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Kodak EasyShare Z730 Digital Camera

Posted by John under Digital Cameras

The Kodak EasyShare Z730 Digital Camera (Less than $200 for a Quality Camera!) Pros: inexpensive great quality for the price 5-megapixels 2.2 inch LCD long battery lifeCons: expensive memory cardsThe Bottom Line: The Kodak EasyShare Z730 is a high quality camera at a great price that takes great pictures on a vivid 2.2 inch LCD. I picked up the Kodak EasyShare Z730 Digital Camera as a Christmas present from Best Buy on special. Selling for $179.95 it advertised that this was a $70 discount from its normal price of $249.95. The price is of course what drew me to this particular camera because when I saw that it was a 5 megapixel with a 4x optical zoom I figured it was worth a shot to at least take a look. It surprised me that the camera was selling for so cheap but after playing with it for a while I was really impressed with it. Getting a 5 megapixel camera for under $200 was nothing I had expected and with the knock off in price I was sure that there had to be something with the camera that people weren’t liking. The only conclusion that I could come to would be the size. With all of the flashy credit-card sized cameras out right now I can see why people with bigger budgets would go elsewhere. I wasn’t looking to spend over $200 though so this is the one that I bought. Since the purchase I have been able to use it a number of times and as funny as it sounds I have ended up using this one more than my previous camera. Beyond the 5.36 megapixels and the 4x zoom the camera also attracted me because of the size of the LCD on the back of the camera. At an impressive 2.2 inches the screen was not only large but very vivid and bright. Its resolution runs at 153 000 pixels and works very well in the daylight hours. If you turn off the lights the LCD seems to get even brighter which is a big plus if you need to see a clear image. The LCD screen is actually one of the better ones I have seen and when you move with the camera the picture is very quick to adjust to the new target. I would say less than half a second of time elapses before you have the bright focus again and it doesn’t blur when you move the camera around. This is a very great feature to the camera and each time that I have used it I have been further surprised that this one cost less than $200. Those pros to the camera were going to soon become just another in a long list that we have enjoyed on this camera. I touched on the fact that the camera is a little larger than some of the flashy ones being put out by Sony and Cannon right now but it has not really affected how this camera gets used. It comes in at about 4 inches wide 2.7 inches up and down and it is around 2 inches thick when the lens is retracted. Still a very small camera it doesn’t seem small compared to the others but when you have it in your hand your aren’t going to be complaining. The camera also weighs only about 1/2 of a pound so that is not an issue either. On the top of the camera you have the Flash Status button a Close Up / Landscape button and the Exposure Bracketing / Burst button. Beside that you have the speaker that can be used on the video function for the camera. To the far right is the shutter button surrounded by Zoom/Magnify toggle that works from left to right. On the front of the camera you have the lens (which retracts when not in use) a light sensor a microphone and the self timer / video light. On the left side of the camera are the USB Port and A/V outlet as well as the plug in for a 5V battery. The back of the camera is where all the bells and whistles start coming in as you have the ready light and view finder next to the delete menu and review buttons. Those are pretty self-explanatory and come into play when you want to review or delete pictures and videos. Next to the LCD you have the Display button that turns it off and works like a power button. There is also a share button that comes into play when you are getting photos off of the camera. The Mode dial next to the LCD controls which mode you have the camera on and there is a joystick in the center of it that lets you control the movements of the cursor when you are in a view mode. The mode dial can be locked and has to be unlocked when you are turning the camera back on for the first time. It is an interesting set of buttons and takes a minute to get used to but I actually like being able to work with the joystick. On the bottom you have the battery and memory card slots which lock in nicely as well as a tripod socket and the connector used to hook up to an EasyShare printer. The camera has a lot of things that it can do and the buttons are just the tip of its uses. When you first turn on the camera it takes about a second or two to warm up and be ready to shoot a picture. When you start taking the pictures themselves though it goes pretty quickly. When you are taking a picture the camera also gives off a quick sound to indicate that it has been taken. I find that quite helpful because it gives you a time-frame with which to take the next picture. Taking a series of pictures is quite easy and it is automatically saved to either the 32 MB internal memory or a flash card that you have purchased separately and installed into the camera. The flash cards are quite expensive but you have to get at least one if you plan on taking a lot of pictures. For the 128 MB you can get it for about $24.95 $49.95 for the 256 MB or for the 512 MB you can pay $74.95 These are the Kodak SD cards that are made specifically for their products and I ended up picking up one of the 512 MB ones to go with the camera. If I hadn’t the recipient of the camera would have had to go buy one themselves. Taking the pictures there is also a function that allows you to take quick shots (about 5 in 2 seconds) that works great for some stop action photography. When using the zoom (4x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom) it is easy to focus in on specific things that you want to take a picture of. The zoom takes a second to focus in but once you have it is as clear as the normal focus is. The pictures also come through very clear. If you take a picture at the normal settings the camera will allow you to zoom into a specific point after you have taken the picture as well. So if you decide later that you want to refocus the center of the picture you can do just that. For saving the pictures a good rule of thumb is to start with the maximum and work backwards if you are not sure. That way if you want to blow it up you can and you don’t have to worry about distortion on a lower setting. I touched on the fact that you can also take videos on the camera. These QuickTime videos will be of 12 fps at 640 x 480 or 30 fps at 320 x 240. The quality is quite good in my opinion and it picks up sound very well from the room itself. If you are taking the video and talking though you will want to speak up a little bit louder because the microphone is on the front and has a hard time picking up your voice. The videos can be up to a maximum of 80 minutes and can be quite interesting when you re-watch them. Taking pictures is the easy part and the battery seems to be able to withstand a lot of use before needing a recharge. I have taken at least 200 photos without having the green light turn to red on me (that denotes it needs charged) and by simply popping it out post-use you can charge it up very easily. A full charge in the dock takes about 3 hours. The dock itself is nice and compact so you don’t need to worry too much about wasting a lot of space when you are traveling with it. The flash is built into the camera and comes with a host of options that you can use: Flash Off Auto Flash Fill-in Flash and Red-eye Reduction Flash. It works pretty well and I have used it to take pictures ranging from inches in front of the camera to distant shots where the flash provided enough light to take a great picture. As soon as the picture is taken it pops up onto the LCD to view and you can look to see if you like the picture. After about 3 seconds it goes back to picture taking mode and you have to either change modes or click on review to take a second look. When viewing the pictures you have choices with the resolutions as well; 2304 x 1728 2048 x 1536 2576 x 1932 and 2576 x 1716. The hard part could be viewed as deciding what to take a picture of because this is a really good point and shoot camera. The camera also comes with some EasyShare Software that allows you to edit the pictures on your computer. This is what could prove to be a downside to some owners because the camera does take a while to upload pictures to your computer. It could border on frustrating actually because it can take 5-10 minutes to upload more than 100 of your pictures. It’s not the end of the world though and if you want to you have the option to just transfer individual pictures rather than all of them at the same time. When you see the photos though it will make up for the time because they are simply beautiful. The coloring is perfect and it is very vivid in presentation. It is still amazing to me that this little camera I bought as a Christmas present for less than $200 could do just great work. It is definitely good at its job and it got me to thinking that Kodak made it cheap to sell the accessories as more expensive and thus make the profit that way. I find myself highly recommending this camera because it really is a great Digital option for under $200.00. It takes the pictures quickly provides great images to print and to top it all off it will shut itself off after 8 minutes of being idle thus saving battery life. If you are looking for a great new digital camera to buy for yourself or as a gift like I did spend some time considering the Kodak EasyShare Z730 as a primary option! Items In The Digital Camera Box: The Kodak Z730 Zoom Digital Camera Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery (1050 mAh) Li-Ion Rapid Battery Charger Kit (plugs into wall Audio/video and USB cables Wrist strap Getting Started Kit with Kodak Easyshare Software Custom camera insert for using separately purchased Kodak Easyshare Camera and Printer Docks. (did not use this part) The ManualRecommended:Yes Amount Paid (US$): 179.95This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something… Fool-Proof for Absolute Beginners