Kodak EasyShare CX7300 review

Those who insist on cropping their pictures in the camera can activate a 3X digital zoom by pressing the Right key on the cursor pad. Thereafter, you can zoom in and out by pressing the Left and Right buttons; a magnification indicator appears in the LCD as the image is enlarged or reduced. You'll need to frame your images with the LCD--which is possible even under fairly bright sunlight--since the optical viewfinder, of course, doesn't zoom to match the changing field of view, nor does the viewfinder offer parallax correction.

Because the CX7300's aperture is fixed at f/4.5, it provides optimum exposure by varying the shutter speed from 1/2 to 1/2,300 second. There's no autofocus to slow down the camera, and shutter lag amounted to only about 0.26 second. Once the camera woke up for its first shot (in about 3.8 seconds), we were able to snap off a photo every 1.8 seconds (with or without flash) for three shots. The CX7300 then pauses almost 10 seconds before you can take another shot. There's no continuous-shooting mode, so this isn't a cheap sports-photography option.

While the pictures the Kodak EasyShare CX7300 produced were decent for cameras in its price range, compared to those of other 3.2 megapixel cameras they were a little soft, with a definite tendency to blow out highlights. We noticed some pronounced color fringing and a slight magenta cast to many of the photos. Noise tended to be a problem in low light levels. Photo enthusiasts will find the results subpar, but the entry-level point-and-shoot crowd will most likely be pleased with the images they get for a very low admission price.