Customer Reviews

Kodak EasyShare DX6490 / 4 Megapixel / 10x Optical Zoom / 3x Digital Zoom / with Dock / Refurbished Digital Camera

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The Kodak DX6490 is an amazing camera to use. For the price, far below other hi-end digital cameras such as Nikon and Canon, you get fine pictures, excellent control, features that allow you to treat the DX6490 like an old-fashioned SLR, and an effective lens whose clarity astonished me.

From the hugh LCD readout, the the pop-up flash, I found the DX6490 easy to use. Unlike older digital cameras, the DX6490 has little lag time between the shutter button and the exposure.
I found that when I set my ISO manually to 400, I could take pictures I only dreamed about with my older DC3400, capturing watersplashes, tightly focused portraits, and usable digital video.

I bought a Kodak SD 256 card to go with the camera, having learned my lesson with my old 8 card for my DC3400. Of course, the DX6490 has an interal drive so you could use the camera without a card if need be.

I was shocked pleasantly when I got home after a day of shooting and plugged my card into my computer and opened the pictures in Photoshop CS. I was thrilled by the detail, the range of lighting, the excellent contrast, and the work of the manual mode which froze motion like the best old Nikon.

Some weak points: I am now tied to the Li-On battery instead of easily availible and cheap AA batteries. Expect to use a tripod to get a sharp picture using the portrait mode and the 10X zoom together (but any serious photographer would expect the same from any camera). The Camera is consumer oriented, with built in album naming and email capability which I know people might use. I would have prefered more battery power for extended use.

On the whole, this is fine camera for a great price. I bought mine at Wal-Mart and I paid less for the DX6490 than any of the advertised prices on Amazon. Anyone interested in a controllable digital camera without taking out a second mortgage will find themselves more than pleased with the DX6490. How good is this camera? My wife forgave me for buying it when she saw the pictures.

First let me say that I'm an experienced 35mm photographer. Having used everything from an Exakta VX to Nikon N90s, and using a Canon EOS Elan IIe for the last several years, I didn't expect to find a digital that I could afford that I would be happy with. I saw this camera a while back at Wal-Mart, and looked at it because I thought it was an SLR. I was impressed by the price and the Schneider-Kreuznach lens, but a little disappointed that it wasn't really an SLR.

Last week, I found it on clearance at Staples for $100US less than it usually sells for elsewhere and bought it. I'm not sorry at all. In everything from convenience features to quality, I'm still thrilled. Pictures are sharp, properly-exposed, and colorful, just like they should be. The preview screen is the largest available, and excellent. The electronic viewfinder works well and is nearly as sharp as the screen on back. It's easy to use, takes great pictures, and is essentially silent if you turn off the ersatz "motor drive" sound.

Let me address the shortcomings mentioned by other reviewers.

1. Blur. Many people mention blurry pictures as a criticism of this camera. They probably don't mention that they were trying to handhold shots at full zoom. The lens is 38-380 equiv. in 35mm terms. I always used 1/focal length as a shutter speed guide. It would be bright conditions indeed for the camera to select 1/380 sec. The camera can shoot from ISO 80 to 400 with acceptable results, but 80 is by far the best and the camera does default to 80 if it possibly can make the shot that way. This might sometimes mean that you have a vivid picture that's motion-blurred. If you can keep a reign on trying to use more zoom than you have the hands for, you won't encounter blur. Also remember that focus precision is more important at longer focal lengths. It takes longer to focus when it's zoomed all the way out.

2. Bad night pictures. I've not encountered a camera that has a night mode that's better than I am. If you take over control of this camera, you can get great night pictures. I shot pictures of the stars last night, and they came out perfect. Most of that was because I knew to shoot on manual, bracket exposures, and have realistic expectations. No camera's automatic modes will let you shoot pictures like in National Geographic or the Neiman Marcus catalog.

3. Rechargable battery. Many people wish it used AA batteries so you won't be tied to a charger. Don't worry about it. It will shoot hundreds of pictures on one charge, so just remember to charge the battery after a long day of shooting. Big deal. I like that I won't have to buy AA batteries for it. The cost would add up.

4. Lack of "raw" image format. I havn't had a problem with this, and noone short of a real pro is likely to. It does store pictures only as JPG, but I havn't seen any problems one would normally associate with that. YMMV.

5. Slow movie framerate/noisy movies/no zoom in movie mode, etc. This is not a camcorder. The movie mode is like a freebie for me, and I recognize the reasons for these weaknesses. If you really want to shoot movies, buy a MiniDV camcorder instead. You'll be a lot happier with it.

6. Non-pocketable size. How could you possibly expect it to be much smaller?

7. Uncomfortable grip. I've got bear-paw hands, so it's not as comfortable as the meaty contour grip of my EOS. It's not the worst I've felt, but they could've gotten this a little better by adding a little more size to that end of the camera. I don't think that it would hurt anyone's feelings if that end were just a smidge larger. See #6

8. Controls. These are some of the best and most intuitive controls I've seen in a long time. However, it seems that way to me because they so closely mimic the controls on my EOS. I especially like the fact that the control dial is lighted. Expect to stumble through it a little if you aren't generally used to using versatile cameras, but you'll quickly find that it can do most of what you'd expect from a 35mm SLR and then some.

And now my own criticisms:

1. Software. Once I got it installed, it works flawlessly and easily. However, it required a service pack update to my Windows 2000 that gave me a BSOD and required a full reinstall. Ouch. That upset me a little, but I did fix it. That wasn't really Kodak's fault, but just be warned.

2. Power up takes a little longer than I would like, mostly because the lens folds itself into the body when the camera is powered down. It takes it about a second to reach shooting position. Once there, focusing and zooming do not change the length of the lens barrell.

3. Using "speeds" higher than ISO 140 gets grainy in a hurry. It looks remarkably like enlarging old high-speed film. Dark areas get a random blotchiness that averages to the right color, just like the Konica 3200 color print film used to. If you can stick to bright lights or the tiny flash. An external flash can be used for better range. Vivitar 283 fans, rejoice! It doesn't require a dedicated flash.

OK, I've had the camera for a week, but took it to an important family party last weekend and shot about 80 photos--different modes, light, etc. Then took it to WalMart Kodak Picture Maker machine and got 2 CDs made, some enlargements and lots of 4x6s. This camera is wonderful. I did a lot of research before buying. It's true, you can use this camera "out of the box." The clarity (resolution) is so good, it's almost too good. With the 10x optical zoom, I'm seeing (in the prints) veins on flowers, imperfections on human skin, every last detail! I didn't even realize it also gives you the option of "dialing down" to lower megapixels if you want to save space, and the lower resolution also produced beautiful pictures. I bought a 256 MB memory card so don't have to worry about running out of room. The "burst" mode worked great for action shots. The video mode worked great. I haven't had a chance yet to try the manual mode, but it's nice to have that option. Check out the other features I'm not even mentioning here (slide show on TV, for example). Some reviews on other web sites voiced concerns about battery life. I shot pictures over several hours, with the LCD viewfinder on, plus shot a short video clip with the camera, and never ran out of battery power. I've shown the results to people who know a lot more about photography than I and they were impressed. I even enlarged one photo to 8x10 to be hung on the wall, it is so clear, light-balanced, artistic (I didn't even try that hard!) etc. And remember, this was my first time out with this camera! I've already sold two other people on this camera, after seeing my pictures. I can't think of any negatives (no pun intended), other than I am still trying to find the right camera case for this. I had used my daughter's Easyshare on a previous vacation, and was impressed with the ease of use. I upgraded to this camera specifically for the 10x optical zoom, it was worth the extra money. Did I mention this is a great camera?? Buy, and enjoy!

I purchased this camera as an upgrade to another digital Kodak I picked up about 2 years ago. I loved the idea of the zoom & sports setting, because I attend many professional wrestling events a year. It's nice to be able to snap photos of my wrestling heroes in action & this camera allows it w/no blurring. Lighting @ the events is minimal, but every shot came out perfect when I used the flash setting. It is *so* simple to use it's unreal.

I recommend picking up the largest SD capture card you can find. I use a 512mb SD card & it holds around 350 photos in the highest quality. I'm waiting for the SanDisk Ultra II 1GB card to come out, that'll be my next "upgrade". Ultra has one of the fastest write speeds available & my dad has a Ultra CF for his Canon camera, it makes the unbearable "pause" time between photos vanish, so I look forward to buying that when it comes out in a few months.

I picked up the EasyShare Printer along w/the camera & have already printed 50+ photos. The photos print crisp, clear, & look like they came from a professional lab. I highly recommend it along w/the camera, you'll love it. The prints come out *beautiful* when printed @ any size.

My only worry was that the Printer refill packages would cost a lot more than taking the photos to the store for printing, but they cost around 30 cents a photo which is even better than most online printing sources.

Just as I thought I couldn't live w/out my other Kodak, I have no idea how I'll live w/out this one.

I've had this camera for 7 months and, in that time frame, I've also tried out 2 other digital cameras. A Pentax Optio S4i and the Sony T-1. Here are my comparisons and observations.

I'll start with the flaws. The first and most annoying (and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars) is that this camera has difficulty focusing in low light (by "low light" I mean any time you might be required to use the flash). Many times, it just doesn't achieve a proper focus. This results in either a blurry, unfocused photograph or missing the shot all together. The Sony T-1 takes care of this by shining a red light on the subject so it can achieve a proper focus. The Kodak DX6490, and a lot of other digital cameras, badly need this feature.
The second flaw might not be a flaw to many of you. I personally think that this camera is too big and bulky. Obviously, that is the trade off for the huge zooming capabilities. But still, the Sony T-1 is so compact and easy to carry! The Kodak DX6490 needs a big carrying case. You can't just clip it to your jeans or put it in your shirt pocket. You have to have to carry it around like a purse. It's like carrying and old 35mm camera. Definitely not very convenient. And since it's not convenient to carry around at all times, you're going to miss some shots `cause you didn't have your camera with you!
Also, the start-up time takes too long. 4-5 seconds vs. the T-1's 1.5 seconds.

As for the good stuff, I have to say that this camera takes great photos! It blows the Sony T-1 and the Pentax Optio S4i away. If you can achieve a proper focus when you're in low light, the flash is definitely adequate (the T-1 and S4i have very inadequate flashes). In low light and daylight, the colors are vivid and the depth and quality of the shots are very good. Much better than the 5.1 mega-pixel T-1 and waaaayyy better than the S4i (the S4i is a crappy camera).
The 2.2" screen is really nice (the T-1's is better, though). The zoom is incredible. It feels secure in your hand. The features are a little limited compared to the T-1's but they're adequate, none the less.

Conclusions: If the Sony T-1 would take photos like the DX6490, I would have a T-1 in my hands right now. But I don't. I'm holding the DX6490. It ultimately comes down to "how good are the photos" and the DX6490 takes some damn good ones!

I truly loved my digital Elph. While this Kodak can't match the Elph's convenient size, our new Kodak EasyShare is awesome! My wife and I love the 10x zoom which blows away any comparably priced cameras. The viewer is huge. If you turn off the "preview" option, the camera can snap photos in pretty rapid succession. We bought the camera mainly to get better quality photos of our newborn baby, and its been more than adequate for that. Our camera came with the docking station too, but I don't really see that as any big asset. We would like the camera with or without the dock.

Complaints? The only real problem I've had with the camera is taking photos outdoors in bright sunlight. I've had a tough time seeing through the viewer (but I am probably doing something wrong in all honesty). I'm not a huge fan of the wheel that turns the camera on and changes modes, just a minor complaint. And, again, I wish the camera was a little bit smaller.

I have read everyone's review before writing mine.

Plus Points
1. Price is good considering 10X OPTICAL zoom.
2. Quality of Close up pictures under bright/low light are EXCELLENT in Color and detail.
3. Video capability is very good and useful.
4. Great LCD. I always love bigger LCD. (Luck me, I have Samsung Camcorder with very large LCD)
5. Compact and looks good
6. Very user friendly.

Minus Points
1. Does't capture good photos in dark. May be that's the case with other cameras too.
2. Hand-shake during photo spoils the photo.

Before buying this camera on Amazon checkout if they provide the docking station that's useful for recharging and transfering photos to your computer with one touch.

- regards
Rajesh Kamisetty

My fiance and I are getting married in June and we wanted to make sure that we had a nice digital camera before the wedding so that we can document stuff leading up to the big day and honeymoon. We had seriously considered getting a less flashy camera and then save up for a nicer one for later on (with a big zoom etc...). We got this one for several reasons. If you are just interested in a "is it good or not?", my short answer is yes and it will be worth your money spent. If you would like a more detailed analysis, read on.
We were looking for a digital camera with lots of automatic functions, the ability to do things manually if we choose, and a nice zoom. We wanted four megapixels, not really more or less. It will be really rare for us to print any pictures larger than 4X6, but we wanted to be sure that we had the option of 8X10 (hence higher than 3.2 megapixel). The difference between a 4 MP and a 5MP camera as of 9/04 is about a hundred USD, so we decided that we didn't need to spend an extra hundred for one more megapixel. We are both biologists (me a teacher, she in environmental biology). It is really important for us to be able to zoom in when at a zoo or in natural areas. We ARE NOT professional photographers and are just getting into understanding manually setting the shutter speed, ISO etc.
We looked at the Canon S1 IS, the Panasonic FZ15 or FZ20, the Minolta Z series, and the Fuji E550. All of these, PLUS this camera (the KODAK DX6490) had cons that we didn't like. It really frustrates us that the current state of the digi cam market within our price range ($400 USD) does not have a combination of all the features we want. So, if you are shopping around, don't necessarily expect to find a camera that has all the features you want.
A brief list of the cons of the cameras above: Canon: only 3.2 megapixel and confusing menus, Panasonic: most of the features really great, but not available at any of the retail stores where we could get the no interest financing that we really needed, Minolta Z series: very small (1.5") LCD screens, Fuji E550: only 3X optical zoom, expensive picture cards, movie format is AVI, not quicktime. I'll give a detailed discussion of the pros and cons of the Kodak 6490 below.
Now, all of those cameras above are really nice cameras within that price range. The Panasonic and the Fuji E550 were top choices for a while. We did a lot of internet research into a lot of different cameras, some lacking zoom, some with, some in a much lower or higher price range. So, our choice was a choice of what we considered to be the best combination of what we wanted, not because the Kodak was unbelievably better than any of the others.
We have now had the camera for about a week and are very pleased with it. The camera is very easy to use in many ways. The buttons on the actual camera are obvious in terms of their use. It takes a very short read of a few pages of the manual to understand what the very few "not so obvious" buttons do. The menu navigation is incredibly simple. Every option selected has a message in the upper right hand corner of the screen telling you what that menu selection does. The screen has the capability of showing you a lot of info about your settings, or you can turn it off. The choice is nice. The software is also really easy to use. Its not like high quality software that you buy, but it does its job. The software is very similar to iPhoto, and unlike my version of iPhoto (which is very new), the Kodak software will find and catalog every picture on your computer. The other nice thing about the Easyshare system is that you can upload picture directory names (called albums) to your camera and then tag pictures with those album names so that your pictures will automatically be sorted to the directory you want. Today I noticed that the Easyshare software will "auto-detect" other digital cameras and download the pictures for you. This is a great aspect to those that have another digital camera with bad software. Olympus' software is horrible and it took me one tenth of the time to download my last pics from the old camera before I sold it to someone!
Feel free to read other reviews about the "share" button. It is a nice feature, but since I don't have an internet ready computer at home (only at work) and since I can't afford a nice photo printer (or even the Dock after buying this : ) ), the feature is kind of useless to me. It doesn't surprise me that Kodak has developed features to streamline photo printing, but you have to have the equipment to email, photo print, etc, and on my salary and with a wedding coming up I just can't afford those accessories.
This camera has an awesome zoom. I'll discuss more of the cons of a zoom this big later on during the "cons" section. The 10X is really nice and you can and should turn off the digital zoom as it reduces picture quality.
I really like that the camera allows you to select picture quality settings. You can save pictures as 4MP, 3.5MP, 2 MP or 1.1 MP. Each is good for different applications and is nice to be able to choose. A real bonus is that if you KNOW that a picture you are taking will only ever be printed in 4X6, you can reduce the quality to 3.5MP, still get photo quality printing, but save space on the memory card.
The movie mode with sound is great. It takes movies at 320X240 at 24 FPS (movie theatre frame rate is EXCELLENT), which is not big enough for a TV screen, but a great size for the computer. Honestly, if you want to take video and project it on your TV screen, I recommend just buying a digital camcorder. Movies are saved as Quicktimes. With my 512 MB card that I stuck in it, I can get 30 minutes. The movies are ultra smooth and the microphone picks up sound at a decent range. It's nice to be able to take some nice quality video, even if that is not the point of a digital camera.
This camera has the largest LCD currently available on the market at 2.2". Its great to have a big picture of what you just captured. On a quick side note, the camera does have an electronic viewfinder that you can look through and conserve battery power while still reviewing.
We have had the camera for a while and the picture quality looks good to me. I haven't printed anything yet so I can't really comment on that yet.
Probably one of the best features is the rechargeable Li battery. My previous camera (an Olympus D-380) had great battery life with CRV3 lithiums, but those batteries are $20 USD a piece! It is awesome to not have to buy separate batteries and will practically pay off the camera over the years. We have taken over 60 pictures so far with LCD on and with the flash and so far the battery is still going. The manual says to expect to get 160-210 pictures before you need a charge. I assume the 160 is if you use the LCD and flash every time. That's pretty good! I know spare batteries are available, but I have no idea what they cost. The battery charged up in just over 2.5 hours.
The camera has 16 MB of internal memory. Many people would say "Foul, it should have more memory than that!" I sympathize with this viewpoint but I think it is important to remember that most cameras don't even come with ANY internal memory. Having the internal memory allowed me to still play with the camera while saving money by buying a separate card online. SD/MMC memory are the more affordable memory types as well. CompactFlash and xD-picture cards are retail almost double the price at Best Buy. The manual only gives storage estimates up to 256 MB, but you can put any size card in it you want. My 512 MB card holds 384 pictures on highest quality. I plan to always split that between pictures and video.
The negatives of this camera are few. My first problem is that the images can look really blurry at 10X zoom. I haven't had many problems with taking pictures at 10X so far but they looked horrible when I tried it at Best Buy. I plan on getting a tripod. I hear this is a standard way of going about things for large zoom on ANY camera. The image stabilization that Canon and Panasonic have on the cameras mentioned above would make this one near perfect.
My fiancé does not like the "color enhancement" feature that is on the camera. Basically, the chip enhances all of the colors so they look really bright. My fiancé thinks that sometimes the pictures look unnaturally colorful as a result of this. You CAN turn this feature off by setting it to "neutral color", but you have to do this every time you turn on the camera. The manual claims there is a way that you can set it to PASM mode and always keep the "neutral color", but this is one of the very few things I haven't been able to figure out how to do. I personally don't think the color enhancement looks unnatural, but I also have really poor vision. I did a test with "saturated" and "neutral" color of my fiancé, and her lips look rosier with the color enhancement. I don't think they look freakishly rosy.
One minor gripe that could be fixed is that while in movie mode, you cannot use the zoom feature. You can set the zoom ahead of time and then capture the video, but some cameras (like the Canon S1 IS) allow you to zoom while shooting video.
I want to echo the reviewer above that the plastic door to the USB port looks like it will eventually break. Not a big deal, but worth noting.
One thing to note about digital cameras in general, is that different cameras have different chips that convert the optical image in the lens to digital pixels in a file. They are called CCDs (Charge Coupled Device) and have ratings of 1/some number. Basically, the lower the number, the smaller the pixels put in the file. The smaller the pixels, the more crisp the image. Most digital cameras on the market have a rating of 1/2.5. The DX6490 has that rating. Fuji has just finished some "super" chip that has a CCD of 1/1.7. That is the best we have been able to find in the $400 USD price range. So, the CCD on this Kodak camera isn't the best, but it is no different than most other cameras, and the pictures look fine.
I think that this is a great camera and a great product. The cons that I have mentioned are more annoyances than real problems. Kodak has just come out with a 5.0 MP version of this camera that may be worth checking out if you want higher resolution pictures. I would buy this camera again.

ALERT: My favorite feature by far is the 6 shot burst. It lets you hold the trigger and take 6 pictures in 2 seconds. If you are trying to capture good action shots or get the perfect smile you need this. When the kids are playing or the parents are visiting I just hold the trigger. Take 20 or 30 shots and discard most of them. However, with this method you will capture photos that will make you the super-hero photographer of the family. The newer 5 megapixel camera cannot do 6 shots (only 5) because is doesn't have enough processing power to capture 6 shots at 5mp. Jumping to 5mp is only necessary if you are going to be printing poster sized pictures or if you don't like to aim. Then you can just blow up your pictures to see if you got anything good and crop out the rest.

This camera is awesome. It has terrific accessories. It is simple to use with automatic settings for your spouse who hates your tech toys.

Everybody raves over my photos. The camera gets most of the credit. It's also much cheaper than the newer kodak model.

Everybody I know who bought a camera with 3x optical is mad at themselves when they see what this 10x model can do.

I can't figure out if all the sellers are confused, or if they are intentionally trying to confuse all the buyers! The DX6490 is now being sold two ways--with and without the dock. The one you are looking at on this page has NO DOCK! Thus, you will not be able to recharge your camera battery unless you also buy a dock, or buy the Kodak battery recharger kit for the type of Li-Ion battery enclosed with this camera. The AC cord does not recharge the battery; it's just for saving battery life, which you will probably discover you don't need to do; the Li-Ion battery with this camera is better than any other camera batteries I've ever used.

I believe they are selling it without the dock, for those who travel and prefer the battery recharger that fits right into a wall outlet. Or, even more likely, they want people to buy the PRINTER DOCK. The printer dock recharges the battery, so you don't need the recharger dock that comes with this camera, if you buy the camera with a dock at the higher price. The printer dock price has drastically dropped this month, which makes it more reasonable to buy this camera without the recharger dock, and then buy the printer dock.

The only question is--why did the printer dock suddenly go way down in price? My guess is Kodak is coming out with a new printer dock soon, or they are very concerned about the competition. For example, Epson just released a printer that uses printer packs--paper and ink included--that sells for $200, as the Kodak printer dock did until this month. The Epson is not a dock, but uses memory cards to print. Their printer pack refill kit is like $4 more than the Kodak refill kit, but it makes 60 more 4x6 prints!

So, you might keep that in mind when you are deciding what battery charger to get. But this is a fabulous camera! I've had it for 7 months, and believe there is none better. If you want to read lots of reviews on the camera, just go to the page where the camera is selling with the dock.