Slice a little off the top

KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera

I really wanted to try this one out. Sort of an iPod Touch for photography. Great concept.

Then the specs were published. The lens -- the most important part of the camera, period -- is a 5X zoom. Starts at 35mm, racks out the 175mm. Not bad.

Then I glanced at the lens specs. At the widest angle, 35mm, the lens starts at f4.8. (Translation: S-L-O-W.) On some cameras, f4.8 is the spec for the lens at its farthest zoom, not its nearest. The last camera I had with a lens that slow was a 35mm point-and-shoot Nikon.

Compare this with my 3-year-old Canon G6, which has a similar lens length. The lens starts at f2.0. It lets in three times as much light as the Slice's lens.

PR people tend to tut-tut people like me for dwelling needlessly on "speeds and feeds." But, in reality, a camera with an f2.0 or f2.8 lens needs less light than a lens that's hamstrung at f4.8 at the start. That means you either need to be closer to your subject, use flash all the time, or only take photos in bright daylight. Which few of us actually do. Unless we live in Tucson or Miami.

I really hope the Slice finds its audience, and is a huge hit. But my expectations were for a camera that can actually capture photos in mixed lighting conditions. On paper, this camera (with the same focal-length zoom and a faster lens) is more likely to get you the photo you want -- at roughly half the price.

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