I like to sell things on eBay and blog a little, but my next most recent means of getting photos was a 1999 scanner. That took around a minute and a half a page or book surface to scan, and the computer I was using at the time with it wasn't much faster.

I finally decided to give up on the masochistic hassle and get into 3-D photos, not just cover scans and pictures of pictures. When I had $100 I bought a Kodak M753. Having had to work with an employer's dinosaur 1999-era, 1.0-megapixel camera, the difference between it and this 7.0 megapixel camera was fantastic.

I don't need a camera to make movies, or photograph the intricacies of 10th-century Celtic manuscripts, or capture the flight of bats in near total darkness. I just need a good set of inanimate eyes for my auctions, with a little bit of video for things that are hard to represent with just flat shots. With these reasonable standards in mind, the Kodak M753 has been a fine choice.

The M753's design is very user-friendly, with a horizontal row of buttons on the top, a vertical row on the right, and a generous video screen on the left. Not only is it equipped with a strong flash, it has an excellent means of protecting the lens. All my life I've been nagged at when I use a camera: "Don't touch the lens!" I guess not randomly poking my eyeball never encouraged them much, but Kodak has helped me silence nervous Nellies and Fretting Freds with a lens that's recessed when in use, and withdraws completely, sci-fi movie door style, into the camera when turned off.

I needed minimal use of the manual; everything was plug and play (slip in a battery, pop in a memory card, press the "on" button) and the options were all documented on the camera. The web manual filled in the remaining details.

The rolling selector dial, while looking a little fragile, works fine in selecting the seven modes. Choose between Favorites, Auto Settings for general shooting, Digital Image Stabilization (old people like me would call it high-speed mode), Close-Up, ISO (low-light), Video, and for the aspiring photographer who doesn't want to feel ripped off, SCN mode. SCN mode seems perfectly tailored for the most common professional photography needs, with 18 specialized modes: Portrait, Panorama L-R, Panorama R-L, Sport, Landscape, Night, Night Landscape, Snow, Beach, Text, Fireworks, Flower, Manner/Museum (no noise/flash), Self-Portrait, Children, Back-Lit, Candle-Lit, and Sunset. Each SCN option is helpfully explained on the screen.

Right-side buttons are easy to figure: zoom in/out, delete, interface on/off, menu, review, and share for camera-to-camera options, I would assume, though a cam-to-cam connector wasn't included. I'll live. There's a high override factor so most of the time when you press a button you don't have to back out of a million menus.

Picture-taking itself is easy; hold down the button and a crosshairs will show up, becoming partial or full according to the quality of the photo you want to take. I didn't find myself disagreeing too much with its verdicts, so I appreciated this feature. Picture quality ranges from economical to breathtaking, from 1.2 MP (my former employer's camera at its shoddy best, plus 20%) to the highly detailed 7.0 MP. The pictures you see here were all taken at 2.2 MP, a happy medium that shows enough detail without sagging my hard drive with every camera-to-computer transfer. Upload speeds, by the way, are good, with only minor lag with large, high-end batches on my 2006 eMachine, and the software is flexible enough for organization and editing.

I had to refer to the manual to take video. I pride myself on being able to figure out anything with enough button presses, but Kodak triumphed: you have to hold the "take picture" button down to ready the camera, then hold the button down even further to keep video going.

Overall I love using this camera. Navigating what I've photographed couldn't be easier, at least for this price range, and the USB cord is an add-in I'm grateful to have. It has an excellent battery life, even with the video screen going all the time to help you (shut it if you like to save battery when you're out on assignment).

I have two bones of contention: the video-taking mechanic and stripey washout. My fingers are far from being pudgy, but the small size and oval shape of the "take picture" button, combined with the fact I had to hold the button two levels down to keep video rolling, has been awkward, with many clips being lost or having to be re-shot with less spontaneity. The capsule-like smoothness of the button also makes it easy for your finger to slip off on a sweaty or muggy day, so if you're looking to make action clips or capture million-dollar paparazzi video, steer clear. Anything planned and unhurried will be just fine to shoot. As for the stripey washout, strong light has sometimes caused long, semi-transparent, vertical purple and green stripes to show up, even inside. I thought Snow mode might be able to fix it, but it's the same in that mode too. Once I took the camera off a strong light source, it reverted right to a normal-looking image; it didn't cause any lingering damage to the picture.

So, if you're looking for something to spice up a blog, narrate a few writeups, or score photos you can upload quickly and in bulk for your auctions, the Kodak M753 is a fine investment for $100. Kodak's invested a lot of time and effort to make a welcoming interface, smooth layout, and altogether entrepreneur-friendly product. If not used for demandingly rare video moments, this model is a great investment for a blogger, auctioneer, or beginning photographer.

Overall score: 8.0