Kodak Easyshare DX7440 4 MP Digital Camera with 4xOptical Zoom

This is a full featured yet easy to use camera that takes excellent quality pictures and has a high quality 4x optical zoom lens. It is extremely fast in focusing and taking pictures, and the focus is almost always perfect. It has a large number of preset settings for circumstances like landscape, portrait, close up etc, but has manual options as well where the enthusiast can set all the settings. It has a burst mode to take pictures rapidly and the ability to take 3 bracketed exposures to get just the right one. The shutter can be set for as long as 64 seconds, for long exposure shots of dark scenes. The image quality, which is where cameras must perform, is really excellent. There are setting to adjust the sharpness and color saturation to the users choice, so if one wants more muted colors they can be obtained. The usual 'normal' setting though provides rich perfect color. I've taken over a 1000 pictures on this camera to date and have been delighted in the quality of the vast majority--any problems have been the photographers, not the camera! The color reproduction is perfect both indoors and out. Kodak cameras tend to give pictures with high color saturation, but as mentioned, this can be toned down in one of the settings if desired. I like the saturation as it is--looks vibrant and lifelike. The 4 megapixel size is plenty--I've had 8x10 prints made that look identical to film. Battery life is excellent. The flash is powerful for indoor shots, and it's power can also be adjusted by one of the settings. It is easy to use--the settings are intuitive and the controls are easy to use and easy to find on the camera. The price for this is also great--making it a stand out deal in the 4 megapixel, 4x zoom lens category. Highly recommended--easy enough to use by a novice, but has more than enough settings and features for a more expert user.

I love my Kodak. It's easy to use, and the picture quality is outstanding. I took it to the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls, Canada, and took photots that look like they were clipped out of a magazine. I've only encountered one problem with the camera: The plastic piece that is supposed to hold the battery snuggly in place snapped off. The piece is truly uneccesary, as the battery is sufficently held in place by the battery door, but none-the-less, the piece did break. I still rate this camera at 4 stars, though, because I am thrilled with the quality of the pictures I've taken with it.

I have received this Kodak new digital camera DX7440 for two weeks. The lithum-ion battery and charger that come with the camera are nice extras. The 32MB memory is enough for 20 pictures or about 1.5 minutes movie in highest resolution. I love the movie mode right away. The camera also record sounds, I filmed my cousin's birthday party with a brand new 256 MB secure digital memory card. We connected the camera to the big screen 42" TV and it was a moment of blast!! We laughed and enjoyed every moment of it. It captured a lot of details and it seemed that the camera erased a lot of my hand movements and shaking; i.e. stabilizer. The sound recorded was good as well. Man, the pictures are wonderful. We went to the dark backyard at evening time, played hide and seek, and the viewfinder lighted up and I saw everybody in the viewfinder even though it was very dark. The flash light worked excellent in dark as well and the pictures turned out great no matter day or night. The 4X optical zoom was amazing, better than my other friends' 3X; and the viewfinder was big measured at 2.2 inches wide. The joystick was fun to play with, it controls a lot of things, such as when reviewing your pictures and you like to zoom to an area and enlarge it. The camera lets you zoom to 8X as big when reviewing pictures. Man, you see a lot and a lot of details. And, the quality is so amazing!!! I am so much in love with this light-weight Kodak that I want to enjoy its full extend by purchasing the camera printer dock and print pictures myself. As of this writing, I am waiting for the printer dock. I will give you an update soon. Man, this is one heck of a digital camera. Kodak, you did it! Highly recommended. -------------------------------------------------------------- Update One (8/6/2004): Later found that the CD that comes with the camera contains interactive tutorials about how to use the camera, how to email photos, how to printer photos, etc. Nice!! Just got our 10"X8" photots ordered from Ofoto.com, the pictures look perfect, no distortion, vivid and true colors. We even got our first 10 free 4"X6" prints. Wonderful!! I know that its capable of getting up to 20"X30". Yet, we don't have room for that big a picture yet. My Kodak Printer Dock has just arrived. It automatically recharges the battery, nice!! Emailing pictues to friends and relatives is just one touch away after inputting email addresses. It's so very easy!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Update two (8/9/2004): The camera comes with 10 4"X6" free printer dock photo paper, the printer dock also comes with another 10 free 4"X6" photo papaer. I printed 5 of my pictures; since Kodak says that the printer automatically laminates prints, I put one of them in a bowl of water and see. I got up the next morning and picked up that picture from the water, the pictures was still intact. The lamination was perfect and make the picture free of weather attack. Still, one has to keep the picture from direct sunlights, but at least it is free from moisture attack and finger prints. This is an advantage over other print sources for 4"x6"s. The quality of the prints are also great, with true colors and sharp clarity; just as how they look from the viewfinder. Some of my friends ask if there is another Kodak that may be about the same quality, functionality, but cheaper. I also suggest the LS743, which also let you take 4.0 Megapixel photos and TV-quality movies with sound. I think that that one is slightly cheaper from Amazon.com. Yet, that one has a slightly smaller viewfinder and 1X less zoom (3X instead of 4X of the DX7440). Also, taking movie seems easier than using the camcorders. The advantage is that it is smaller and lighter, making it easier to carry around and my hand does not get tried fast. The quality is already TV-quality, which is the same as the camcorders. The disadvantage is that the battery does not last as long as the camcorders as theirs are heavier and bigger. And, movie length is limited by the size of your memory card. So, you may need a bigger card to take longer movies. Yet, memory card prices are getting cheaper and cheaper; and battery lives are getting longer and longer. In conclusion, this is the camera for all the photo and movie needs, with ease of use and handy features, especially big viewfinder, TV-quality movie functionality so one can occaionally take movie for memory. My other friends are surprised by its various abilities and quality.

Because of the glowing reviews on this page, my decision to purchase a DX7440 was reinforced. Unfortunately, when the purchase arrived, it turned out that the "Made in China" camera was defective. There was a large black spot in the center of all photos which appeared to be the fault of either a defective CCD or a severe problem with the optics. Either way, the camera was unusable, and it was returned for a refund. And therein lies the good thing about Amazon: They will accept a return within 30 days, no questions asked. Kodak technical support was essentially useless, because support appears to be offshored to people who do not speak English as their first language. Needless to say, Kodak cameras are now on my "do not buy" list.

I've had this camera for 11 years now, and still use it - even though it's rather outdated, heavy, clunky-looking, and has far less storage than any present-day smartphone - because it takes superior photos. It's intuitively easy to use and dependable. The battery is also 11 years old and still keeps its charge. I take this along with me in my messenger bag to take pictures on site visits that are part of my work. It's been jostling around in that bag for years and doesn't seem to be any the worse for the wear because of it. Unfortunately the little orange plastic part that secures the battery inside of its compartment broke within the first year or so, and while it works fine without that part it does make the battery prone to falling out of the camera. That orange part is very tiny and flimsy. The little door on the battery compartment should keep it in, but without the orange plastic thingy inside it occasionally opens and the battery escapes - so I typically keep a piece of tape on the battery compartment door now. The other issue I had with camera is that the zoom focus didn't work properly on the first one I received, and I had to return it. The second one worked fine, and still does.

Going into digital photography, I had no idea what the factors were to look at, so I read a lot of materials about a lot of cameras. The ones that seemed to be the best were Nikon (which has an attachment for photographing slides), Canon, and (surprising to me) Kodak. The factors that turned me towards this camera were: 1. 4.0 megapixels. 3.2 megapixels is the minimum to get decent pictures that print up well at sizes up to 8x12 inches. Different settings provide different formats in terms of relative dimensions, which may result in some cropping of your pictures (a 3x5 picture will be cropped compared to a 4x6 because of the different dimensions). You can set this camera to shoot at different resolutions, including 3.2 megapixels, which is ideal for shooting 4x6 inch photos. You can select sizes down to 1.2 megapixels, with corresponding losses in resolution and gains in the number of photos that can be stored on a memory card. 2. Quality of the pictures. The resolution and color are excellent. I used it in Florence this last week without flash in the museums, and found that this camera is far better than film cameras with 400 speed film in picking up images. 3. 4x optical zoom, which is significantly better than the 3x offered on most cameras in this price range. Anything more than that, and you'll get blurred pictures, unless you use a tripod. 4. The camera is about the right size (many Asian manufacturers miniaturize their cameras to the point they are hard to use), and is comfortable to hold. 5. Ease of use. The automatic setting will handle most situations, but the camera also has a large number of pre-settings and allows a limited amount of manual control. Like all digital cameras, you will have to buy several accessories to use this one properly, including: 1. A large memory card. 512MB will store in excess of 350 pictures at fine resolution. Larger cards are now available, but the manual doesn't discuss them, which may mean they're incompatible with the camera. 2. A charging dock, which will allow you to recharge the camera without removing the battery by just plugging it into the dock. The DX 6000 charging dock will take voltage inputs between 110 and 240, which means you can use it overseas, provided you have the appropriate adapter. 3. A larger battery (1750 mAh) to replace the 1050 mAh battery the camera comes with; 4. A carrying case. Get the cheap small one [ASIN: B00006HXMQ] 5. Hold off on buying a printer dock until you know whether you will actually use it. You may want to e-mail your photos to a printing service or use a drugstore kiosk. The camera comes with Kodak software, which I found useless. If you use Windows XP, your computer will recognize the camera as a memory device, allowing you to transfer pictures easily.

I realize it was not new, however, it has several flaws in the camera electronics that make it balmost unusable.

This is the second of these cameras I have owned. When my first basically wore out after of several years of hard use and thousands of pictures, I was still so impressed with its performance that I sought to replace it with another of the same model. It is light and easy to use. Although not as compact as some of the latest digital cameras, it will readily fit in a jacket pocket. I take it with me whenever I don't want or need the bulk of my digital SLR. For most situations, it is literally a 'point and click' type of camera: turn it on, aim, shoot. The most common controls, flash mode and zoom, fall readily to the fingertips. One caution - the zoom feature is great until you push it into the digital zoom mode. Then you really should use a tripod and hold the camera really still to get decent picture quality. On the back, the on/off switch is part of a mode selection 'wheel.' When you slect any of the photo options, a brief (very brief) description of the function appears to assist you in making your choices. Among them is a video mode which includes sound recording. I find it to be about the quality of a Skype video. All told, I think this is an excellent camera for anyone who wants a compact, sturdy and relatively inexpensive digital camera for everyday use. As I said, this is the second of this model I have purchased and I have been very pleased with its performance.