Say Cheese!! (Kodak Easyshare ZD710)

Member Name: Rockmaiden

Product:	Kodak Easyshare ZD710
Date:	19/01/09 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use and great quality

Disadvantages: None

My partner bought me this camera for christmas as I enjoy taking pictures and she knew my old one had seen better days. It cost £99.99 from Argos which seamed like a good price considering the features.

I'll go through the features first and then tell you what I thought.

*The camera boasts 7.1 megapixels which produces a good quality picture. I have taken some fantastic looking pictures and even had one blown up to poster size and the quality still looked fantastic. It's certainly the best quality image that I've seen on a camera of this price.

*10 x optical zoom- This is very good. It's accessed using a + - button and the lens extends to get closer. You can get very close on the picture without losing quality.

*5 x digital zoom- This can get you even closer into the image then the optical zoom alone but you do start to lose some picture quality. I have taken a picture fully zoomed in on both optical and digital zoom and got a really nice quality picture. It was only when I blew the picture up that I noticed the picture quality difference as you could not tell when the picture was printed at 7 x 5.

*2in LCD screen- The screen is a great size and produces a great quality display where the colours look very vibrant. The image displayed on the screen is very true to live and looks the same as the printed picture. As the lcd is so large it's easy to take pictures using the lcd screen rather then the view finder and very easy to flick through pictures saved on your memory card.

*SD/MMC compatible (not included).- Although an SD card did not come with the camera I managed to pick one up for less than £10. You do definately need to buy one as the inbuilt memory is not very big and does not allow you to store many pictures. The size of the SD card you buy depends on the amount of pictures you plan to take but I found a 1gig card perfect for my use.

*32Mb internal memory- As I mentioned above this dosn't allow for much storage but I suppose it's handy to use for when you first get your camera.

*Video output- I love this feature!! The camera comes with a t.v out lead which means you can plug your camera into your t.v and view your pictures on the screen. This is very handy for showing family and friends your treasured pictures without having to pass the camera round.

*Movie capture and sound recording- The video camera aspect of the camera is not as high quality as the pictures but it still produces a nice, clear image and motion is recorded well with no blur. The sound quality is fantastic and it picks pretty much anything up.

*Continuous shooting 1.7 fps- This is a great setting to use when taking pictures of children as often it's not the first picture that turns out to be the best. This means that you can take picture after picture straight after each other until you have the perfect shot.

*In-camera red eye fix- Again another great feature especially for children and animals that tend to look straight into the camera. Basically it works by starting the flash a split second before taking the picture giving the eyes time to adjust.

*16 scene modes- This is an option where you select what sort of picture you want to take, e.g portrait, landscape, action and the camera automaticly selects the best settings for your picture.

*USB connection- The camera is easilly connected to the computer to transfer and print pictures and the camera comes with photo editing software so you can tweak your pictures as much as you need.

*Weight 280g (excluding batteries)- The camera is a nice comfortable weight. Not too heavy but yet feels nice and sturdy to hold.

*Size: (H)7.7, (W)9.7, (D)7.2cm

Included in the box is:
Camera
Battery
USB Cable
Lens Cap
Carrying Strap
Easyshare Software
Insery for easyshare printer
Instructions

Now I am no camera whizz but I found this camera so so so easy to use. There are many modes to choose from by simply turning a dial. You can have the camera select the best settings for your picture or you can customise the settings yourself but as I am a camera novice I havn't used the manual settings yet.

The picture quality is fantastic and it's so simple to get great results. The software is also fun and easy to use and gives your pictures that personalised finish.

All in all this camera is fantastic for the price and produces wondefull results.

Summary: An amazing camera at an amazing price!

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