Customer Reviews

Kodak Easyshare DX7440 4 MP Digital Camera with 4xOptical Zoom

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is my second digital camera, so I shopped around very carefully and chose this one. I haven't been disappointed.

One thing I really like is that it is relatively easy to hold and handle--not like some of those super compact cameras that are so popular now. The DX7440 has a nice hand grip, and the controls are all very accessible.

This camera is also very FAST. Many digital camera have an awkward shutter lag. This camera focuses very very fast, and there is no discernible shutter lag. Look at the specifications and compare to other cameras!

The "automatic" picture-taking setting work great with no worries and excellent quality, but if you're ambitious, there are lots of manual controls available like aperture priority and shutter priority and etc.

The zoom lens is wonderful; 4x is better than the 3x on most cameras in this price range, and it zooms in very fast and smooth. 4x zoom is actually more powerful than the more expensive Kodak DX7630, with 3x zoom.

4 megapixels allows plenty of room for cropping your shots and still retaining good quality.

I just got a set of photos back from Winkflash, an on-line photo lab, and the picture quality is excellent for 4x6 snapshots.

Battery life is quite good. I went for a 4-day camping trip and filled up an entire 512 mb memory card without running out of juice. That's with the supplied battery, and a longer-lasting one is available for $24 on Amazon.

The extra-large LCD screen is also much better than most of the competition, and can be viewed even in bright sunlight.

On a Macintosh, you do not have to use the Kodak software. The camera interfaces fine with mac's Iphoto software. The Mac X image capture software allows for downloading movies.

You can shoot movies in 640 by 480, double the resolution of most cameras.

I bought a 32x high speed 512 mb Lexar Sd card, which works fine--although apparently there is only a minimal advantage to a high-speed card, and Kodak does not recommend them.

For a camera case, I highly recommend the Lowepro D-Res 10AW. The DX74440 fits PERFECTLY, with room for a battery and spare memory card. The case is well-designed, well-padded, and compact.

For the range of features, ease of use, and price, the DX7440 can't be beat!

I'm not joking about the stock. This is my second Kodak EasyShare camera. My first was a basic EasyShare CX4310, which is a sturdy digital point-and-shoot. After a year of digital photography, I wanted two things in an upgrade: zoom, which is easy to find, and fast shutter speed, which is not.

Most digital cameras have significant shutter lag. You press the button and tell people to just keep smiling, really. By the time you get the shot, they've started looking elsewhere or the smiles have faded into irritation or the photo is just a blur of movement. I went to several local electronics stores and experimented with display models (often putting in my own media card so I could examine the photos later) before making a final decision.

There are plenty of cameras with more megapixels, but I feel comfortable in saying NONE below $900 with a comperable shutter speed. I didn't want a digital SLR. If you whip out a huge camera at parties, people flinch. I wanted something both fast and discreet, something I could carry in my pocket and whip out the second anything intersting happened without having to stage a shot.

The Kodak EasyShare DX7440 lives up to all my expectations. If it did nothing more than take fast, clear photos, I would be thrilled, but it is loaded with other features I appriciate.

PROS:

* The 16 built in presets work beautifully. I've been very pleased with the results ranging from "Sports" to "Self Portrait."

* If you don't like their presets, you can make your own settings very easily.

* This camera is great for a whole family. Point and shoot people can just leave it on "auto." More advanced photographers can set fstop and aperature settings manually. I particularly appriciate that Kodak made seperate controls for the dummy and pro settings. A little wheel in the upper right corner controls manual settings, so if your point-and-shoot spouse picks up the camera, they don't lose your settings OR take lousy pictures and wonder why you broke the camera.

* The preview screen on back is HUGE, making it very easy to frame shots.

* You can change aspect ratios on the camera itself, so instead of shooting at 4x5 (equilivent of an 8x10 photo) you can set it to shoot at 2x3 (equilivent of a 4x6 photo). This means less cropping and photo editing later. This feature is espically nice if you have a printer dock and want to print straight from your camera.

* The video feature works shockingly well. Set it to video, press the button once, and it will film until you fill up your memory card or you press the same button, telling it to stop. You don't have to hold down the shutter the whole time, which is a major bonus. The video quality is about average, with surprisingly good sound pickup. The ability to simply plug the camera into a TV using standard cables is *wonderful.* I never thought I'd want something like this, but now I'll be disapointed if I ever lose it.

* Burst mode works very well.

* Zoom is smooth and fast. You can set it to either flow organically or to hop to 1x, 2x, etc.

* The interface software is hands-down the best in the business. You don't have to "learn" a Kodak camera. They are very intuitively designed. Other manufacturers could learn something from studying their interface.

CONS:

* The presets are easy to access, but just as easy to accidentally switch while in the process of taking a photo. Several pictures intended for party mode have ended up in "Night Landscape." They were partially salvagable with color correction software, but still pretty unsatisfactory.

* The camera loses the time and date settings every time you remove the battery. If you have a charging dock, this probably isn't an issue, but for those of us who charge the battery seperately, it gets annoying very fast.

* Like most digital cameras, people complain about the brightness of the flash. As a photographer, I'd say they use just enough, but as a subject, it can be painfully blinding. This is all the more reason to take action shots rather than lining people up for posed photos.

All in all, I love this camera and expect to use it for years to come. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a high quality pocket sized digital camera.

This camera is the best! I upgraded from a 3-yr-old Olympus 3MP/2X zoom to this 4MP/4X zoom, but the best thing about the upgrade is how fast it is. It has an internal memory that is used as a temporary hard drive, and taking pictures is instantaneous. I think the specs on Kodak.com say it takes 0.2 seconds to take picture after picture (to up to about 6 or so pics in a row manually), and only 1.2 seconds from turning the camera on to taking a picture. I can vouch for that personally. You can literally circle the room, taking pictures like a gunslinger.

Don't let the "Professional" grade scare you off. Just put it on auto and go. If you want fine tune your pics, it has 16 modes you can use, like sand, night landscape, night portrait, etc.

It also uses a lithium ion battery, similar to what camcorders use. It even comes with its own charger. I know you might prefer AA rechargable types, but lithium ion lasts a lot longer. And besides, if you don't use the viewfinder to take pictures (since it's unnecessary) your battery will literally last months between charges. So if you are going on vacation, just charge it up before you go. No worries.

If you are thinking about getting the 5MP/3X Zoom that Kodak also sells, which I was also considering, then realize that a zoom level is equal to about a MP. 4MP by itself is plenty, unless you're making posters, and the extra zoom lets you focus on what you want, and helps to eliminate cropping later.

The USB plug & software works like a charm. Even if you don't use the software, my Windows XP automatically recognizes the camera as another hard drive, in my case, the "J" hard drive. Then just cut and paste. Some people might complain about the low budget photo editing software, which lets you get rid of red-eye, and do some cropping, and that's about it, but if you want something fancy, then go out and get some $50 software that will do everything. Don't let that keep you from getting this camera. The charger that comes included is worth $50 by itself.

The camera looks bigger based on its pics, but it's actually quite small and light, and will easily fit in a pants pocket.

The bottom line is there is nothing I would change about this camera. Every time I use it I literally say, "I love this camera." I was very pleased with the photo quality from my old Olympus, but I'm a die-hard Kodak user now. Don't forget about how fast it is! Nothing's more frustrating than missing out on a great picture because your camera's too slow.

The Kodak DX7440 is a near perfect combination of features and ease of use. The 2.2" viewfinder is great for framing shots both inside and outside and the 4x zoom gets you a little closer than most cameras in its class. The ergonomics of the camera are also a plus. It fits comfortably in my hand and the dial and joystick are very easy to use. The Kodak DX7440 produces vivid colors that other digital cameras just can't match and the images are much sharper than the Canon I previously owned.

For the beginner photographer, it has a full auto mode and a number of special scene modes to help take great pictures. For the intermediate photographer, it has PASM modes which give you even more creative control. The movie mode is better than most cameras, but if you really want to make movies, you should probably get a camcorder.

I have only 2 complaints about the DX7440 - the lack of a superfine compression mode and the use of a proprietary battery. However, neither of these issues are too big of a deal. Hopefully Kodak will release a firmware update at some point in the future to address the superfine compression. I ended up buying 2 backup Li-Ion batteries so that should not be an issue in the future.

In conclusion, I would recommend this camera to any beginner or intermediate photographer who wants a camera that is simple and fun to use.

I chose this as my second camera in a rush because my HP "fell ill" after 3 years (that was a good camera also). I could've never made a better choice. I have so much creative control with the focus, zoom, color, lighting and all other choices that I had never had before. This camera gives you the ability to be as artistic in your photos as you want. The photos come out clear and big and as someone said in a previous review, their original resolution gives you a large enough size to work with. The 16 set scenes give you even more creative control, there is one for anything you dream of taking pictures of.

The software is easy to install and transfer is very simple. I had the box open, battery in and had taken the first few pictures all within 5 minutes of buying it. Battery life is about 45 minutes before you need to recharge (takes about 3 hours or less depending on how much you want it charged). This camera even gives you a snapshot sound (which you can change to music) each time you turn it on or take a picture. The pictures take incredibly fast. You can literally shoot in the moment, not 2 seconds from the moment. The 2.2 inch screen is also a good size to work with. I've found no problems with it at all.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this camera to anyone, beginners and intermediates alike. It will put the life into your photography. You'll never want to stop taking pictures! For the price and the artistic freedom, this would be your best choice, you won't regret it!

I've owned many digicams, and this one is the best! I've had Olympus, Canon, Toshiba, and Sony cameras... this is the first one I've LOVED both the camera and the capability! I've even downgraded from my 5 MP camera for the shutter speed and better zoom.

Pros: The shutter is very fast, MUCH faster than any previous camera. It turns on quickly, and shoots fast. The pictures are great 95% of the time (not in love with the macro mode, though). There are many different scene presets, like museum (where the sound and flash are turned off), Party (red-eye reduction on), etc, etc. There are on screen prompts that tell you when you might want to use each mode. VERY VERY user friendly. It has a neat "favorites" mode, that saves a smaller copy of favorite pics on the camera so you can use it as a sort of album, one touch easy. Very cool. The shot-to-review time is lightening fast. I LOVE this camera, if you can't tell.

Cons: If you have picture preview, and are using the screen to frame shots, the delay is sort of long. (Just use the optical viewfinder to avoid this problem.) The macro mode.. didn't like that preset. Did better getting further away and zooming, but that changes the depth of focus. Need to figure out the manual settings that work for this. Battery life wasn't great: I got about 100 pics, but that's why I always buy a back-up. I'm hard on batteries. Use the LCD all the time, show lots of people the shots, etc. Although the batteries are proprietary, they're not too crazy expensive: less then $25 here.

I thought about the higher resolution DX7640 (6MP, 3x optical zoom), but a manual lens cap? Are they insane? I'm as lazy as the day is long, and would either never put it on, or lose it right away, and end up with a scratched/useless lens very quickly.

I haven't tried the EasyShare stuff, like the dock for the computer and the printer, but some might find this nice. The pictures this camera takes are well worth printing, that's for sure, but I use online printing.

This camera has reinstilled my love of taking photos (note: not photography.. I'm definately not a pro, just a consumer that wants to document puppies and children before they become dogs and adults). The difference a short shutter lag makes is HUGE for me...

As a rank novice, point-and-shoot person I am, I can't tell you about the advantages of the more advanced features. But apparently the PASM can be advantage, if you're smarter than me. For me, I shoot, upload, crop, email and/or print.

I would also like to recommend Photoshop Album for those that are getting into digital photos. It integrates well with this camera, and allows you to keep all your photos much better organized. In my years of digital photography, I've accumulated about 4000 photos... without Album, it'd be near impossible to find particular photos.

I have received this Kodak new digital camera DX7440 for two weeks. The lithum-ion battery and charger that come with the camera are nice extras. The 32MB memory is enough for 20 pictures or about 1.5 minutes movie in highest resolution.

I love the movie mode right away. The camera also record sounds, I filmed my cousin's birthday party with a brand new 256 MB secure digital memory card. We connected the camera to the big screen 42" TV and it was a moment of blast!! We laughed and enjoyed every moment of it. It captured a lot of details and it seemed that the camera erased a lot of my hand movements and shaking; i.e. stabilizer. The sound recorded was good as well.

Man, the pictures are wonderful. We went to the dark backyard at evening time, played hide and seek, and the viewfinder lighted up and I saw everybody in the viewfinder even though it was very dark.

The flash light worked excellent in dark as well and the pictures turned out great no matter day or night. The 4X optical zoom was amazing, better than my other friends' 3X; and the viewfinder was big measured at 2.2 inches wide.


The joystick was fun to play with, it controls a lot of things, such as when reviewing your pictures and you like to zoom to an area and enlarge it. The camera lets you zoom to 8X as big when reviewing pictures. Man, you see a lot and a lot of details. And, the quality is so amazing!!!

I am so much in love with this light-weight Kodak that I want to enjoy its full extend by purchasing the camera printer dock and print pictures myself. As of this writing, I am waiting for the printer dock. I will give you an update soon.

Man, this is one heck of a digital camera. Kodak, you did it! Highly recommended.

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Update One (8/6/2004):

Later found that the CD that comes with the camera contains interactive tutorials about how to use the camera, how to email photos, how to printer photos, etc. Nice!!

Just got our 10"X8" photots ordered from Ofoto.com, the pictures look perfect, no distortion, vivid and true colors. We even got our first 10 free 4"X6" prints. Wonderful!! I know that its capable of getting up to 20"X30". Yet, we don't have room for that big a picture yet.

My Kodak Printer Dock has just arrived. It automatically recharges the battery, nice!! Emailing pictues to friends and relatives is just one touch away after inputting email addresses. It's so very easy!!!

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Update two (8/9/2004):

The camera comes with 10 4"X6" free printer dock photo paper, the printer dock also comes with another 10 free 4"X6" photo papaer. I printed 5 of my pictures; since Kodak says that the printer automatically laminates prints, I put one of them in a bowl of water and see. I got up the next morning and picked up that picture from the water, the pictures was still intact. The lamination was perfect and make the picture free of weather attack. Still, one has to keep the picture from direct sunlights, but at least it is free from moisture attack and finger prints. This is an advantage over other print sources for 4"x6"s.

The quality of the prints are also great, with true colors and sharp clarity; just as how they look from the viewfinder.

Some of my friends ask if there is another Kodak that may be about the same quality, functionality, but cheaper. I also suggest the LS743, which also let you take 4.0 Megapixel photos and TV-quality movies with sound. I think that that one is slightly cheaper from Amazon.com. Yet, that one has a slightly smaller viewfinder and 1X less zoom (3X instead of 4X of the DX7440).

Also, taking movie seems easier than using the camcorders. The advantage is that it is smaller and lighter, making it easier to carry around and my hand does not get tried fast. The quality is already TV-quality, which is the same as the camcorders.

The disadvantage is that the battery does not last as long as the camcorders as theirs are heavier and bigger. And, movie length is limited by the size of your memory card. So, you may need a bigger card to take longer movies. Yet, memory card prices are getting cheaper and cheaper; and battery lives are getting longer and longer.

In conclusion, this is the camera for all the photo and movie needs, with ease of use and handy features, especially big viewfinder, TV-quality movie functionality so one can occaionally take movie for memory. My other friends are surprised by its various abilities and quality.

This incredible 4.0 mega pixel camera comes with an amazingly big and high-resolution 2.2" TFT screen and is equipped with a fabulous professional-quality SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON lens, capable of 4X optical zoom, which is - in my opinion - very impressive. The camera is compact and very aesthetic, easy and comfortable to use. It has excellent features, such as the very smart and useful "Share" button, 16 programmed scene modes, 5 color modes (low color, natural color, high color, black & white and sepia) and 2 movie modes. You can also choose image resolution out of five options: 1.1 MP, 2.1 MP, 3.1 MP, 3.5 MP and 4.0 MP.
The camera also includes manual and custom controls. You can choose between auto mode (camera sets settings for you), scenes mode, program mode, aperture priority mode, shutter priority mode, manual mode and custom mode.
A feature which I found helpful is the image-rotating sensor, which automatically rotates the vertical image once it's taken. It saves you the trouble of doing it yourselves with an image-editing program.
The important feature that this camera offers, aside from many more terrific options it has, is the "Share" button, that allows you to tag pictures for printing and for emailing, and later when you connect the camera to your computer it can do that immediately - according to the software settings. The software is not the best I've seen, but still it's pretty good (of course, there's lots of room for improvement). I personally don't like it very much, but it helps you organize your pictures and it also has some minor editing options that help you make corrections in your images to achieve the result you want. Once the camera is connected to the computer, the software wizard pops up and helps you transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer. Also, you must work with this software in order to create an email address book and then transfer it to the camera so that you will be able to tag the pictures. For instance, if you have Friend 1 and Friend 2 in your address book, you can do the tagging so that the image will be sent to Friend 1 when the camera is connected to the computer.
I am generally very satisfied with the camera, and it surprised me big time when I got it with some awesome things that I didn't expect to see. The camera delivers stunning pictures at an excellent quality. The pictures are sharp and detailed, colors are accurate and the result is as good as promised. The first few pictures I took with this camera didn't turn out very successful, but since these were my first ones and I hadn't known how to use the camera fully, the camera is not to blame. The last few pictures I took are stunning.
I have a 256 MB SanDisk memory card. With an empty card like this I can shoot a video in 640x480 mode in the length of 13:55 minutes. You can also choose the 320x240 movie-shooting mode, which allows you to make a 24:28-minute long movie. That's a very good thing that I haven't seen so far in the cameras I know. The video comes out very good, but the thing I was disappointed about is you cannot use the camera zoom while shooting a video.
The menus are nicely designed, have lots of options and let you choose and control quite about everything.
One thing that I found lacking is the way the mode dial is built. "Video" and "Favorites" are both located behind "OFF", and that means that you have to turn off the camera first and then turn it back on to get to these.
I have owned it for a pretty short time, but already impressed a lot from it, but then again haven't fully figured out how to use all the smart advanced features it has to offer. I bought my camera for 283 dollars, and I think this camera is a great value for this amount of money.
The camera comes with a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery (isn't it much better than those AA batteries?) that takes about two hours to recharge, and all the necessary accessories, plus the EasyShare Software CD and a manual book that explains the basic things you need to know about the camera and the way to use it. The book is very helpful, and helps you learn what you need to know.
Plus, the fantastic Kodak website offers all the support you need (and if you lost your book you can find it there and read all of its contents on the web!), advices for taking pictures and using your digital camera, and of course if you want to buy and haven't decided yet, just go to the camera page, where you'll find everything you want to know: detailed camera specifications, larger views, camera demo, package contents, features highlight and system requirements. I highly recommend visiting the Kodak website.
I would recommend the camera to anyone. It's simple and easy to use on one hand (you just turn the camera on auto mode, take as many pictures as you like and then press the "review" button to see them); but it's professional and has many options and qualities on the other hand, and that allows the advanced user to produce great images maximizing the camera's abilities. The camera also has an option for a date stamp for those who don't want to forget when the image was taken.

Summary: Superb camera, except one weakness - the software. Apart from that, I must say I'm really pleased with this camera. You get your money's worth.
In my opinion, the Printer Dock / Printer Dock 6000 (you might want to wait for the new model, Printer Dock Plus) would be a perfect addition. The Camera Dock would also be a nice thing to have.

This is a full featured yet easy to use camera that takes excellent quality pictures and has a high quality 4x optical zoom lens.

It is extremely fast in focusing and taking pictures, and the focus is almost always perfect. It has a large number of preset settings for circumstances like landscape, portrait, close up etc, but has manual options as well where the enthusiast can set all the settings. It has a burst mode to take pictures rapidly and the ability to take 3 bracketed exposures to get just the right one. The shutter can be set for as long as 64 seconds, for long exposure shots of dark scenes.

The image quality, which is where cameras must perform, is really excellent. There are setting to adjust the sharpness and color saturation to the users choice, so if one wants more muted colors they can be obtained. The usual 'normal' setting though provides rich perfect color. I've taken over a 1000 pictures on this camera to date and have been delighted in the quality of the vast majority--any problems have been the photographers, not the camera! The color reproduction is perfect both indoors and out. Kodak cameras tend to give pictures with high color saturation, but as mentioned, this can be toned down in one of the settings if desired. I like the saturation as it is--looks vibrant and lifelike. The 4 megapixel size is plenty--I've had 8x10 prints made that look identical to film.

Battery life is excellent. The flash is powerful for indoor shots, and it's power can also be adjusted by one of the settings. It is easy to use--the settings are intuitive and the controls are easy to use and easy to find on the camera.

The price for this is also great--making it a stand out deal in the 4 megapixel, 4x zoom lens category.

Highly recommended--easy enough to use by a novice, but has more than enough settings and features for a more expert user.

After weeks of online reviews and talking to camera stores I selected the Kodak DX7440. The camera takes excellent pictures and the software that comes with it is EXTREMELY easy to load and use (sorry Microsoft). For the money and for someone that wants a good easy to use point and shoot camera, this is the one.