Kodak Easyshare DX7440 4 MP Digital Camera with 4xOptical Zoom

This is a full featured yet easy to use camera that takes excellent quality pictures and has a high quality 4x optical zoom lens.It is extremely fast in focusing and taking pictures, and the focus is almost always perfect. It has a large number of preset settings for circumstances like landscape, portrait, close up etc, but has manual options as well where the enthusiast can set all the settings. It has a burst mode to take pictures rapidly and the ability to take 3 bracketed exposures to get just the right one. The shutter can be set for as long as 64 seconds, for long exposure shots of dark scenes.The image quality, which is where cameras must perform, is really excellent. There are setting to adjust the sharpness and color saturation to the users choice, so if one wants more muted colors they can be obtained. The usual 'normal' setting though provides rich perfect color. I've taken over a 1000 pictures on this camera to date and have been delighted in the quality of the vast majority--any problems have been the photographers, not the camera! The color reproduction is perfect both indoors and out. Kodak cameras tend to give pictures with high color saturation, but as mentioned, this can be toned down in one of the settings if desired. I like the saturation as it is--looks vibrant and lifelike. The 4 megapixel size is plenty--I've had 8x10 prints made that look identical to film.Battery life is excellent. The flash is powerful for indoor shots, and it's power can also be adjusted by one of the settings. It is easy to use--the settings are intuitive and the controls are easy to use and easy to find on the camera.The price for this is also great--making it a stand out deal in the 4 megapixel, 4x zoom lens category.Highly recommended--easy enough to use by a novice, but has more than enough settings and features for a more expert user.

This is the second of these cameras I have owned. When my first basically wore out after of several years of hard use and thousands of pictures, I was still so impressed with its performance that I sought to replace it with another of the same model. It is light and easy to use. Although not as compact as some of the latest digital cameras, it will readily fit in a jacket pocket. I take it with me whenever I don't want or need the bulk of my digital SLR. For most situations, it is literally a 'point and click' type of camera: turn it on, aim, shoot. The most common controls, flash mode and zoom, fall readily to the fingertips. One caution - the zoom feature is great until you push it into the digital zoom mode. Then you really should use a tripod and hold the camera really still to get decent picture quality.On the back, the on/off switch is part of a mode selection 'wheel.' When you slect any of the photo options, a brief (very brief) description of the function appears to assist you in making your choices. Among them is a video mode which includes sound recording. I find it to be about the quality of a Skype video.All told, I think this is an excellent camera for anyone who wants a compact, sturdy and relatively inexpensive digital camera for everyday use. As I said, this is the second of this model I have purchased and I have been very pleased with its performance.

Because of the glowing reviews on this page, my decision to purchase a DX7440 was reinforced. Unfortunately, when the purchase arrived, it turned out that the "Made in China" camera was defective. There was a large black spot in the center of all photos which appeared to be the fault of either a defective CCD or a severe problem with the optics. Either way, the camera was unusable, and it was returned for a refund.And therein lies the good thing about Amazon: They will accept a return within 30 days, no questions asked. Kodak technical support was essentially useless, because support appears to be offshored to people who do not speak English as their first language.Needless to say, Kodak cameras are now on my "do not buy" list.

I realize it was not new, however, it has several flaws in the camera electronics that make it balmost unusable.

I bought this camera after reading many glowing reviews (here and elsewhere) and was prepared to love it. And there's a lot to like:* Ergonomically, it's fantastic -- fits well in my hand, mechanical controls are firm and snappy and well-placed.* LCD screen is super-large and bright* Very fast, almost no shutter lag* High quality lens* Works well as an automatic point-and-shoot camera* Offers lots of manual controls if you want do things yourself* Menus are well-designed and very easy to useBUT... the colors it produces seem garish and unnatural. I imagine they've done this on purpose, because a lot of people are attracted by brilliant, strong colors, but I found it off-putting. I'd prefer to have the colors in my pictures actually represent the colors in whatever I'm shooting.So I ended up returning the Kodak DX7440 and getting a Pentax Optio S4i instead. The Pentax doesn't match all of the Kodak's good features (it's not quite as good ergonomically, has a less powerful flash, and offers less manual control) but its color rendition is more natural, and it's super-compact size means I can carry it in a pocket and literally take it anywhere without a second thought.If the Kodak didn't produce such overblown colors, I would have had a very hard time giving it up. It's got a lot going for it, but in the end, I just didn't like the pictures it produces.