The Kodak EasyShare
V530 is clearly a revised and more economical version
of last year's V550. Metallic red, the V530 carries on the
basic rectangular design of the V550, but with less elaborate
external controls, and a smaller 2-inch monitor.
These differences aside, the V530
is much like the v550, solidly built, and as noted above, with
an exterior that is entirely metallic.
The top right side of the
V530 has three buttons, the 2-stage shutter release being
the biggest and placed at the far right. To its left is the
Flash Mode button, which cycles through Auto Flash,
Fill Flash, Red-eye Reduction, and Off.
To the right of the Flash Mode button, the Power Switch has
a small recessed area in the middle to make it easier to distinguish
it from the other buttons on top of the camera, but regrettably
when the camera is still a bit unfamiliar, it is often confused
with the Flash Mode button. Worth noting, the V530 is intended
for easy use, and whenever the camera is turned on, it sets
the flash mode to Auto.
The left side of the camera's
top also supports three buttons, all shaped exactly the same,
each of which can be used to turn on the camera, but not turn
it off. The upper left side of the camera's back echoes each
of their icons, and uses a small LED above it to indicate
the mode in use. Starting on the right, the first button,
Auto/Scene, controls the shooting mode. Pressing the button
once starts the Auto mode:
Auto is intended
for everyday use, providing not only a fully automatic
shooting mode, but a number of user-controls over the
way the camera captures the image, which are accessible
through the menu.
Pressing the button a second time superimposes the Scene
mode selection screen. The screen presents 20 icons, each
representing a specific shooting situation which is identified
at the top of the screen, followed by a brief description
of its use:
Portrait
Landscape
Sport
Close-up
Night Portrait
Night Landscape
Snow
Beach
Text
Fireworks
Flower
Manner/Museum
Self-Portrait
Party
Children
Backlight
Panning Shot
Sunset
Candlelight
Custom
The last of these modes, Custom is able to retain
specific settings made in the menu, including sensitivity
and flash mode, restoring them whenever it is selected. Nevertheless,
when the camera is turned off, it starts by default in the
Auto mode and the Auto/Scene button must
be pressed once to return to the last used Scene mode.
The next button on the top left side of the V530 turns on
the Video mode:
The V530 captures videos
at 30 frames per second and at either one of two frame
sizes: 640 x 480 pixels (VGA), or 320 x 240
pixels (QVGA). The recording time is limited to the
available space on the memory card or the internal memory,
or can be preset to 5, 15 or 30 seconds.
During the recording, the optical zoom remains useable
and white balance and exposure are adjusted as required.
If desired, an electronic image stabilization system
can be used, and is enabled in the capture menu. Along
with the video, the camera records an Index image, much
like a contact sheet, that shows 9 frames selected from
the entire video recording, making it easier to identify
the contents of the recording.
The third button, at the far left of the top and labelled
with ,
starts the camera directly in the Playback Mode, displaying
only images that have been previously tagged as Favourites.
The other external controls of the V530 are arranged on both
sides of the 2-inch, 230,000 pixel monitor.
The Zoom Control is
positioned directly below the Shutter Release, on the right
side of the V530's back, where it is easily reached with the
thumb. As is almost the norm nowadays, the control not only
serves to adjust the zoom's focal length, it also serves to
zoom in and out of images when the camera is in Playback mode.
Any portion of an image can be magnified up 8X or the
image returned to full screen.
Below the zoom control, a small but clear speaker is provided
to play back the sound captured by the camera.
Still on the right side of
the monitor, two buttons are stacked near the bottom of the
camera:
review
starts the Playback
Mode. Worth noting, the button cannot be used to
turn on the V530, unlike the three buttons on the top
left of the camera.
The next button, share, highlighted with a coloured
insert, displays a short menu when pressed, as long as there
are images in memory, or on a memory card.
The Share Menu contains five
options:
Print serves to select images for printing, and
the number of copies to make of any particular image. The
V530 is PictBridge compatible.
E-Mail allows selecting image for e-mailing, and
if an e-mail address book (up to 32 names) has been uploaded
to the camera via Kodak's EasyShare software which is supplied
with the V530.
Favourites serves to select images as "Favourites"
which, once they have been transferred to a computer running
Kodak's software, will be re-uploaded back to the camera
at a smaller size, and available for viewing when the Favourites
button is pressed.
Print All selects all images in memory,
internal and/or card, for printing.
Cancel Prints cancels all print order settings.
The left side of the camera's
back also supports a trio of controls, starting at the top
with the 4-direction control that is used to navigate the
camera's menus, or move from one image in playback, or even
adjust the sound volume of videos with the up and down arrows
during playback. At the centre of the 4-direction control
a small blue tinted button marked OK serves to confirm
menu selections.
In addition, when the camera is set to a capture mode, the
right and left arrows serve to adjust the exposure
compensation. An exposure compensation range of ±
2EV is available, set in 1/3 EV increments, and the monitor
reflects the adjustment by becoming brighter or dimmer.
Similarly, the up and
down arrows provide control over other functions:
With the camera in a capture
mode, the up arrow cycles from the default display
that superimposes the flash mode, the image resolution,
the number of images that can be captured, the memory
storage (card or internal), the current exposure setting,
and the capture mode around the periphery of the image,
while at the centre the AF brackets show the focus zone.
Pressing the up arrow once clears the monitor
of all information with the exception of the exposure
compensation and the AF brackets. Pressing the up
arrow a second time returns the monitor to the default
display but adds a real-time histogram that graphically
shows the distribution of brightness in the frame.
With the camera set to
the Playback mode, the default display shows
the image with superimposed on it the frame number,
the image storage location (internal or memory card),
and, as applicable, settings such as Favourite tag,
E-mail tag, Blur warning, Print tag and number of prints
selected. Pressing the up arrow once clears all
superimposed information off the screen. Pressing the
button a second time returns to the default display
but adds the image's histogram. And last, pressing
the button a third time overlays a back rectangle over
the image, containing the file name, the directory
where it resides, the capture date and time,
and the resolution.
The down arrow serves
to select either of two other shooting modes while
the camera is in a capture mode:
Pressing the button once engages
the Macro Mode, allowing the V530 to focus on a
subject that is between 5 and 70 cm (2 to 27.6 inches)
from the front element of the lens when the zoom is set
to the wide angle end, and from 40 to 70 cm (15.6 to 27.6
inches) when it is at the telephoto end.
A second press of the button
switches to Landscape Mode, which sets the focus
to infinity so as to capture a distant subject.
Finally, with the V530 set to the Playback mode, the
down arrow also serves to display index screens (9
thumbnails per screen) of the images that have been captured.
The last two external controls of the V530 are two buttons
below the 4-direction control. The first serves to delete
images, either while they are being recorded or when the camera
is set to the Playback mode.
The second calls up the menu that corresponds to the
current camera mode: still image, video or playback.
The Kodak V530
is very compact — almost too small — and while
extremely well-finished and obviously sturdy, the small size
of its external controls makes it a bit awkward for anyone
with largish hands. Buttons tightly placed between others
such as the flash mode button, the video mode button, or the
OK button are difficult to press with accuracy. And more specifically,
the 4-direction control is so flat that attempts at using
it often have unexpected results.
Introduction
,
starts the camera directly in the Playback Mode, displaying
only images that have been previously tagged as Favourites.
