Last weekend, I took the Kodak EasyShare M530 out for a hike to Snoqualmie Falls. I should be clear, I’m not one of those DSLR enthusiasts (that’s Brandon). I just want a compact camera that takes great pictures so I can share them with my friends and family. Plus, I’m kind of a klutz so a camera I can drop and not have it ruin the trip is awesome (unfortunately that almost happened!)
Enter the Kodak EasyShare M530. This camera has earned the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo, is super light, and comes in four different colors. I personally loved how light it was and hardly noticed I was carrying it. The camera can also be found on Bing Shopping for under $100. Dropping this would put a damper on the trip, but it wouldn’t completely ruin your week . The camera is not certified as “shock-proof,” but my friend has dropped it a few times and it still takes great pictures.
The only slight drawback I found was the camera sometimes took a few seconds to take a picture. However, when photographing at 12 megapixels, it’s worth the wait.
Overall, it was a great experience. After the trip, I plugged it into my laptop and easily found a realistic icon of the camera in the Device & Printers Folders.
The Device Stage experience also put everything I needed in one place. I could check the battery, remaining space on my SD card, discover other products, buy accessories, and access Kodak Moments, an interesting service that presents user-generated photos from around the world organized around different themes . The default for importing pictures is through Windows Photo Viewer, but you can easily select “Change Program” to switch to your favorite photo program such as Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta.
The camera’s pictures were awesome, especially given the day was extremely overcast and slightly drizzling. This is a pic from the top of the falls… around where I almost dropped the camera.
Thanks to Windows Live Photo Gallery I was able to stitch all my pictures together to create this pristine shot of the Falls
Unfortunately, we didn’t know the Falls was renovating the trail so I was unable to take more outdoor shots.
If you are looking for a compact camera that can take great 12mp pixels shots for under $100- I strongly recommend the Kodak EasyShare M530. Kodak also supports Device Stage on 5 other models:
- Kodak EasyShare C122
- Kodak EasyShare M550
- Kodak EasyShare M580
- Kodak EasyShare Z981
- Kodak Slice TouchScreen Camera