Kodak EasyShare DX4900 4MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom and Travel Kit Value Pack

The Kodak DX4900 builds on the success of the EasyShare range, bringing 4.0 megapixels and a whisper-quiet 2x optical zoom lens to this easy-to-use and extremely affordable package, which includes the handy Kodak travel kit for DX EasyShare series cameras.

The travel kit contains carrying case, battery pack, and charger. The padded carrying case has been custom designed to protect your camera and provide you with ample storage for accessories. The battery pack features two AA NiMH rechargeable batteries. The convenient battery charger can charge these batteries in three hours or less. It also comes complete with U.K., European, and Australian plugs.

The DX4900 is essentially an update to the successful 3-megapixel DX3900, with a new 4-megapixel CCD capable of producing good poster-size prints. Indeed, the camera was named best point-and-shoot digital camera in its price range at the 2002 Photo Marketing Association Awards, based on color accuracy and image and print quality. This is important, because the EasyShare range of digital cameras, while not among the prettiest available, perform extremely well against the competition and at the same time offer extraordinary ease of use.

The DX4900 is, in fact, as easy to use as a compact film camera. Picture taking is as simple as loading the CompactFlash card and the battery and setting the date and time. From there, the camera operates in auto mode and takes pictures with excellent color balance in most situations.

Should the need arise, the camera can be set to override the ISO settings from 100 to 400, shutter speeds from 0.7 to 16 seconds, sharpness, metering, resolution from 1 to 4 megapixels, color settings, white balance, and exposure compensation from -2 to +2 in 0.5 EV steps. Despite the ability to set these, we feel that this camera performs such a good job of image capture in the auto mode that you will rarely have to alter these settings.

Another new feature on the DX4900 is the "advanced digital zoom," which claims improved performance, reducing pixilation. Limited testing showed that the combination of real-time interpolation combined with modest image sharpening does improve the appearance of pictures taken using the digital zoom.

The software supplied with the DX4900 includes USB connection software, album creation software, image transfer software, and Kodak picture software. The transfer software runs in the background and starts up whenever the camera is detected and then guides you through transferring your images. Once an image is transferred, you are passed over to the picture software, which allows you to view your images and apply simple image enhancements, e-mail them, and organize images in an album. --Nick Baxter

Pros:

• Affordable, easy-to-use point-and-shoot 4-megapixel camera
• Auto mode very satisfactory, but can override with good range of manual controls
• Named best point-and-shoot digital camera in its price range at the 2002 Photo Marketing Association Awards--and we agree
• Includes Kodak travel kit

Cons:

• Maybe not the best-looking camera around--but it gets the job done
• Would be nice to have more of an optical zoom