Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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229 of 233 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good photos, easy to use, some quirks, little manual control, August 23, 2004
For most people, 3 megapixels is all you need. And while I wouldn't have chosen the Kodak CX7330 for myself, my wife bought it for me to replace our old 3-megapixel Konica, and it's quite a capable little machine. Despite extensive photography experience for over 20 years, I'm surprised how much more I use it because I don't have to make so many decisions about the pictures I take.
The CX7330 takes great snapshots, just don't expect much manual control over them. Whether this is the camera for you depends on whether you want that control (in which case you should pick another model), or just want to take decent photos (in which case this one is quite good).
The camera body is not especially small and all plastic, but (other than the memory card door) feels solid and is comfortable to hold. The controls are very straightforward: choose one of five photo modes, or one movie mode, then press a button to shoot. Since the camera has a good lens and intelligent electronics, the results are generally very good, with much better auto-white balance than on many other comparable cameras. For novices or those who don't have or don't want to use a computer to process their photos, the Share button and available dock and printer could be handy, though they're not for me.
Low-light performance without a flash isn't so great. There is no way to force long exposures, the camera lacks an auto-focus assist lamp like Canon models have, and the lens is a bit slow. Startup and shot-to-shot times are decent, but not all that fast, and fairly typical of this class of camera. Battery life, using either NiMH rechargeables or the included lithium expendables, is fabulous, the best I've ever seen from a digicam using just two AA batteries -- and a huge improvement over many other battery-eating models.
The only control you have over the camera is to choose the shooting mode, set how the flash behaves (auto, forced on, forced off, or red-eye reduction), decide on a resolution (you have no control over how much compression the camera uses, just photo size), and set the self-timer or nice 3-shot burst mode if you want. You can adjust the exposure compensation to take longer or shorter exposures, but there's no way to set the shutter speed, focus, or f-stop directly.
One useful option is a 3-megapixel 3:2 ratio size, which makes shots that fit on the longer 4x6" prints from most photo stores, without needing to be cropped. The movie mode (if you're into that) is quite good for this sort of camera: 320x240 pixels with sound, 15 frames per second, with no limit on time other than the size and speed of your memory card. There is also a neat onscreen display of little "brackets" showing where the camera is focusing, though there is no way to change that other than to recompose your photo.
A few other quirks: Other than the image size, most other parameters (like flash mode) reset themselves when you turn the camera off and on. You can choose either to use the internal 16 MB memory OR an SD/MMC memory card (if present), but not both, i.e. there's no easy way to use an external card until it fills up, then switch to the internal memory automatically. You must make the switch using a menu, or remove your memory card. Finally, while the optical (lens-moving) zoom works all the time, the digital zoom (always a misomer; it's really "in-camera cropping") only operates if you have the LCD screen turned on.
So this is not a camera for serious pro or "prosumer" photography, but for carrying around all the time as a family snapshot camera, or as a backup when you just need to get the picture, it does the job well. And for the price, it's quite a deal.
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123 of 125 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is great camera for a little price., August 9, 2004
My girlfriend has this camera. The software CD works well with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Don't understand why the other reviewer say that it's not compatible. Even if there is this problem, one can always goto www.kodak.com and download the latest software.
Uploading pictures is easy. Connect the USB cable that comes with the camera to the computer, then turn on the camera, the Kodak software automatically detects the photo transfer in a few seconds. Then, you just press "transfer all", it transfers all pictures right away.
Emailing picture is easy. Press email button, enter "from" your email address; enter "to" destination email address, then choose the pictures from right side and click "send". That's it! It is so simple. Of course, be sure you are online when you do this.
The picture quality is pretty good, better than a comparable SONY, which is even costier. I myself use the DX7440, which is a higher-end Kodak 4.0MP with full TV-quality movie mode. We upload pictures to Ofoto.com and print 4"X6", 8"X10" pictures. The colors are true, natural and not over-satuated.
I compare the photos taken from this to my DX7440, there is no difference for 4"X6" at least. My DX7440 does take photos in dark better since there are manual features for that purpose and the DX7440 is more expensive.
The movie mode is a nice extra since sometimes you really want to take some short movies and capture the moments you like to capture in motion.
I have two Kodak digital cameras and my girlfriends and some of our friends all use Kodak digital cameras. As long as it is manufactured after 1/1/2004, the cameras are fine since there is the extra of new Kodak color-science enhancement for the new cameras manufactured in 2004.
The Zoom len also works great. Taking close shots requires pressing a close-shot button otherwise it won't focus properly, just have to remember that.
This camera also works well with Kodak printer dock, the prints are laminated, and it makes the photos free from moisture attack and finger prints. Nice!
In conclusion, this is one great camera. Yet, for those who like to take better night shots and more movie features, get the LS743 or DX7440 or CX7530 or CX7430. These cameras comes with TV-quality movie features.
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55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dang!, November 18, 2004
I take a lot of pictures, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on a new digital....don't want to worry about it being lost or stolen. I bought this camera because it had gotten really great reviews from other users but was still really inexpensive. Maybe users who need a whole lot of features or manual controls wouldn't be happy with it, but the pictures I've taken so far have been excellent.
This camera is also very easy to use--nice, simple zoom feature that gets good closeups without having to be right in someone's face. I agree with other reviewers that the door where you insert the memory card seems VERY fragile, but otherwise it's pretty sturdy and compact.
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a better array of features and such good crisp pictures in other cameras in this price range. If I like it as much as I think I'm going to, I'm also going to spring for the matched printer dock so I can print some of these nice photos. I checked it out too (so you don't have to) and it got equally good reviews across the board.
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