SNAP HAPPY (Kodak Easyshare CX7430)

Member Name: Purdypops

Product:	Kodak Easyshare CX7430
Date:	10/01/05 (1332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: SLEEK, NIFTY, EASY USAGE

Disadvantages: ADDED EXPENSES TO BUY EG EXTRA MEMORY CARD

Now l am not about to write a technical review, l am not about to go into details that will only get me tongue tied and cause people to find fault, what l am going to do is give an honest opinion about the Kodak CX7340 Easy Share Camera.

I use this camera for work, but l liked it so much l bought Paul one for Christmas. The camera was at a bargain price of £199, but this included a free Kodak printer dock for printing out your photos. I got this at Curry's online - but if you check in all reputable dealers you should be able to pick up this camera.

So what are the main technical specifications (and this is as technical as it gets folks!):

· 4 mega pixels - this is to do with the resolution and quality of the photos you take, download and print.
· 3x optical zoom - this is the lens that zooms in and out and how close up/far away you can get from the picture you are focusing on.
· 16mb of internal memory - digital cameras require memory cards to take photos too and store before you download or print, this Kodak CX7340 also has an inbuilt memory of 16 mega bytes - this takes around 4 to 5 pictures - you got to buy a memory card folks!


THE CAMERA

On to the camera itself - now it's not tiny - unlike some digital cameras the old Kodak here is chunky - but l like this, something to hold on to. It's a silver model and pretty nifty. There is a slot for your memory card to insert and pop into - which is very easy to do, as it will only go in one way therefore not confusing matters. There's battery slot - the camera takes 2 double AA batteries, and you do get quite a bit of use out of the batteries before they die - l tend to use rechargeable batteries. If you turn the camera bottom side up you will notice 2 more slots - one is for insertion into the printer dock and the other for a screw in tripod to give more stability to your photo taking. The snapping button is where you would expect to find it on all cameras. Next to this is the function button - you can choose which sort of picture you want to take dependent on the external circumstances and weather. On the back you will see a centrepiece of the LCD display screen - now its not large but it is adequate. There are buttons to review your taken photographs, a menu button, self timer, flash type, delete, the scroll arrows, the easy share button and the zoom buttons. There is also the standard traditional viewfinder to take pictures in the traditional way.

FUNCTIONS

Once you turn the function button from off to the first slot available you will here a musical jingle and the display screen flashes the Kodak logo.

· The first function is that of auto (shown by a picture of a camera). The camera tells you that auto is use for general picture taking - so this is your standard picture taking type.
· Function 2 is portrait - this is for taking full frame pictures of individuals - perhaps you would use this function at an event such as a wedding for example
· Function 3 is sport - for a moving subject - i.e. an athlete or perhaps a moving animal
· Function 4 is night - to capture both the actual subject you are focusing on and the immediate background - when light is dark or poor.
· Function 5 is landscape - for when the subject is in the distance
· Function 6 is close up - for when the subject may be closer than 28 inches to the camera (this is 70cm)

Finally, this little gem of a camera also has a video camera mode - where for up to 5 minutes you can capture sound and motion. Now have played around with this and l cannot believe the quality of both picture and sound. Obviously you are very limited in what you can capture but it is a great additional feature.

There is a favourites feature on the camera also - where you may store a few of your favour pictures onto the camera itself - to be honest this is pretty needless when you can download and save the memory of the camera.

MENU & REVIEW

The camera with the memory card (lm using a 128mb card) will save and store your photos until you choose to manually delete - one by one or the entire card. Until you do this you may review your snaps - hit the review button at the back of the camera and simply using the scroll arrows view your photos on the LCD display.

The menu function is multi facetted and lm not going to go into too much delete - to be honest although l have had the camera since September there are probably things that l do not realise it does! Under the menu you can choose screen resolutions, flash types, save pictures into albums, have a slide show of your pictures, magnify the picture or even change the colour to black and white or sepia. This is the tip of the iceberg to be honest.

EASY SHARE

I have never used the easy share function - but once Paul gets his off the ground it will be interesting. You can through your PC, choose which photos you want to print, save as favourites to your on line albums or email to friends or family.

PRINTER DOCK

People owning digital cameras tend not to print photos out in the tradition way anymore, so the manufacturers grasping hold of this seized the niche market and have been strongly advertising printing stations for digital photos - the Kodak tag line being "Digitals great, but l want photo's".

I agree, therefore the printing docking stations have emerged. The Kodak printer dock is camera make specific, you simply slot on your camera to the printing docking station, choose the frames you want as photographs and print. They will print to high resolutions, but you need specific photographic paper and you run through ink cartridges pretty quickly. In PC world on Saturday l noticed 75 sheets of Kodak photographic paper (panoramic APS size) for £9.99. In Argos, to get 20 sheets of photographic paper and an ink cartridge you were looking at a cost of £19.99. So it's not cheap.

With this camera you need to buy your memory card separately - you are looking at a cost of around £20 for 128mb (this was in Jessops) this will snap you approximately 140 photos and l would strongly suggest picking up a protective carry case for the camera also - again in Jessops for a decent carrier which will fit extra batteries and the like the basic cost was £13.99.

CONCLUSION

I love the camera, its nifty, stylish and sleek. I think l probably have scratched the surface in what it can do for me, and l look forward to many hours of fun snapping and playing with my new photographic toy! So, if you are looking for a good all round digital camera, from a reputable manufacturer, you really can't go wrong with the Kodak CX7340.

Heather

Summary: