Canon A80 vs Kodak CX7430 or CX 7530

Hi! I need a bit of advice. I would like some opinions or comparisons on
the Canon A80, the Kodak CX7430 and Kodak CX7530. My friend has narrowed
his choices down to these three units. We are looking for a product with
ease of use, good color quality, and reasonable price. We want to be able
to make crisp 8 X 10 on occasion but mostly will use 4 X 6 prints. Any
suggestions or comments are welcome. Thanks. - MZT

 

Greetings MZT,

I can understand your dilemma, and suspect that you are like me, in that I
get advice on purchases as well. Having more than one subject matter
opinion is always a good idea. I can tell you that both Kodak models are
excellent and if they fit your price range you are going to be OK with
either. I would consider what kind of photograhpy you expect to do in the
future, review the features of each camera, and fit the best model to your
budget. From what you noted here, it sounds like the CX7430 will be a good
choice. If you have the extra money, the larger CCD might be an advantage.

Talk to you soon, MZT, let me know if there are questions.

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company




From the three cameras noted, I am familiar with two and if it is quality
and convenience, then the CX7430 would be an excellent choice.

 

Thanks for your input. I tend to lean towards Kodak as I have a DC290 that
I love. But this camera is not for me. It is for someone just entering the
digital camera era that has asked me for advice. That makes the decision
harder. . .I'm spending someone elses money and I want them to be happy. As
far as ease of use, would there be much of a difference between the CX7430
or the 7530. What are the major feature diferences or is the only
difference in the number of megapixels? Also, I ruled out the DX 6340 as I
read somewhere that it is for the more experienced user and this user will
be a novice. Was this information correct? Thanks again for all your help.
MZT

 

My wife has a canon a 80 as she wanted the video/sound aspect
I have used it while waiting for my KODAK dx6490

the a80 is usable and OK.smaller and easy to sue.
HOWEVER, I like the 38/380 ZOOM of the KODAK
the kodak is 4MP

the zoom is AWESOME!

with careful shopping and access to a staples (or other price match stores)
you maybe able to get for UNDER $350.00

watch out 4 ebay, read all the fine print carefully, as there are a lot of
them that re-furbished.

BUY NEW if POSSIBLE

 

Define crisp.

A 4MP camera with a 4:3 sensor will allow you to print a 216dpi 8x10 photo.

I have the Kodak DX6490 and my 8x10 prints are certainly not crisp when viewed
in-hand, but viewed from a few feet away they look fantastic.

Even a 6MP DSLR (3:2 sensor) will only be capable of a 250dpi 8x10.

A make these comments because many consider 300dpi to be the required resolution
for a crisp print, although you may not be able to tell the different between a
250dpi print and a 300dpi print.

It just so happens that a 5 MP (4:3 sensor) camera will allow you to print a
243dpi 8x10, which is only 7dpi less than the 6MP DSLR (with 3:2 sensor).

I would strongly recommend that your friend has a very close look at the reviews
of the cameras he/she is considering paying particular attention to the level of
detail that the sensors are able to resolve. I say this because one review I
read showed that a 4MP Canon PowershotSD10 could resolve approximately 10% more
vertical resolution than the 5MP Sony CyberShot DSC-T1 - note that one with a
lower res sensor could resolve more detail, obviously resulting in crisper
prints. There were plenty of 3MP cameras in the review that could resolve as
much detail as the 4MP Kodak DX6490 [1].

I would not buy a camera if that information was not available if getting crisp
8x10s was my main criteria for selecting a camera.

I've heard the Cano A80 suffers from chromatic aberration problems (I think
that's the term), and I would not buy that model because of it.

Good luck with your hunting.

[1] - I didn't do my homework before I bought my DX6490 . Doing lots of
homework now because I'm looking for a camera for my wife to take better photos
of my family for large prints up to 15x10 in size.

 

I am sure that any of these cameras will serve the stated purposes well.
But my recommendation would be to spend just a little more for the
Kodak DX7440.
I don't think you will find a camera that is easier to use and still
produces good color at this price range.

 

I bought a DX7440 a couple of weeks ago and it's certainly a best bang
for the buck. Lots of fun.

Steve's Digicams gave it a very good review that's even a tad better
than his 6.1megapixel Kodak DX7630 review.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/dx7440.html

Hap

 

"BenOne©" wrote in message
Be aware that Canon has just two days ago announced replacement for A80 with
the new A95 (5 MPixels).

- JW

 

Hello Again MZT,

Actually, your friend would be very happy with the DX6340. It is an
excellent model and I just got one for a friends Daughter that was going off
to college. She is a complete novice and loves it. So, it would be a good
choice for your friend as well. But, if I had to make a choice, I guess for
the money, the 7530 is an advantage. It costs about $50 more, but gives you
a larger CCD, 32 meg of internal memory compared to 16 (accommodates the
larger files), and a better movie option.

The 7530 $300 has:
Stunning picture quality with 5.0 MP for prints up to 20"x30" (50x76 cm)
3X optical zoom lens
Point-and-shoot simplicity
9 scene and color modes
TV-quality video with audio
Sharing is one-touch simple


The 7430 $250 has:
Vibrant prints up to 20"x30" (50x75 cm) with 4.0 MP
3X optical zoom lens
Point-and-shoot simplicity
Multiple scene and color modes, and video capture
Sharing is one-touch simple


For me it would be worth the $50 but then $50 is a lot of money to a young
person that doesn't have any just yet. Guess that would be up to the buyer.
You do what you can do. Talk to you soon,

Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company

 

Ron Baird wrote:

Hi Ron,

How do you decide what the maximum print size is for a camera?

A 20x30 print from a 5MP camera is going to be less than 100dpi. I don't know
the exact maths, but I'm sure that's a lot less detail than a 20x30 from a 35mm
film or medium format film. So much less, that it would look pretty average when
viewed from only 6 feet away. I honestly haven't seen something that low in dpi
so I could be wrong.

I can print acceptable 8"x11.5" (A4) photos taken with my 4MP DX6490, with some
attention paid to sharpening to get a sharper "looking" print, and that's
197dpi. I can imagine that as your viewing distance doubles, the required dpi
halves, and an A3 print from my camera would be 139dpi (more than half the A4).
A 20"x30" is a hell of a lot less detailed, but unless you have enormous rooms
in your house - perhaps 30'x30' - you're never going to get far enough away to
be unable to see that the print appears quite soft or blurry even.

I've got an A3 printer so I will be testing my theory shortly and will report
back here later.

It's a real shame that Kodak didn't provide a "no sharpening" setting for the
sharpening. The preferred steps for creating a large print include upscaling the
image and sharpening it. If the image has already been sharpened in the camera,
you've got a less than perfect source to begin with. It's fine if you want to
print 6x4s, but anything bigger should have some post-processing done to it.

I'm already considering buying another camera - with 5 or 6 MP - and it won't be
a Kodak if the sharpening and JPEG compression can't be turned off or minimized.

 

Consider that monitors display between 72 and 120 dots/inch and you
might want to reconsider.

No, twice the distance is 1/4 the size, and 4 times the distance is 1/16
the size. You don't have to get very far from even a 20x30 picture for
it to become the same apparent size as a 4x6.

I would also like less agressive compression, and control of sharpening.
It seems that most manufacturers just don't understand the user who
wants to control things him/herself.

You will probably end up paying a lot more.

 

No doubt.

 

My daughter agonized over choosing a camera for college. We made a lot
of trips to the dealers and she liked the Canon SD 110 and the A80.
During these trips, I found I liked the some of the Kodaks, especially
the DX7440.

In the end, my daughter bought the A80 yesterday because she has two
friends that have and like it, but in the near future, I'm going to go
for the DX7440 (hmm...or maybe the DX6490...).

Bruce

 

Young people seem more and more to feel better about going along with
the crowd (even when the crowd is WRONG). It's something I find vaguely
discomforting. As for the 7440 or the 6490, if you need the 10x zoom,
and can live with the extra size of the camera (I can't), then it will
probably make you very happy.