"Picky Details" for the Kodak EasyShare DX7630 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)
Timing
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or
delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required
for the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can
amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely
reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly
affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay
and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed
and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.)
Here are the numbers I collected for the Kodak EasyShare DX7630:
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(secs) |
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| Power On -> First shot |
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LCD turns on and lens extends forward. On the slow side of average.
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| Shutdown |
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First time is time to retract lens, second time is worst-case buffer-clearing time. A little slow, the long buffer-clearing time corresponds to clearing a burst of 4 large/fine files, and is also slow, considering there are only 4 files being written.
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time until first shot is captured. Fairly fast.
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| Record to play |
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First time is that required to display a large/fine file immediately after capture, second time is that needed to display a large/fine file that has already been processed and stored on the memory card. Fairly fast.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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First time is at full wide-angle, second is full telephoto. Very fast, particularly at the wide angle end of the lens' range. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button. Very fast.
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
2.07 / |
First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for "TV" mode (640x480) images. Times are averages. In large/fine mode, shoots 4 shots this fast, then slows to 9 seconds apart, and clears the buffer in 9 seconds. In TV mode, shoots 4 shots this fast, then slows to about 7 seconds apart, and clears the buffer in 6 seconds. Pretty reasonable times, overall. |
| Cycle Time, Burst mode, max/min resolution | 0.46 (2.17 fps) |
Times are averages. Cycle time is 0.46 seconds for four frames, regardless of resolution. Buffer clears in 43 seconds for large/fine images, 30 seconds for TV mode images, and it's ready for four more. Good speed, and the four-shot buffer will be plenty for most consumers, but there's a long delay for the buffer to clear before you can capture the next sequence of four shots. |
I found the DX7630 to be quite a bit better than average, both in terms of shutter response and shot to shot cycle times. Its full-autofocus shutter lag ranged from 0.39 to 0.60 seconds, quite a bit better than average. Its lag when prefocused was 0.08 seconds, very fast indeed. Shot to shot cycle times were a little slower, at 2.07 seconds for up to 4 large images, 2.34 seconds for up to 4 small ones. "Burst" mode delivered four images of any size at a frame rate of 2.17 frames/second. The one negative point is that the 7630's buffer memory clears very slowly between bursts though.
Power
The Kodak EasyShare DX7630 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power.
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(@5 volts on the external power terminal) |
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| Capture Mode, w/LCD |
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| Capture Mode, no LCD |
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| Half-pressed shutter w/LCD |
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| Half-pressed w/o LCD |
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| Memory Write (transient) |
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| Flash Recharge (transient) |
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| Image Playback |
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With a worst-case runtime of 132 minutes in capture mode with the rear panel LCD illuminated, the DX7630 has better than average battery life, and with the LCD turned off, record-mode run time stretches to over 13 hours (!), a very good performance indeed. Playback-mode battery life is also pretty good, at a bit over 4 hours.
Storage Capacity
The Kodak EasyShare stores its photos in approximately 30 MB of internal memory or on SD/MMC memory cards. No memory card is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a 128 MB card, preferably a 256
MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.) The chart below
shows how many images can be stored in the internal 30 MB of memory at each
size/quality setting.
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Resolution/Quality 30 MB Internal Memory |
Fine | Normal | |
| 2856 x 2142 | Images (Avg size) |
11 2.6 MB |
15 1.9 MB |
| Approx. Compression |
7:1 | 9:1 | |
| 2304 x 1728 | Images (Avg size) |
17 1.7 MB |
22 1.3 MB |
| Approx. Compression |
7:1 | 9:1 | |
| 2048 x 1536 | Images (Avg size) |
21 1.4 MB |
28 1.0 MB |
| Approx. Compression |
7:1 | 9:1 | |
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Images (Avg size) |
38 782 KB |
48 614 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
6:1 | 8:1 | |
Download Speed
The Kodak EasyShare connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked it at 707 KBytes/second, a good if not earth-shattering clip. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)
DX7630 Test Images
DX7630 Specifications
DX7630 "Picky Details"
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