• Nice color, generally very good exposure
• Versatile 38-380mm zoom range
• Very compact
• Good handling
• Good flash performance
• Good white balance in most situations
• Large, bright LCD screen
• High resolution EVF
• Both screen and EVF work well in low light
• Generally accurate focus
• Lots of features, easy point-and-shoot use
• Huge range of scene modes and simple explanations of features/functions
• Simple, automated picture sharing with supplied software suite
• Good battery life

• Not very high resolution - lack of fine detail
• Slightly soft images
• Over-aggressive noise reduction at ISO 160+
• Some problems with high contrast/wide dynamic range scenes
• Occasional exposure problems
• Lack of image stabilisation limits use of long end of zoom to bright scenes
• Some controls are fiddly
• Very slow buffering/card writing
• Camera freezes for up to 25 seconds after 4 or 5 shot burst
• Highest quality setting is still quite heavily compressed
• No custom/manual white balance

Overall conclusion

The DX7590 is a camera that rewards those prepared to take the time to learn how to use all its functions and to work around its foibles - you start getting better and better pictures the more you use it. Quite how this fits in with the 'EasyShare' concept I'm not sure, though Kodak has done a fairly good job at combining sophisticated features with genuine ease of use. The 7590 may have a friendly interface and cartoony icons, but it is stuffed to the gills with enough features to keep even the most enthusiastic photographer happy. It grows on you too, once you master the vast array of modes, features and options, and the results - though lacking the critical sharpness some may demand, and which is essential for large prints, are very pleasing, with vivid, saturated colors that make nice prints without any serious post-processing.

I think the biggest problem facing the DX7590 is that it aims to offer the best of both worlds - sophistication and ease of use - without completely delivering either. For similar money the Panasonic FZ20 will give you better results and more control (albeit without the friendly face), and for a lot less money you can pick up an easy to use 3MP superzoom with image stabilisation (the Panasonic FZ3 and Canon S1 IS spring to mind) and frankly you won't see a great difference in the amount of detail captured even with the extra two megapixels.

My only serious complaint about the DX7590 is the painfully slow buffer, which makes shooting extended sequences at best frustrating, at worst impossible. If you can live with this restriction and without image stabilisation, want an easy to use big zoom camera in a compact body and like clean, bright pictures straight out of the camera, the DX7590 may be just what you're looking for.

Above Average

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