I had a lot of fun with this digicam for several weeks and one feature I immediately appreciated is its bright 2.2 inches of LCD, which is way lot better than the standard 1.8” display of other brands. My pictures certainly looked more detailed in the larger screen. And while I’m not the type of guy who prints large sizes of my photos, it is very comforting to know that DX7630’s 6.1 megapixels won’t look pixilated even if I choose to print up to 2856 x 2142 pixels or 76 x 102 cm.

The DX7630 does have a wealth of other features that can be pretty overwhelming but the only thing a digicam neophyte needs to acquaint himself with right away is setting the switch knob to Auto mode then forget about everything else. Just point and shoot and enjoy your great pictures, which by the way is also made possible by the professional quality Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 3x optical zoom lens and Kodak’s patented colour science image processing chip. Kodak’s 3-point auto-focus system leaves little room for guesswork in terms of focusing your subject.

I wouldn’t call myself a pro as far as taking pictures is concerned. Not even close. But I think I learned enough about basic photography to understand that light and shadows play a crucial role in the taking of great pictures.  Turning off the flash and using available light (particularly daylight) will result in better pictures with some dramatic use of shadows, especially if your shutter is fast enough.

But while the DX7630’s shutter speed of 0.3 seconds click to capture and 1.8 seconds of shot to shot is quite fast enough for a point-and-shoot camera, I was surprised with the quality of its flash that still manages to produce strong illumination and provides a nice and acceptable white balance even if you keep it on in natural light conditions, a perfect plus for the neophytes who don’t want to be bothered with tinkering their cameras any further.

For those who do like to tinker with their camera and are looking for more flexibility, the DX7630 has it in spades. In addition to auto, there’s a very generous 16 scenes (SCN) mode including a fast shutter Sports mode for snapping up moving objects and for those with shaky hands like myself and a rare but just as impressive Manner/Museum mode that shuts off the flash and sounds to make the camera inconspicuous, something that should bring out the budding paparazzi in you.

There are also aperture priority, shutter priority, programme auto, manual and custom settings mode, all easily accessible in the control wheel and joystick located at the back of the camera. There are several photo settings including several types of sharpness and color as well as black and white and sepia effects while white balance can be set in manual mode to auto, daylight, tungsten and fluorescent. And you can also shoot good quality videos in Quicktime format continuously up to 80 minutes at 320 x 240 pixels and at 24 frames per second (fps), although zooming is not possible in this mode, a bit of a bummer for me.

For storage capacity, the DX7630 also supports the very popular SD/MMC media and has a 32MB internal memory that lets you take photos right out of the box. A great feature is at least 16MB of memory and more than photos can be devoted to a Favorites folder serving as some kind of a portable photo album as well. It can also store 32 email addresses and designate specific pictures for mailing when the digicam is synced to a computer. 

The Exif Print standard is likewise supported for easy sharing of photos with little to no degradation of quality. PictBridge, however, is not supported, which means the only way you can print photos directly from the camera without using a computer is when using the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock or Printer Dock Plus. Mac and Windows are both supported and the driver and software included works well and should be more than adequate for average users. Of course, those who want more flexibility in enhancing their photos are likely to use Adobe Photoshop instead.

Design-wise, there’s something cool and a lot less tacky about the DX7630’s dark charcoal gray frame and the black contour rubberized grip is a nice functional touch, too. Maybe it’s just me but while the light plastic finish does have a sturdy feel to it, I’m simply more comfortable with the slightly heavier but more solid metal finish of other cameras including a couple of Canons that I own. Another thing that bothered me is the lack of a built-in lens cap that’s already standard in most digicams. Instead, a snap-on cap that attaches by a thin cord on the side of a camera is included and you do need to remember to cover your lens with it when you’re not using the camera, a challenge for people like myself who tend to forget these little things.

Other than that and the not-so-generous 3x optical zoom, there’s a lot to like about the Kodak EasyShare DX7630. It is a well-designed camera that offers something for everyone and it is truly a joy to use. Given its numerous impressive features, I’d say that its P26,995 price tag, while a bit pricey for some, should be reasonable enough for most people.