The Kodak DX7590 Digital Camera EasyShare - the review
Written: May 22 '06 (Updated Jun 20 '09)
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Pros: Long Battery Life, takes pictures in low light, movies come out pretty good.
Cons: Like a non-digital camera with all the fixings, this takes lots of getting used to.
The Bottom Line: Great camera, a bit expensive, but worth it - takes great pictures, movies that are good enough - and it forces you to learn more about photography
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| scapp70's Full Review: Kodak EasyShare DX7590 Digital Camera |
This is only my second digital camera. The first one I bought was a nightmare. It was a Hewlett Packard, and although it took great pictures when the battery was fully charged, the battery only stayed charged for about one to two pictures, and then it would immediately be down to half life and then soon after dead. Is that how we all start out with these cameras three to five years ago? I know I have, I think I have heard other people complain about battery life in their different brands of digital cameras. Anyway, I am guessing that the digital camera industry remedied this problem, and I really looked hard for a camera with the features that I wanted.
The remedy here for greater battery life was to have the option of a nickel battery that is rechargeable via the camera dock. My camera lasts for days now, without recharging.
The Look Rating: 10
I love the look of the Kodak DX7590. This is a two-hand camera as it is bulky and big. It looks like a professional camera, but the price is a lot less. It's black with a big lens; it has a hidden flash that pops up with a touch of a button. The big 2.2" LCD on the back of the camera has a big enough screen to let you input your own settings with ease, or share the pictures and movies you have already shot with another person just as easily.
I like the feel of it in my hands. The buttons are all in place for quick and easy access. I suppose everyone has to be right handed for this camera, and as I hold the camera, my fingers naturally fall into places where the buttons and dials are. My pointer falls on the shutter button, my thumb is readily in place to switch the Mode Dial if I need to change the mode of the picture I am taking, and my thumb is also in the close proximity of the zoom button to zoom in close if need be.
I rate the Look of the camera a 10 because besides the features it had, the look of the camera was the big selling point for me. It looks professional and impressive.
The Pictures Rating: 9
This camera takes very high quality snapshots at 5.0 mega pixels. I don't recommend fooling with the factory settings too much in the image quality because they are set already to take quality pictures with great color. This camera really captures the colors very near true to life. Depending on the surroundings though, it would be wise to change your settings dial to the appropriate setting. For instance, this camera makes it easy for you to take some pictures of fireworks show. When you switch the settings dial to fireworks, and you have a very steady hand, your pictures will come out amazing, professional looking even. There are also settings, (like most newer cameras these days) that include close-up indoors, self portrait, outdoor landscape, sports, indoor parties, fireworks, nighttime outdoors...etc.
If you want to be able to save more pictures on your memory card, there is an option to change the quality of your photos. The default is 5.0 MP (Megapixels), but you can switch it to 4.4MP, 4.0 MP, 3.1 MP or 1.8 MP. I wouldn't recommend the lowest setting, but the pictures from 3.1 look good enough, and when you get up to 5.0 MP they look stunning. Of course I do not recommend taking lesser qualities that your camera allows anyway, just splurge and get a quality high capacity SD card. The one I have is 1 GB in size and it's more than big enough.
The Zoom is 10X optical, and with an extra 20X digitally - that's a total of 30X Zoom. Once you get into the digital zoom, it's best to place the camera on a tripod or some other flat surface because it gets super shaky.
I rate the snapshots a 9 because the pictures do come out real good. There's always room for improvement though with the color. Believe me I'm not complaining about it, but the color can always be better, and it doesn't always come out the way you'd expect it. 85% of the time, the pictures look great, but I don't really know about aperture settings and all that, so if I actually knew what I was doing, it's safe to say that the percentage would be much higher.
The Movies Rating: 7
Believe it or not, when switching the camera to movie mode, you can capture some movies easily, and they come out pretty good. This camera does not have a limit on the amount of time that you can capture, you can capture as much as your SD card will allow. I have a 1GB size, and this size allows for at least 150 quality 5.0 pictures and maybe 20 minutes of movie footage. That's around the most that I had, it could hold more as I had never seen the error message stating that the camera is full. But the amount I wrote about above would be a well-chronicled weeklong vacation for me. Taking movies adds nice touches to a slideshow DVD you can make. With the right software, you're adding pictures, movies and a soundtrack of your choice.
I rate the movies a seven, only because of the quality. Now remember, the main function is for snapshots, so I can't really expect digital camcorder quality. The quality is pretty good for a still camera, but the colors are even more slightly off, and a smidge grainier, yet even that is really nitpicking.
The Software Rating: 2
I do not use the Kodak software that comes bundled with the camera; I have a couple of alternatives on my PC. The software doesn't work for me on my computer. The only time I hook up my camera to my computer is if there is a software update for my camera, and the Kodak website does make it pretty easy for you to upgrade your camera as long as you're paying attention to what you're reading. The camera does not hook up to my computer via USB, and it never has. I'm not sure if it the fault of my computer or the camera, but it's not essential. For me to download my pictures and movies to my computer I remove the SD card from my camera and input it to the slot on my printer and I get them all this way. Then I either print out pictures now and again by myself, or I'll have the pictures in my computer for sending them out to Snapfish.com for processing. The EasyShare idea is just as easy without the software. The pictures are already in my computer, and if I need to share the snapshots or movies, I'll send them in an e-mail myself or burn it to a disc. I was never able to work the EasyShare obviously, but this was a feature that had little to do with why I bought the camera. I could fix it with the troubleshooter on the Kodak website, but I wouldn't use it anyway.
I rate the software 2 because the software never worked for me.
The Ease of Use Rating: 7
This is not a point and click sort of camera. There are many settings, maybe too many for someone like me who has no idea what anything means. You can set the brightness of the flash, you can set the aperture, the shutter speed and on and on. If you don't know much about the stuff, maybe it's best to leave it alone. If you leave these things alone though, you aren’t using a good part of the camera that you just shelled out about $500 for. I registered with Kodak.com and they do send me pointers now and again in the e-mail, but the info is very generalized and specific for my camera. Then again, you don't have to know what you're doing, and you'll still get great pictures if you have a good eye and a steady hand.
When I upgraded the camera software it couldn't have been easier. On the Kodak website, they inform you of an upgrade available. All you do is download the upgrade, put it on your SD memory card, place your card back in the camera and follow the directions, which mainly consists of turning your camera on and off. Now my camera takes pictures better in low light, and if I were Chinese, there would be the language option now on my camera to read instructions in Chinese.
I rate this a 7 for the ease of use because, it is easy to take great pictures. Yet if you don't know much about photography, there is a lot of technical junk that you're missing out on.
Here is the technical mumbo jumbo from their website -
Specifications
Standard Features
CCD resolution 1/2.5 inch type (5.36 M total pixels)
Image resolution 5.0 MP (2576x1932 pixels)
Picture quality 5.0 MP - (2576x1932)
4.4 MP - (2576x1716), 3:2
4.0 MP - (2304x1728)
3.1 MP - (2048x1536)
1.8 MP - (1552x1164)
Compression standard and fine
Zoom 30X total zoom
10X optical zoom, 6.32-63.2 mm (35 mm equivalent: 38-380 mm)
3X advanced digital zoom
Aperture wide - f/2.8-8; tele - f/3.7-8
Shutter speed 1/8-1/1700 seconds
manual - 16-1/1000 seconds
Viewfinder very high-resolution electronic viewfinder (311K pixels)
Display 2.2" (5.6 cm) TFT high-resolution (153K pixels) indoor/outdoor color display
Creative Performance Features
Scene modes auto, program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, custom, sport, portrait, scene (14), burst
Color modes color, black and white, sepia, sharpness
Burst mode First Burst Mode - up to 5 frames at 2 fps
Last Burst Mode - up to 30 frames at 2 fps, with last 4 frames saved
Click to capture 0.2 seconds (preview on); 1.6 seconds shot-to-shot
Shot to shot 1.8 seconds (preview on)
Movie mode continuous MPEG-4 video with audio capture/playback in QuickTime format
Movie image resolution VGA (640x480 pixels) at 12 fps
QVGA (320x240 pixels) at 20 fps
Movie length limited by capacity of of external memory card; or 5, 15, 30 second clips
Movie file format Still - JPEG/EXIF v.2.21; Video - QuickTime MOV (MPEG-4 compression)
Auto focus TTL-AF; continuous AF, single AF, accessory AF; multi-zone, center-weighted, and selectable: left, center, right
Focus distance Normal wide - 0.6 m (2.0 ft.) to infinity
Normal tele - 2.0 m (6.6 ft.) to infinity
Close-up wide - 0.12-0.7 m (4.7-27.6 in.)
Close-up tele - 1.2-2.1 m (3.9-6.9 ft.)
ISO equivalent 80-160 (automatic) and 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 (selectable)
White balance auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade
Light metering method auto - TTL-AE matrix metering; selectable - multi-pattern, center-weighted, center spot
Exposure control aperture priority AE - f/2.8-f/8 at wide, f/3.7-f/8 at tele; shutter priority AE - 16-1/1000 seconds at wide; manual mode exposure - f/2.8-f/8, 16-1/1000 seconds at wide; f/3.7-f/8, 16-1/1000 seconds at tele
Long time exposure 0.7-16 seconds
Exposure compensation /- 2.0 EV in 0.3 EV step increments
Exposure bracketing auto - 3 images with user-selectable brackets /- 0.3, /- 0.7 or /- 1.0 EV
Effortless Operation
Flash mode auto, red-eye, fill, off
Flash range wide - 0.6-4.9 m (2-16.1 ft.) at ISO 140; tele - 2.0-3.7 m (6.6-12.1 ft.) at ISO 140
Flash compensation /- 1.0 EV in 1/2 EV steps
Review mode album, protect, image storage, slide show, copy, multi-up, Share button to print, e-mail
Favorites mode on-camera picture storage
Auto-orientation auto picture rotation; orientation sensor
Storage 32 MB internal memory SD/MMC card expansion slot
Self-timer 10 seconds
Compatibility Dock compatibility - works with KODAK EASYSHARE Docks*
Additional Features
Interface power input (5V DC), A/V output (NTSC or PAL, user-selectable, exclusive KODAK Camera Dock/Printer Dock interface, USB compliant connector
Power options KODAK EASYSHARE Li-Ion (1700 mAh) Rechargeable Battery (supplied), 5V DC adapter or optional KODAK EASYSHARE Docks
Lens protection lens cap
Tripod mount 1/4 inch standard (metal)
Weight without battery and card - 350 g (12.3 oz.)
Dimensions WxHxD: 99.6x81.2x79.9 mm (3.9x3.2x3.2 in.)
Warranty
Warranty 1 year
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 525
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Solid Enough for a Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
scapp70
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Member: Michael Scapp
Location: NYC
Reviews written: 470
Trusted by: 254 members
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