Summary: 2004-11-25 03:57:11 A plus, one can buy different lenses and the prices seem reasonable.
One can view pictures on a tv, although I don't think one can copy to a VCR tape.
Secondly, one can use different batteries, including Lithium AA!
Right out of the box, I was ready to take pictures. Another plus, the user's guide has an index!
One of the reviewers mentioned that they did not receive a battery charger or accessories. I paid $200 at Sam's Club. The package included the non-rechargeable battery and the EasyShare Dock w/rechargeable battery, as described below.
First, I already own cameras with more advanced features. I bought this camera because it had good reviews, Kodak's customer service, simplicity, and the price! I was not really worried about too many settings. Controls are large and easy to read & see.
Some people complained about the lense cap, at least the strap attaches to the loop on the side of the camera which is a plus! It was a little hard to thread; although I had no problem threading the camera strap. A safety pin will assist you in threading the lense cap strap.
Actually,in my experience, a camera not having a built-in lense cover is one less thing to break!
It has an orientation setting which is a nice plus. Other features are long-time exposure, picture quality selection, auto image storage, date stamp, and some settings in the "set-up menu" such as print quantity, shutter sound, quickview, liveview, NTSC or PAL, language, and format, The camera also has a timer! There is also a tripod socket.
I also noticed that there is flash available for modes that are usually not available on other cameras, such as landscape (default is off).
Explanation of modes are on the screen. The preview screen is also a nice size! There are also icons at the top of the preview screen that show your settings such as quality, redeye, etc.
The menus are uncomplicated, the dial has most of the features that one needs to access including movie, auto mode, landscape, sports, macro, etc. I have seen some cameras that had the mode dial, but one had to search for the power button!
People note that the "internal storage" is not enough. Acutally, I think 32mb is very generous. Kodak informed me that I could use a 512 card although it was not listed in the manual.
I bought my camera from my warehouse club for $200 with the dock. (It will be on sale Friday at Walmart for $198, but I do not recall if that includes the dock.)
A big plus is the ability to shoot a movie only limited by the card/memory size. I took a movie of my bird, and it is crystal clear. My Nikon 4500 has a movie mode, but the same movie would have been much darker in the same lighting, The movie mode on the Nikon is limited (I can't remember the exact length of time)! It would be nice if one could get a lighting accessory when one wants to take movies in low-light conditions. By the way, one can adjust the volume using the same 4-way button one uses to scroll through the pics.
I called and e-mailed Kodak before and after the sale. The e-mails were answered quickly, and I did not wait long to talk to a technician; they do not sell cameras directly.
Their sales people were very informative! I was even informed to wait for a universal printer dock for all of their Easy Share cameras.
I registered my camera on-line and received an extra month warranty for free, plus the backing of my warehouse club's generous return policy and customer satisfaction. I'll probably buy their extended warranty, too.
I have not installed the software because my PC will be going to the repair shop. I have since installed the software. Unlike my HP2510's software, I only had to install it once. Although I found out that it started up with my computer, so I had to disable it in msconfig. I dislike software that boots up with one's pc w/o asking!
However, I will be printing out pictures on my 2510 at high quality w/o any enhancements.
How many docks does Kodak want us to purchase? My 7630 was not packaged with a dock, but I cannot use it with the 4530. A universal dock (& printer/charger) would be great. HP photo printers can be used with any camera. The Kodak charger/printers are not compatible with other camera lines, including some of Kodak's own cameras!
If this camera had added some of these features: a universal dock, a longer optical zoom, ability to copy to VCR tape, image stabilization, battery saver (oops it does have a battery saver!), the ability to store modes, more manual selections, panaromic mode (although I have software that can accomplish the same), it would be a 5.
(Still waiting for the so-called "universal dock.")
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review 
Report this as 
There are no comments for this review.
