Kodak EasyShare CX7330 Digital Camera [3MP, 3x Optical]

The movie mode is also good. The frame rate is not bad at all, only slightly jerky (probably about 20 fps). The movie sound quality is also excellent. It captured voices as well as the surrounding music (which is often very loud). Beware, if the plastic camera strap rubs the casing while you are filming you can get a loud "scratching" noise.

Another superb point and one of main reasons for getting this model is that it has virtually no shutter lag. Take a pic with or without flash and you can be assured that if your hand moves soon after shutter release there will be no blurring.

The negative aspects for the camera are:
It's big compared to it's rivals.
The supplied "easy share" software is appauling. It's an excuse to get you to buy printed pictures by selecting photos then uploading them to a processing company. Good idea and convienient but it took hours to go through my existing pictures to set itself up and the actual features offered are not worth the effort.
The battery life is poor. Use 2300 rated Nimh AA rechargables and you'll be ok.
It's slow to transfer large amounts of data via USB. I purchased a high speed external card reader for £10 which solved this (and also saved the battery life!)

None of the kodak literature mentions compatibility with 512Mb cards with this camera but I'm happily using a Kingston branded one. I left it filming a movie and the card was full with 32 minutes of video. not bad!

In conclusion this camera takes excellent quality pictures with or without daylight with the benefit of no shutter lag. The video mode is good and it's one of the only cheap cameras to film with sound. If you don't mind the chunky size of it then it is certainly worth a look.

If this is a description of you too, then this is a great piece of kit. Intuitive and easy to use, I am really pleased with picture quality - the black and whites look great too.

Digital tend to eat batteries - but I bought a fast charger and 4x2000 rechargeable NiMH batteries, and only had to change once - so a single charge easily lasted the week. Don't buy cheapo batteries for a digital.

The video feature has sound and is able to connect up to your TV, which is great for something at this price.

Also you can magnify your shots upto 4x which was another impressive and unexpected feature.

Frustrations - the slight delay on the shutter - but this is a standard problem with digitals, also don't forget to hold the camera steady for a second after your snap to avoid blur. I dragged my heels over getting a digital, and I'm not much bothered by gadgets as a rule, but I am delighted with this camera and its results.