Design

As the DCS620x is essentially a Nikon F5 body with Kodak's digital processing systems added the top portion of the camera will be familiar to previous F5 users, the base makes up a large amount of the cameras weight in the form of the large rechargeable battery pack and double PCMCIA slots. Despite its weight the DCS620x feels very comfortable in your hand, probably assisted greatly by the excellent hand strap which ensures a stable grip and security against the camera slipping away from you (consumer manufacturers take note, we've been asking for simple hand straps for months now..)

All controls fall easily to hand and the large rubber thumb grip on the back guides the top of your thumb to the rear command wheel and AE-Lock / AF buttons.

Turn the camera into a portrait position and the base doubles as a hand grip with similar thumb grip molding, a second shutter release button (lockable) and rear AF button.

The white blob on the front of the camera (bottom left) is the cameras white balance sensor, when white balance is in AUTO mode the camera uses light falling on this sensor to calculate the correct white balance. It's important not cover this or get any bright coloured clothing near to it as this may produce an incorrect white balance reading (although correction of white balance later in the acquire module is fairly straight forward).

Rear LCD Display

Top Information LCD

(LCD Backlight on)

The top LCD panel on the 620x displays current exposure / focus settings, it's the business end of the "photographic" side to the camera. Various of the settings can be "locked" by holding the "L" button on the rear of the camera and pressing the modifier / command wheel for changing that setting (in this example we've locked the focus area to the center point only). Below is a detailed breakdown of possible information displayed.

Viewfinder

The DCS620x has a true through-the-lens viewfinder with a great deal of information displayed around the periphery of the focus screen. There is a diopter adjustment knob on the side of the viewfinder (as shown here), depth of field can be previewed through the viewfinder by pressing the DOF preview button (front of camera, left of lens).

One very unique feature of the F5 is it's ability to take different viewfinders, you unlock the viewfinder by pressing the small recessed button on the back left of the viewfinder and gently slide it backwards. This exposes connectors and the focusing screen. Compatible viewfinders are: Multi-meter finder (modified DP-30), Action finder (DA-30), Waist-level finder (DW-30), High-magnification finder (DW-31).

Focus area brackets are indicated by being slightly bolder when selected. The main LCD information read-out in the viewfinder is displayed along the bottom and is detailed in the second diagram below.