Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Crafted by Kodak as a simple, accessible digital camera that is “ready to go--right out of the box,” the Kodak EasyShare CX7330 is equipped with a Kodak Retinar 3x optical zoom and a 1/2.7-inch. (3.3 total megapixel) CCD. With a MSRP of US $199.95, the CX7330 is armed with direct print capabilities when used in conjunction with Kodak EasyShare printers and printer docks. The CX7330 provides Kodak EasyShare software for personal computer editing to help simplify the printing process. With 16MB internal memory, the CX7330 can shoot without a memory card when desired, although the user can choose to utilize an additional SD/MMC memory card with up to 256MB of added memory. The Kodak EasyShare CX7330 can capture video at 15 fps for up to 18 minutes with the largest compatible memory card and up to 53 seconds on the camera’s internal memory. The direct print ease of the CX7330 as with other Kodak EasyShare cameras is a strong benefit of this line of digital cameras, providing near instant prints with minimal effort. This simplistic shooting and printing process is headlined by Kodak and seems to be a new area of mastery for the former celluloid masters.
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Manual Control Options
There really is not much room for manual control on the Kodak EasyShare CX7330. Designed for automatic ease, the manual control freak is left in the dark on this one. There is opportunity to disengage the flash but that is really the extent of manual control over any single image feature. Some functions, such as focus, allow for control within a series of automatic options but fully manual selections are non-existent on the CX7330.

 

Focus
Manual (0.0)

Although not technically a manual focus feature, the Kodak EasyShare CX7330 does claim to provide some maneuverability within their realm of the automatic focus controls. The user must press the OK button to engage the LCD screen. Once it's engaged, the user must press the shutter button partially, changing the focus bracket from blue to red on the LCD monitor. There are 5 settings within this system, varying from center, center wide, side, center and side, and left/right options. However, it appears the user has no bearing over which of these is chosen; the selection being left to the camera itself, forcing the user to spend excessive amounts of time constantly pressing the shutter button partially in the vain hopes that perhaps their own choice could be made. Rather than helping the user, this feature merely complicates the issue of taking a photo, inevitably making it so the user gives up all control, or spends inordinate amounts of time combating the frustrating lack of power over this camera.

Metering (7.0)
Automatic metering provides even exposures with the EasyShare CX7330, taking care of all measurements for the user.

 

Exposure (7.0)
There is no direct manual control over exposure; however, like many other point-and-shoot models, the Kodak CX7330 does offer an exposure compensation feature that ranges from +/-2.0 in .5 EV step increments. This feature is easily accessible with a specific exposure compensation button, marked with a black and white, yin-yang like “+/-“ icon. By increasing the numeric equivalent, more light is provided by the camera and the image will become brighter; conversely, when the numeric setting drops below 0, less light is given to the image and the scene will become darker.

White Balance (0.0)
White balance on the Kodak EasyShare CX7330 is an automatic feature, void of manual control. There are no preset options to select from.

ISO (0.0)
The Kodak EasyShare CX7330 comes equipped with ISO sensitivity ratings equivalent to ISO 90-180, controlled automatically by the camera.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Kodak EasyShare CX7330 comes equipped with shutter settings of 1/2-1/4000 sec. To adjust the camera’s shutter speed, the user of the Kodak EasyShare CX7330 must depress the shutter button partially; taking this action will indicate to the camera the necessity for a longer or shorter shutter speed within the general mode the user has chosen to shoot within.

Aperture (0.0)
The Kodak EasyShare CX7330 has no manual aperture settings available to the user.

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