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Kodak DX7440 Review
A few weeks ago I purchased the Kodak DX7440 (4.0 MP and 4x zoom) and
wanted to post my review here since I couldn’t find hardly any reviews on this fairly new camera when I was looking around. So everyone knows where I am coming from, this is my second digital camera with my first one being the Kodak DX4330, which someone recently stole. Price: $300 at CompUSA and it came with a free 128mb SD card. The price dropped by $50 last month. The original manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $350, but it is now $300. Physical Things: Kodak fixed a lot of annoying physical things with this camera. To name a few things: the mode selector wheel is much easier to work now. On the DX4330 the wheel was hard to turn, especially when your hands were dirty from hiking or such. This version also has a built in lens cover which closes when the camera is off, much nicer than the DX4330. One thing I am not crazy about is the position of the zoom lever. It is now on the front of the camera so you use your index finger to move it instead of using your thumb as it was on the DX4330. Now the “thumb zoom” position has been replaced with a jog wheel selector used to select and change things such as aperture, exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, etc. The most annoying change is related to how you access the USB and AV ports on the camera. Instead of the nice hinged plastic door on the DX4330, they now are covered by a stiff piece of non-hinged rubber. So when you plug in the USB or AV cables, you pry open rubber cover, hold it up, plug the cord in, then the stiff rubber piece applies a rather strong downward force to the cables. My issues with this are 2 fold: 1) The rubber cover is going to break with a decent amount of use. As I mentioned, it isn’t hinged, you are just bending the rubber piece back and forth each time you plug something in. I suppose the point here is to make you purchase the EasyShare dock, but I have problems purchasing something that cost ~$80 that does not give you any additional features or allows you to take better pictures. 2) My other problem with the design is that it applies a fair amount of perpendicular force to the cords and ports. I can see the force of the rubber cover breaking the cables or the ports they plug into. Perhaps I should look into getting on of those cheap USB card readers instead of needing to hook the camera up using this awkward system. This camera also comes with a rechargeable battery and charger which is much nicer since this is a must have. I though it was pretty cheap that the DX4330 didn’t come with a rechargeable battery or charger. The fact that this camera does saves you about $40. The battery itself is pretty interesting. It is a lot smaller and lighter than the DX4330 batteries which looked more like 2 AAs stuck together. The weight of this battery makes the whole camera a lot lighter than the DX4330 which is important if you are hiking. The battery life also seems to be pretty good. I took about 140 pictures (using the screen) and some video while testing my camera out and the battery did not need charging. According to the manual, the battery can take 160-210 shots without a charge. You can purchase a larger battery which allows 275-325 pictures. Since this is not the typical battery design, I imagine that you will be paying more to purchase another battery than you may with the more typical battery designs. Pictures: Overall picture quality is good, although I wouldn’t say it is a whole lot better than the DX4330. I definitely found taking macro shots easier with the DX4330. Part of this could be that the macro focus range of the DX7440 is 3.9-23.7 inches compared to the macro range of the DX4330 is 2.8 to 28 inches. So you can’t get as close to the object as you could with the DX4330, this however is not the case if you purchase the DX7630. I am guessing that the difference is that the DX7440 has a 4x zoom and the DX7630 has a 3x zoom, so the DX7630 lens allows you to get closer. If I would have known about the macro mode differences, this may have affected my selected because I really enjoy the macro shots. I also found that both flower scene modes on the DX7440 are not that great. These modes seem to adjust the shutter speed a lot in order to make the picture lighter. The problem is, how many times do you have a tripod when taking picture of flowers? I usually find flowers on hikes or walks and do not have a tripod. So far I have had better luck using the automatic setting in close up mode for flowers than the flower scene modes. The camera does give a warning icon if the shutter speed is slowed down enough to say that you probably need a tripod. This camera’s auto-focus seems to be pickier than the DX4330’s was. I particular notice this when taking macro shots (probably because I am use to getting closer to the object than this camera allows), or if the light isn’t great (i.e. in the early evening). Sometimes if you take a step forward or backward the camera will focus when before it would not. I wonder if getting Kodak’s accessory lens to take macro shots would be worth it for me… So far I have only been using the JPEG compression setting of fine instead of the standard. I haven’t noticed much difference, I need to try taking some of the exact same pictures with the compression on standard and then on fine. I did take one picture at the beach which has some people partly in the shade and partly in the sun. For some reason this picture doesn’t look good, the compression of the people in the shade is quite noticeable. Other than this one picture, I haven’t had any problems. I have not played with many of the manual settings yet other than shutter speed. I did try some night-time shots of city lights that turned out pretty well proved you have something to set the camera on. The movie mode on this camera is much better than the DX4330 and I am surprised I haven’t seen more talk about the movie mode. Of course, it still isn’t like having a DV camcorder, but it can take 640x480 video at 15fps, which is at least passable enough to play on the TV without having to give disclaimers like remember this was shot with my digital camera. I am quite impressed with the quality of the movies. Only a few other cameras give you the option of taking the 640x480 at 15fps. Interestingly, the DX7630 doesn’t even allow this according the web site. You can also take smaller video (320x240) at 24 fps, but I think the 15fps is good enough especially since it means you can take a much larger video size. The sound in the movies also seems better than the DX4330. One interesting thing about plugging the camera directly into the TV using the supplied cable; the picture sent to the TV seems slightly too large to display on the TV. I do have the video settings at NTSC. It doesn’t seem to affect much, it is mainly noticeable when navigating the menus on the camera. Softwa Kodak’s EasyShare software bugged me before with the older version, and it is a little better now, but not much. The one things that really bothers me is that you can’t rename pictures within the software itself unless at the time of transfer you transfer each picture one at a time. I don’t see why you can’t rename a picture at any time. Of course, if you use windows explorer to rename a picture, then the easyshare software can’t find the picture and displays and X and you have to manually point the easyshare software to the newly renamed software. The software works okay, but is definitely not fancy or slick. I would really like to at the very least rename the pictures. The editing features with the EasyShare software work well, but again, they are all very basic. There is on interesting thing I noticed that occurs when I am transferring pictures to the computer. Say I take 60 pictures, the first 30 pictures take quite a bit longer to transfer than the last 30. For some reason the first half of the pictures you are transferring take 10-15 seconds each, while the last half take only 2 seconds each. That could be something just with my computer. Conclusions: Overall it is a nice camera. My two main gripes are the close-up focal length and the access to the ports on the camera. I almost exchanged the camera to get the DX7630 which has the closer focal length, however this camera only has the 3x zoom and can not take the 640x480 video. I really feel the access to the ports on the DX7440 should be revised. I feel the design is likely to break either then cover itself, or damage the cables or ports when cables are plugged in. Other than the ports access design, I like the physical layout of the camera, it is much easier to use than the DX4330. Picture quality is slightly better than the DX4330, however this camera can be picky when auto focusing. Software is very basic, it should at least allow you to rename pictures without jumping thru hoops. Hopefully this review doesn’t sound to negative, I can be rather picky with electronics, but there are some things that Kodak should fix. By no means is it the perfect camera, however it is pretty nice and if stolen, I would probably get it again (although getting one with a shorter focal length would be nice). Andrew V. Romero X=pharmacy |
#2
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One more thing I forot to mention. The camera does take much better
indoor pictures than my older dx4330 did. The pictures come out exposed better. The flash on this camera also seems to do a better job lighting a larger area. Andrew V. Romero wrote: A few weeks ago I purchased the Kodak DX7440 (4.0 MP and 4x zoom) and wanted to post my review here since I couldn’t find hardly any reviews on this fairly new camera when I was looking around. So everyone knows where I am coming from, this is my second digital camera with my first one being the Kodak DX4330, which someone recently stole. Price: $300 at CompUSA and it came with a free 128mb SD card. The price dropped by $50 last month. The original manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $350, but it is now $300. Physical Things: Kodak fixed a lot of annoying physical things with this camera. To name a few things: the mode selector wheel is much easier to work now. On the DX4330 the wheel was hard to turn, especially when your hands were dirty from hiking or such. This version also has a built in lens cover which closes when the camera is off, much nicer than the DX4330. One thing I am not crazy about is the position of the zoom lever. It is now on the front of the camera so you use your index finger to move it instead of using your thumb as it was on the DX4330. Now the “thumb zoom” position has been replaced with a jog wheel selector used to select and change things such as aperture, exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, etc. The most annoying change is related to how you access the USB and AV ports on the camera. Instead of the nice hinged plastic door on the DX4330, they now are covered by a stiff piece of non-hinged rubber. So when you plug in the USB or AV cables, you pry open rubber cover, hold it up, plug the cord in, then the stiff rubber piece applies a rather strong downward force to the cables. My issues with this are 2 fold: 1) The rubber cover is going to break with a decent amount of use. As I mentioned, it isn’t hinged, you are just bending the rubber piece back and forth each time you plug something in. I suppose the point here is to make you purchase the EasyShare dock, but I have problems purchasing something that cost ~$80 that does not give you any additional features or allows you to take better pictures. 2) My other problem with the design is that it applies a fair amount of perpendicular force to the cords and ports. I can see the force of the rubber cover breaking the cables or the ports they plug into. Perhaps I should look into getting on of those cheap USB card readers instead of needing to hook the camera up using this awkward system. This camera also comes with a rechargeable battery and charger which is much nicer since this is a must have. I though it was pretty cheap that the DX4330 didn’t come with a rechargeable battery or charger. The fact that this camera does saves you about $40. The battery itself is pretty interesting. It is a lot smaller and lighter than the DX4330 batteries which looked more like 2 AAs stuck together. The weight of this battery makes the whole camera a lot lighter than the DX4330 which is important if you are hiking. The battery life also seems to be pretty good. I took about 140 pictures (using the screen) and some video while testing my camera out and the battery did not need charging. According to the manual, the battery can take 160-210 shots without a charge. You can purchase a larger battery which allows 275-325 pictures. Since this is not the typical battery design, I imagine that you will be paying more to purchase another battery than you may with the more typical battery designs. Pictures: Overall picture quality is good, although I wouldn’t say it is a whole lot better than the DX4330. I definitely found taking macro shots easier with the DX4330. Part of this could be that the macro focus range of the DX7440 is 3.9-23.7 inches compared to the macro range of the DX4330 is 2.8 to 28 inches. So you can’t get as close to the object as you could with the DX4330, this however is not the case if you purchase the DX7630. I am guessing that the difference is that the DX7440 has a 4x zoom and the DX7630 has a 3x zoom, so the DX7630 lens allows you to get closer. If I would have known about the macro mode differences, this may have affected my selected because I really enjoy the macro shots. I also found that both flower scene modes on the DX7440 are not that great. These modes seem to adjust the shutter speed a lot in order to make the picture lighter. The problem is, how many times do you have a tripod when taking picture of flowers? I usually find flowers on hikes or walks and do not have a tripod. So far I have had better luck using the automatic setting in close up mode for flowers than the flower scene modes. The camera does give a warning icon if the shutter speed is slowed down enough to say that you probably need a tripod. This camera’s auto-focus seems to be pickier than the DX4330’s was. I particular notice this when taking macro shots (probably because I am use to getting closer to the object than this camera allows), or if the light isn’t great (i.e. in the early evening). Sometimes if you take a step forward or backward the camera will focus when before it would not. I wonder if getting Kodak’s accessory lens to take macro shots would be worth it for me… So far I have only been using the JPEG compression setting of fine instead of the standard. I haven’t noticed much difference, I need to try taking some of the exact same pictures with the compression on standard and then on fine. I did take one picture at the beach which has some people partly in the shade and partly in the sun. For some reason this picture doesn’t look good, the compression of the people in the shade is quite noticeable. Other than this one picture, I haven’t had any problems. I have not played with many of the manual settings yet other than shutter speed. I did try some night-time shots of city lights that turned out pretty well proved you have something to set the camera on. The movie mode on this camera is much better than the DX4330 and I am surprised I haven’t seen more talk about the movie mode. Of course, it still isn’t like having a DV camcorder, but it can take 640x480 video at 15fps, which is at least passable enough to play on the TV without having to give disclaimers like remember this was shot with my digital camera. I am quite impressed with the quality of the movies. Only a few other cameras give you the option of taking the 640x480 at 15fps. Interestingly, the DX7630 doesn’t even allow this according the web site. You can also take smaller video (320x240) at 24 fps, but I think the 15fps is good enough especially since it means you can take a much larger video size. The sound in the movies also seems better than the DX4330. One interesting thing about plugging the camera directly into the TV using the supplied cable; the picture sent to the TV seems slightly too large to display on the TV. I do have the video settings at NTSC. It doesn’t seem to affect much, it is mainly noticeable when navigating the menus on the camera. Softwa Kodak’s EasyShare software bugged me before with the older version, and it is a little better now, but not much. The one things that really bothers me is that you can’t rename pictures within the software itself unless at the time of transfer you transfer each picture one at a time. I don’t see why you can’t rename a picture at any time. Of course, if you use windows explorer to rename a picture, then the easyshare software can’t find the picture and displays and X and you have to manually point the easyshare software to the newly renamed software. The software works okay, but is definitely not fancy or slick. I would really like to at the very least rename the pictures. The editing features with the EasyShare software work well, but again, they are all very basic. There is on interesting thing I noticed that occurs when I am transferring pictures to the computer. Say I take 60 pictures, the first 30 pictures take quite a bit longer to transfer than the last 30. For some reason the first half of the pictures you are transferring take 10-15 seconds each, while the last half take only 2 seconds each. That could be something just with my computer. Conclusions: Overall it is a nice camera. My two main gripes are the close-up focal length and the access to the ports on the camera. I almost exchanged the camera to get the DX7630 which has the closer focal length, however this camera only has the 3x zoom and can not take the 640x480 video. I really feel the access to the ports on the DX7440 should be revised. I feel the design is likely to break either then cover itself, or damage the cables or ports when cables are plugged in. Other than the ports access design, I like the physical layout of the camera, it is much easier to use than the DX4330. Picture quality is slightly better than the DX4330, however this camera can be picky when auto focusing. Software is very basic, it should at least allow you to rename pictures without jumping thru hoops. Hopefully this review doesn’t sound to negative, I can be rather picky with electronics, but there are some things that Kodak should fix. By no means is it the perfect camera, however it is pretty nice and if stolen, I would probably get it again (although getting one with a shorter focal length would be nice). Andrew V. Romero X=pharmacy |
#3
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Greetings Andrew,
Read your review and appreciate the time you have taken to share your experiences. I am going to share it with our concept and engineering teams for future reference. It is reviews like yours that make a difference. Kodak listens and wants to know about its customers. Just a couple of comments to make you aware. The camera you have did not come with the latest version 4.0 software, so you may want to download and install from our website. If you included the updater in your installation it will update automatically for you. The accessory lenses are pretty nice for this camera and you would enjoy them considering your interests. The +7 and +10 diopters in this set can be used individually or combined to give you a +17 lens. If you do you can capture images of small objects in collections and other closeup subjects. You will be able to get from about 2" (51 mm) away. You should not worry too much about the cables or other connections being damaged by the pressure of the flap. They will be fine. If you do have concerns about use or performance, Andrew, let me know, I am here for you. Talk to you soon, Ron Baird Eastman Kodak Company A few weeks ago I purchased the Kodak DX7440 (4.0 MP and 4x zoom) and wanted to post my review here since I couldn't find hardly any reviews on this fairly new camera when I was looking around. So everyone knows where I am coming from, this is my second digital camera with my first one being the Kodak DX4330, which someone recently stole. Price: $300 at CompUSA and it came with a free 128mb SD card. The price dropped by $50 last month. The original manufacturer's suggested retail price was $350, but it is now $300. Physical Things: Kodak fixed a lot of annoying physical things with this camera. To name a few things: the mode selector wheel is much easier to work now. On the DX4330 the wheel was hard to turn, especially when your hands were dirty from hiking or such. This version also has a built in lens cover which closes when the camera is off, much nicer than the DX4330. One thing I am not crazy about is the position of the zoom lever. It is now on the front of the camera so you use your index finger to move it instead of using your thumb as it was on the DX4330. Now the "thumb zoom" position has been replaced with a jog wheel selector used to select and change things such as aperture, exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, etc. The most annoying change is related to how you access the USB and AV ports on the camera. Instead of the nice hinged plastic door on the DX4330, they now are covered by a stiff piece of non-hinged rubber. So when you plug in the USB or AV cables, you pry open rubber cover, hold it up, plug the cord in, then the stiff rubber piece applies a rather strong downward force to the cables. My issues with this are 2 fold: 1) The rubber cover is going to break with a decent amount of use. As I mentioned, it isn't hinged, you are just bending the rubber piece back and forth each time you plug something in. I suppose the point here is to make you purchase |
#4
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Andrew, thanks for the review.
I have just purchased this camera a few days ago and Ron, I have a couple questions for you: 1. How can I upgrade the camera firmware, currently I have ver 1.0 and I did not find any firmware upgrades on the web-site except software ones. 2. Why do I keep receiving an annoying message "Time has been reset" quite often when I turn on my camera. I use my camera a lot inside without any batteries installed at all powering it from the ac adapter. I suuspect the camera RTC is powered from the batteries only. Can this be fixed? Thank you, Sebastian "Ron Baird" wrote in message ... Greetings Andrew, Read your review and appreciate the time you have taken to share your experiences. I am going to share it with our concept and engineering teams for future reference. It is reviews like yours that make a difference. Kodak listens and wants to know about its customers. Just a couple of comments to make you aware. The camera you have did not come with the latest version 4.0 software, so you may want to download and install from our website. If you included the updater in your installation it will update automatically for you. The accessory lenses are pretty nice for this camera and you would enjoy them considering your interests. The +7 and +10 diopters in this set can be used individually or combined to give you a +17 lens. If you do you can capture images of small objects in collections and other closeup subjects. You will be able to get from about 2" (51 mm) away. You should not worry too much about the cables or other connections being damaged by the pressure of the flap. They will be fine. If you do have concerns about use or performance, Andrew, let me know, I am here for you. Talk to you soon, Ron Baird Eastman Kodak Company A few weeks ago I purchased the Kodak DX7440 (4.0 MP and 4x zoom) and wanted to post my review here since I couldn't find hardly any reviews on this fairly new camera when I was looking around. So everyone knows where I am coming from, this is my second digital camera with my first one being the Kodak DX4330, which someone recently stole. Price: $300 at CompUSA and it came with a free 128mb SD card. The price dropped by $50 last month. The original manufacturer's suggested retail price was $350, but it is now $300. Physical Things: Kodak fixed a lot of annoying physical things with this camera. To name a few things: the mode selector wheel is much easier to work now. On the DX4330 the wheel was hard to turn, especially when your hands were dirty from hiking or such. This version also has a built in lens cover which closes when the camera is off, much nicer than the DX4330. One thing I am not crazy about is the position of the zoom lever. It is now on the front of the camera so you use your index finger to move it instead of using your thumb as it was on the DX4330. Now the "thumb zoom" position has been replaced with a jog wheel selector used to select and change things such as aperture, exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, etc. The most annoying change is related to how you access the USB and AV ports on the camera. Instead of the nice hinged plastic door on the DX4330, they now are covered by a stiff piece of non-hinged rubber. So when you plug in the USB or AV cables, you pry open rubber cover, hold it up, plug the cord in, then the stiff rubber piece applies a rather strong downward force to the cables. My issues with this are 2 fold: 1) The rubber cover is going to break with a decent amount of use. As I mentioned, it isn't hinged, you are just bending the rubber piece back and forth each time you plug something in. I suppose the point here is to make you purchase |
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