The line-up of Kodak
EasyShare CX cameras includes simple compact models that allow
an easy introduction to digital photography.
The Kodak CX7430 is equipped with a 4 megapixel CCD, a 3x optical
zoom, multiple scene modes and the ability to record video clips.
The CX7430 is not the most compact of Kodak cameras, but has a good in-hand
feel and its few external controls are placed sufficiently far enough apart
to make them quite easy to use.
The upper part of the CX7430,
starting from the left, supports the speaker which serves to
playback recorded sounds, the Mode dial which serves also to
turn on the camera, and the chrome 2-stage
shutter release.
The Mode dial provides 9 settings, 8 of which are modes arranged on either
side of the position.
Any change is echoed on the monitor if it is active. Turning the dial
to the right, the modes are:
Auto: is the mode
for standard photography, allows control over the CCD
sensitivity, the white balance, and is the only mode
to provide access to the camera's long exposure mode.
Portrait: ensures that
the camera uses a wide aperture to blur the background — more
effective if the zoom is used — and fires the flash
in fill-in mode at reduced power.
Sport: forces the camera
to use as high a shutter speed as possible to freeze action.
Night Portrait: combines
the use of red-eye reduction flash and a slow shutter speed
to capture both fore and backgrounds clearly at night.
Landscape: sets the
focus to infinity and the flash, by default set to Off,
can be forced on.
Close-up: in this mode
the CX7430 can focus on a subject between 13 and 70 cm
(5.1 to 27.6 inches) when the zoom is set to the wide angle
setting, and 22 to 70 cm (8.7 to 27.6 inches) at the telephoto
end.
While from the Off position, turning the dial towards the left offers:
Favourites: immediately
provides a means to see photos that have been tagged as Favourites(see
the Characteristics section of the review).
Video captures clips with
sound at either one of two frame sizes:
QVGA (320 x 240) at 20 frames per second.
VGA (640 x 480) at 13 frames per second.
During video clip recording the optical zoom is disabled
to avoid the sound of the zoom's motor getting recorded,
but the white balance and exposure are constantly adjusted.
The maximum recording time is only limited by the capacity
of the memory card in use, but it is also possible to capture
clips with preset lengths (5, 15 or 30 seconds).
The CX7430 provides a simple but
serviceable optical viewfinder that shows the AF area. It is
flanked by a small LED that turns green when the camera is ready
to shoot, blinks orange when the camera is unable to autofocus,
or while the flash is charging, and red while the camera is recording
an image to the memory card.
To its left two buttons serve for:
A first pressure on this button
start the 10 second Self-timer.
A second pressure starts the Burst mode which can capture 6 photos
consecutively. White balance and focus are established at the first
frame and are locked for the burst.
This button serves to select
the Flash modes (Auto, Forced Off, Fill-in, or Red-eye
Reduction).
In addition to the current flash mode, the button also indicates
the status of numerous camera functions on the LCD monitor. The lower
blue part of the screen indicates not only the most critical settings
(image quality, ISO, etc.) but also some less commonly used settings
such as the time/date stamp and the use of an alternate folder for
the images.
A 1.6 inch LCD monitor with 72,000
pixels is positioned at the centre of the CX7430's back, and
all the other external controls of the CX7430 are arranged on
either side of it. At the top left is the delete button
which is used to delete one or all images in Playback.
Below, the 4-way controller serves
to navigate the camera menus and, when pressed straight in [OK]
at the centre, confirm some selections made in the menus. In
addition, the 4-way controller offers a couple of extra functions:
The up arrow controls the information overlaid on
the LCD monitor.
The down arrow starts exposure compensation (± 2EV
in 0.5EV increments) which can then be adjusted with the right
and left arrows.
In Playback, the first press of
the OK button magnifies an image on the LCD monitor by
2X, then 4X at a second press of the button while the directional
arrows make it possible to move the image around. Pressing on
the down arrow on the other hand displays thumbnails of
the images in memory, 9 per screen.
The Share button, below the 4-way controller, displays a special
menu that provides options for transferring and printing images:
Cancel Prints: Cancels all DPOF tags that were previously
set.
Print All: tags all images for printing.
Print: selects the image currently under review
for printing.
E-Mail: creates a 640 x 480 pixel copy of the image
under review so it can be e-mailed once the camera is connected
to a computer running Kodak's EasyShare program.
Favourite: selects the image as a favourite so as
to make organization and sharing easier.
To the left of the monitor is
the zoom control, a toggle that moves the lens to the wide angle
setting when pressed on the left and telephoto when pressed on
the right.
And, below an indented thumb rest, the MENU button calls the menu
appropriate to the mode in use as selected with the Mode dial. (An overview
of all the items of the menus can be found in the Characteristics section
of the review.)
Last is the REVIEW button which places the camera into the Playback
mode and instantly shows the last captured image.
One regret however, a novice user does not always remain a novice, and
an option should have been offered to eliminate the information screens
that are presented any time a mode or function is changed. As it is, the
only way to clear these off the screen is to press the shutter release
lightly.
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Ergonomics
position.
Any change is echoed on the monitor if it is active. Turning the dial
to the right, the modes are:
