Some people are put off by ordinary photography because it's too complicated. Add the word 'digital' and this point of view is made even more acute. Kodak's DX3500 digital camera is designed to simplify picture taking dramatically. The camera is a minimalist point-and-shoot device. Using Kodak's EasyShare system, the DX3500 can transfer pictures to your PC at the touch of a button and Kodak claims it's almost as easy to put your photos on the Web, to e-mail them and even get them printed using Kodak's online printing service.

The DX3500 is not the most impressive example of hardware aesthetics. Its lines are bold but a bit bloated in style. The camera body has a very plasticky feel about it, though it is lightweight and it has a solidity that suggests it would survive moderate knocks or drops.

Not only is there no zoom lens on this camera, but the DX3500 lens is of the fixed focus variety. The documentation suggests that anything beyond a metre in front of the camera will be in focus. The macro close focus mode simply switches the LCD viewscreen on in order to avoid the user suffering from parallax error (whereby the ordinary optical viewfinder sees a different view to the picture taking lens when the subject is very close).

The DX3500 is a 2 megapixel camera, which compensates a bit for the ultra-basic lens and focusing arrangement. Most other cameras in this price range will be the other way around, offering a lower resolution but more sophisticated lens. Unlike most consumer digital cameras that tend to offer a 4:3 picture format, like 1600 x 1200 pixels, for example, the DX3500 offers a wider 6:4 aspect ratio at a resolution of either 1800 x 1200 or 900 x 600. This is sensible as conventional 35mm photos use the same aspect ratio.

Controls are very simple. A rotary knob on the top of the camera selects picture taking and viewing modes. On the back, next to the LCD viewer, there is a four-way switch for navigating menus and picture views. There is also a pair of buttons for bringing up an options menu and making selections. The final button (apart from the shutter release) is a flash on/off button.

Supplied with the camera is a USB docking station. Once installed, you simply dock the camera and press a button and the 8MB of internal memory is emptied of its picture contents, which are moved to the host PC. The DX3500 can also take Type I Compact Flash memory cards. On one side of the camera is a rubberised flap that conceals a video-out socket for picture viewing on a TV, plus a mini-USB socket for PC connection without the docking cradle. Underneath the camera is the battery compartment door. This can accept the supplied NiMH battery pack or a pair of AA alkalines or NiMH rechargeables, so you won't necessarily be caught short without the recharger.

Picture quality is merely adequate. Bright and vivid colours - over-vivid, perhaps - are let down by over-sharpening of the digital data in the image, probably to compensate for the fixed focussing. The images are also heavily compressed. Angled straight lines become noticeably jaggy, for example. If you aren't fussy about photo quality and simply need to e-mail or post photos on the Web, you'll be satisfied, but a standard sized print will reveal some nasty detail inadequacies.

Kodak is right, up to a point, in claiming the DX3500 is easy to use. The controls and menu system are very simple and easy to understand. Once your photos are safely copied to the PC, however, you are once again exposed to the hurdle of using applications software to view and print the photos locally and access online services.

We're rather bemused by the DX3500, as it's over-priced for what it delivers and yet the considerably more capable DX3600, which includes a 2X optical zoom and video clip recording mode, is only £50 dearer.