Kodak DX4530 - Great Camera!

This camera is an excellent bargain. It is one of the cheapest quality 5 megapixel cameras you will find on the market. At the time of this writing the camera itself is probably over a year old which is ancient in today’s technology standards but its usefulness lives on.

I received this camera as a gift from my wife. I had actually done a lot of research on cameras at a good website called www.steves-digicams.com and it came very highly rated. Visit that website, they provide ‘COMPREHENSIVE’ reviews. Check it out….
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/dx4530.html

Its pictures are remarkably clear and have a lower memory footprint than similar 5 megapixel cameras. My friend bought a 500-dollar Canon and my pictures are just as good if not better than his.

Bottom line is, in your decision to purchase a digital camera you should ask yourself what the principle uses will be. The vast majority of people out there buy a camera so that they can take family pictures. Others buy for business use, and may need better quality but with the DX4530 you have the best of both worlds. You get a high megapixel camera that can be used personally or for business and can excel in both areas.

The DX4530 is not a high-end camera with the ability to make fine adjustments to picture quality and exposure level. It is a simple point and shoot camera for the average shooter. For what it does, it does it well.

The camera takes good pictures in daylight and in low light situations. It has an adequate flash and a short wait time between shots. You can continue taking shots one after the other and the camera will not flinch. When you are done it will process them in a batch in the order that they were shot.

The average picture size at full resolution is about 1 megabyte. The camera takes Secure Digital memory and has a 3x optical zoom. It has many different picture settings including Auto, Landscape, Macro, Action, and Video.

In the eight to nine months I have had the camera I have taken thousands of pictures mostly of my pretty little daughter who turned one year old in July. Prior to this camera I had a HP215 1 Megapixel which also got heavy use and was an excellent camera during the time that I used it.

It also a video function that allows you to take 320x240 *.mov extension movies with no time limits as other cameras do impose this restriction. I use this function a lot. Face it, most people buy expensive video cameras and use them at most four times a year. They end up languishing in the closet somewhere. My digital camera shoots video so I can take a quick video at any time. And I do! I use the camera on average six to ten times a month. I usually take about 50-100 pictures whenever I pull it out and usually shoot 3 to 5 videos averaging in length from thirty seconds to three minutes or more. The camera has never given me any trouble.

The video quality is not the best, but it is definitely VHS quality.

Battery life is decent but I strongly recommend rechargeable batteries with a spare supply whenever you go out. A set of two 2000maH batteries will last on average about 100 pictures, and then you will need a spare set to shoot 100 more.

I also recommend getting at least two 128 Megabyte Secure Digital cards so that you will never run out of memory by which to shoot pictures. One 128 Meg card is usually good for about 81-100 pictures or the equivalent of 8 minutes of video. I have a 128 and a 256 meg.

Finally the best thing about digital video combined with large amounts of storage is something I never experienced when we were using 110mm flimsy film cameras back in the early 80's. With those cameras you had 24 -36 shots and each one cost money. Now I can snap pictures until my finger gets tired with no worries. Sometimes to make sure I have a good shot I will take three pictures at once by pressing the button three times in succession.

Some reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction with the lens cap which is not integrated into the camera. I actually like the external lens cap. It is color coordinated and actually gives the camera a better look and feel when turned off than your average internal mechanized cap.

One final note.... Never buy new unless you have a real and pressing need for a product in a business setting right away. Buy from ebay and save. New DX4530's run $260 or more. On ebay the same camera is well under $200 and can be had for as little as $140 in some cases. Just make sure the seller has a high rating (greater than 97%, and has numerous sales to his/her credit - a power seller))

In any event, I hope this review was helpful.