Kodak EasyShare DX7630

Kodak EasyShare DX7630

The Kodak EasyShare DX7630 is a pleasure to use. Larger than the other two six-megapixel cameras in this roundup, the DX7630 won't fit in your shirt pocket, but it will tuck away in your jacket pocket just fine. The camera can do all the thinking for you, but if you'd rather make some or all of the settings yourself, that's simple enough to do. We would have liked the DX7630 a lot more if it had done better in our PC Labs tests, however. The photos we made were certainly acceptable, but the camera performed more like a 4MP model, although you pay a premium in price and file size for its higher pixel count.

The DX7630 uses a 3x (8mm to 24 mm f2.8/4.8; 39mm to 117mm in 35mm equivalent) Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens, an old, respected name in camera optics. We'd much rather see the camera start at a wider angle like the Casio Exilim Pro P600's 33mm—at 39mm, you may have difficulty with group shots, landscapes and shooting in tight quarters. And, at f4.8 on the telephoto end, it's a little slow.

So the DX7630 is not perfect, but pick it up and you'll quickly be impressed by its intelligent design. Though the body is clearly plastic, it feels solid and your hand nestles nicely around the contoured, rubberized grip. A large control wheel on the back surrounds a joystick and is used to turn it on and set the shooting mode. The wheel locks in the Off position, so you can spin the wheel until it stops without looking at it to shut it down. The camera has 16 scene modes—one unusual one that we especially appreciated is the Manner/Museum mode, which shuts the flash and sounds off to make the camera inconspicuous. All of the menus settings are spelled out in clear, plain English, although the graphics aren't as attractive as those on the Casio P600.

For photographers who want more control, there's program, aperture-priority, and shutter-priority auto modes, and full manual mode. People who use the camera in full auto mode probably won't even notice the knurled jog dial for changing settings in the more manual modes, but it falls right under the thumb, where you'd want it. The LCD screen, though large (2.2"), doesn't match the quality of the Casio's, either—it's a little hard to see in bright sunlight (there's also an optical viewfinder), and it slows down to 12 frames per second in low light. But Kodak provides very rich information about your pictures on the screen, and we liked that the chosen focus point in Kodak's 3-point autofocus system is clearly displayed, so you don't have to guess which subject the camera is focusing on. You can shoot videos at 24 frames per second to the capacity of your memory card, and the camera captures sound as well. The videos looked good, but you can't zoom while filming. The DX7630 takes SD memory cards and includes 32 megabytes of internal memory. We love that you can dedicate a portion of that memory for storing your favorite pictures (by default it uses 16 megabytes and holds over 70 pictures) so the camera can also serve as your portable photo album. You can also store 32 e-mail addresses in the camera, and designate specific pictures for mailing when the camera is synced to the PC.

We are a bit disappointed that Kodak didn't build an integrated lens cap like most cameras in its class. Instead, the DX7630 has a snap-on cap that attaches by a thin cord to the side of the camera. When you turn the unit on, the lens begins to protrude and pops the cap off (or you can remove it yourself), but you need to remember to cover it back up when you're not using it.

The DX7630 averaged 1150 lines per inch in our resolutions tests, lower than what we'd like to see from a 6MP camera. That was coupled with a good pixel transition average of 2.1%, though; sharpness and detail still appeared fine in our still-life trials, and should be absolutely fine for anything short of large poster-sized output. The simulated daylight captures were balanced, with decent exposure and colors. Where the DX7630 really shined was in its flash strength, producing strongly illuminated results without "blowing out" any of the whites.

Our tests showed a lackadaisical boot-up time at 3.79 seconds, but a fairly sprightly 1.55 seconds between shots. In burst mode, the camera can shoot four frames at 2 frames per second. For capturing the decisive moment in unpredictable situations, we really like the Last Burst mode, which lets you start shooting before the moment arrives and continues to snap for up to 15 seconds, but only saves the last four shots.

Kodak clearly understands what makes digital photography special. The EasyShare DX7630 is a very comfortable, well-designed camera that anybody should enjoy. We just wish the resolution was better and the lens started at a wider angle.