Makers of digital cameras, Kodak is in the embarrassing position of telling punters that the beach setting on its cameras is "aspirational". Kodak cameras have a pretty neat function which arranges all the settings to cope with the unusual light arrangements of sun, sea and surf at a beach. However as US consumer groups are warning, just because a camera has a beach setting does not mean you can actually take it there.

Apparently angry punters have been returning from their holidays to find their expensive box browny stuffed full of sand and unable to work. Consumer magazine tells the tale of sad woe of a woman who bought a Kodak camera model M863 which came with a beach mode built into the camera for taking pictures. "After going on a beach and taking picture the next time I used my camera I found that sand had been blown into my camera. This caused the camera to only allow me to zoom in so far before shutting off for a while. Now the camera turns on and shuts back off immediately," she said.

She called Kodak customer support and both of them told her that just because we put a beach mode on your camera does not mean we expect you to take your camera on a beach exposing it to the elements. Now she will have to stump money to repair the beast, something that she finds a bit annoying.

According to consumer law, punters who are dumb enough to take their cameras to the beach are hiding their heads in the sand if they think that Kodak has to pay up. But it does make you wonder if any of these camera settings have any meaning. What is the point of a beach setting if your camera can't handle sand?