tend to impact upon the sharpness result a little, so we took the score of 1577 with a grain of salt. However, our shots were crisp and detailed for the most part, with minimal fringing and blurring. We also ran our test for chromatic aberration and the C763 received a 0.115% score, which is about what we expect from a consumer level model. The pictures captured by the C763's 7.1 megapixel sensor exhibit some minor blurring towards the edges and a little haloing in areas of high contrast, but it is no worse than expected and won't have a big impact on your shots.

Similar results were achieved in our colour reproduction test, the C763 achieving a score of 8.91. This is perhaps slightly behind what we were anticipating with many competing models scoring closer to 7.5, but difference shouldn't really be felt by the majority of consumers.

In our noise test the C763 impressed with a score of 0.68%. This is slightly below average and indicates clean shots with minimal visible noise. Our test shots were smooth and speckle-free. However, the C763 doesn't respond too well as you increase the sensitivity. The noise reduction algorithm does do a decent job of counteracting graininess, but this has a big impact on the clarity of the shots. There is also a substantial decrease in crispness at higher sensitivities, with noticeable colour bleeding and blurring. We don't recommend shooting with this model above ISO 200.

We also ran our usual series of speed tests, but were disappointed by the C763's performance. It exhibited 0.01 seconds of shutter lag, two seconds shot-to-shot time and a massive 3.5 seconds start up time, all of which are well below what we usually see from compact cameras.

The C763's feature set is fairly standard for a compact camera although there are some notable omissions. There is only a handful of white balance presets (auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent) with no manual mode. Similarly, ISO sensitivity only extends to ISO 400, with ISO 800 reducing the size of the picture to 1.2 megapixels. The burst mode is also quite sluggish, capturing 1.2 shots per second. Aside from this, there are a number of colour modes (sepia, regular and black and white), a smattering of scene modes as well as exposure bracketing. One irritating aspect of this mode is that all the camera's settings reset every time it is powered down, meaning if you have a specific configuration you like, you'll need to re-do it every time you use the unit.

The words 'pretty standard' continue to apply with regards to the C763's design. It follows the trend of previous Kodak compact models, sporting a slim, silver design that looks quite nice and slips easily into the pocket. It won't win any awards for aesthetics, but it looks smooth and should please most buyers. Keeping with the simplistic nature, the controls are quite minimalist, with a function wheel, menu button and five-way directional pad handling most of the work. Everything is laid out intuitively and should prove accessible, even for novice users.