Kodak DX4530 Review

The autofocus range is 23.6 inches to infinity in normal mode and in close-up mode it covers from 3.9 to 23.6" in wideangle. The auto focus is a multi-zone type AF system.

The optical viewfinder is large and bright but lacks any kind of dioptric adjustment. The LED on the side indicates power is on and camera is ready to capture. 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 working flash range in wide is 0.6 - 3.4m (2 - 11.2ft.) and in tele - 0.6 - 2.0m (2 - 6.6ft.)

The controls are fairly simple and effective. There's a dedicated Delete button to erase images during review. The Review button puts the camera into playback mode. The Menu button calls up and dismisses the menus. The Share button lets you select images for printing, e-mailing, or to mark as a favorite.

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. The record and play menus are detailed on the next two pages of this review.

On the top is the FLASH button (Auto, Red-Eye, Fill and Off modes). Above the flash button is the speaker. The Mode Dial has positions for: Movie, Off, Auto, Sport, Night Portrait, Landscape and Close-up. And of course the shutter release.

I/O ports are on the side with an Audio-Video Out with user-selectable NTSC or PAL format. The USB port works with the Kodak EasyShare Sofware to make image downloading fast and easy even without the use of the optional Easy Share Dock. The DC IN port is on the other side of the camera.

The DX4530 Zoom comes with 32MB of internal memory and is equipped with a flash memory card slot that accepts any capacity Secure Digital or MMC type flash card. Shown here is the spacious and speedy Transcend 512MB SD card.

Power is supplied by two AA type batteries or a CR-V3 lithium pack. Kodak supplies a CR-V3 one-use lithium battery with the camera. Shown here is the new rechargeable RCR-V3 from BatteryX.com and Powerex 2200mAh NiMH rechargeable AA cells in the camera.

The CR-V3 type battery offers the longest runtime and the best shelf life and now it's available in a rechargeable.   Do your pocketbook and your local landfill a favor and use rechargeable batteries, alkalines just don't cut it in digicams.

The optional EasyShare printer dock 4000 is a simple way for owners of the DX4530 and other EasyShare CX/DX 4000 and 3000-series digital cameras to get durable, 4 x 6-inch Kodak pictures with or without a computer. It combines all the benefits of an EasyShare dock quick battery recharging and one-touch picture transfer with high quality thermal printing. The application of an exclusive XtraLife laminate coating makes the photos durable and water resistant. You use the on-camera share/print option to select images to print, dock the camera, then press a button to get photos in about 90 seconds.