The autofocus range is from 60 cm (24 in.) to infinity in Normal mode and Macro mode covers from 13 - 70 cm (5.1 - 28 in.) at wide angle; 22 - 70 cm (9 - 28 in.) at telephoto. The auto focus is Multi-zone and low light capable. There is no focus-assist illuminator.

The optical viewfinder is large and bright with framing marks and autofocus target, it does not have dioptric adjustment. The LED on the side indicates power, flash and autofocus status. The color LCD is automatically turned on when you switch the camera into macro mode to avoid parallax problems with the optical finder at close range.

The built-in flash has modes for auto, fill, red-eye and forced off. The flash working range in Wide: 0.6 - 3.6m (2 - 11.8ft.); Tele: 0.6 - 2.1m (2 - 6.9ft.)

The controls: Across the top is the Drive button to select selftimer, single or burst mode. The Flash button cycles through the Auto, Red-Eye, Fill and Off modes. Top right is the Zoom control buttons, which also act as the magnify function in playback. Delete is used to erase images during review. Menu calls up and dismisses the onscreen menus. Review puts the camera into playback mode. The Share button lets you select images for printing, e- mailing, or to tag as Favorites.

Navigating the menus is simple, just use the 4-way controller to move up and down through the selections and accept a setting by pressing it inward. Pressing it inwards in Review mode, allows you to magnify an image up to 4x. Pressing down in Review mode brings up the Multi-up (index) page. The record and play menus are detailed on the next two pages of this review.

On the top you will find the Shutter release button and the handy Mode Dial. The Mode Dial has positions for: Off, Auto, Portrait, Sport, Night Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Movie, and Favorites.

I/O ports are located on the side in the SD/MMC compartment.The Audio-Video Out has user-selectable formats for NTSC or PAL. The USB port works with the Kodak EasyShare Software to make image downloading fast and easy even without the use of one of the optional EasyShare Docks.

The CX7530 comes with 32MB of internal memory and is equipped with a SD/MMC card slot that accepts any capacity SD or MMC flash card.

Shown here with the spacious and speedy SanDisk Ultra II 512MB SD card.

Power is supplied by two AA-type batteries or one CR-V3 lithium pack. Kodak supplies two Oxy-Alkaline one-use batteries with the camera. This means you can use alkaline or photo lithium one-use AA's, NiMH rechargeable AA cells, one-use CR-V3 or RCR-V3 rechargeable lithium batteries (the latter being my personal choice for power and economy.)

It also incorporates PictBridge technology for connecting to multiple brands of digital cameras, an optional external memory card reader, and a dedicated multi-function connector for Kodak EasyShare (CX, DX, LS) 600/6000 and 700/7000-series digital cameras. All connection options allow direct 4 x 6- inch thermal picture printing (full size and multiple images per sheet) with or without a computer.