has an interal drive so you could use the camera without a card if need be.

I was shocked pleasantly when I got home after a day of shooting and plugged my card into my computer and opened the pictures in Photoshop CS. I was thrilled by the detail, the range of lighting, the excellent contrast, and the work of the manual mode which froze motion like the best old Nikon.

Some weak points: I am now tied to the Li-On battery instead of easily availible and cheap AA batteries. Expect to use a tripod to get a sharp picture using the portrait mode and the 10X zoom together (but any serious photographer would expect the same from any camera). The Camera is consumer oriented, with built in album naming and email capability which I know people might use. I would have prefered more battery power for extended use.

On the whole, this is fine camera for a great price. I bought mine at Wal-Mart and I paid less for the DX6490 than any of the advertised prices on Amazon. Anyone interested in a controllable digital camera without taking out a second mortgage will find themselves more than pleased with the DX6490. How good is this camera? My wife forgave me for buying it when she saw the pictures.

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Exceeded my expectations. EASY!, July 21, 2004
Reviewer: Jan Y
OK, I've had the camera for a week, but took it to an important family party last weekend and shot about 80 photos--different modes, light, etc. Then took it to WalMart Kodak Picture Maker machine and got 2 CDs made, some enlargements and lots of 4x6s. This camera is wonderful. I did a lot of research before buying. It's true, you can use this camera "out of the box." The clarity (resolution) is so good, it's almost too good. With the 10x optical zoom, I'm seeing (in the prints) veins on flowers, imperfections on human skin, every last detail! I didn't even realize it also gives you the option of "dialing down" to lower megapixels if you want to save space, and the lower resolution also produced beautiful pictures. I bought a 256 MB memory card so don't have to worry about running out of room. The "burst" mode worked great for action shots. The video mode worked great. I haven't had a chance yet to try the manual mode, but it's nice to have that option. Check out the other features I'm not even mentioning here (slide show on TV, for example). Some reviews on other web sites voiced concerns about battery life. I shot pictures over several hours, with the LCD viewfinder on, plus shot a short video clip with the camera, and never ran out of battery power. I've shown the results to people who know a lot more about photography than I and they were impressed. I even enlarged one photo to 8x10 to be hung on the wall, it is so clear, light-balanced, artistic (I didn't even try that hard!) etc. And remember, this was my first time out with this camera! I've already sold two other people on this camera, after seeing my pictures. I can't think of any negatives (no pun intended), other than I am still trying to find the right camera case for this. I had used my daughter's Easyshare on a previous vacation, and was impressed with the ease of use. I upgraded to this camera specifically for the 10x optical zoom, it was worth the extra money. Did I mention this is a great camera?? Buy, and enjoy!
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 Love this Camera!, January 30, 2006
Reviewer: Jenny
I decided to buy this camera close to a year ago because a friend had one, and I love it. (I replaced a lower MP camera I had) We use it all the time for family pictures as well as my son's football games. This is where the zoom and action/sports mode come in handy (no more pictures of the whole field, and using a magnifying glass to find the "star" of the picture).

With my older camera I always had problems with the AA batteries draining very fast. This camera has a rechargeable battery, that I have probably only had to charge about four times in the last 10 months, and I have taken hundreds of pictures. The preview screen is also large enough to actually be able to see the pictures.

I always have people asking me about the camera and where I found it. I have been very pleased with this camera, and am not looking for a replacement any time soon!
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Great camera for a low price, October 24, 2005
Reviewer: Cruz Tantalean Cesar Augusto (Lima, Peru) - See all my reviews

I own a DX 6490 for two years, I have use it in different circunstances and scenarios, I think is a very reliable camera with some outstandings features (for the camera price) like the 10x zoom and the photos shapeness, the 10X optical zoom is something difficult to find in a low-price camera, I know that it is not perfect but I think is good enough for the price payed for it (back in 2003 were about 400$). The photos quality is pretty good enough I have published some of my pictures on magazines and they look "professional" also I have printed some of them and the result is very good, more than what I expected, ofcourse before sending the pictures to printing I did some corrections with Photoshop or ACDSee but thats was just to find the perfection and to correct photografer mistakes not camera flaws.

If I have to point some flaws of the camara I have to say that the main problem is the: fast secuence shooting to fast moving objects, because after the first picture is taken the LCD goes black until the camera process that picture (4-5 seconds) I can shoot more pictures but without looking through the LCD so I have to "guess" were to aim (remember that the object I'm shooting is moving) and that could generate some empty photos or "cut" objects. Also if I shoot five or six pictures in fast secuence the camera would need some 20 seconds to processing all the pics and be ready for the next pictures, in some ocassions that time is just too much (in my case that is a problem, specially when I shoot airplanes flying).

About the camera I have to say that the battery is also excellent for me, I have tested it several times to the limit, the battery fully loaded can be good enough for taking between 350 and 400 pictures within some 6 hours with the camera on (obviously using the flash would reduce the number of pictures), thats is equal at the 16MB internal memory and an 256MBs SD memory card almost fulled (so over 260MBs in total), for me that is just enough for a long day of taking pictures free of thinking in the battery life or in the memory space, if you buy a 512MBs you would have to know that it wont be possible to full it whithin a battery load, so the appropiated SD card is the 256MBs, but if you are planing to use your camera in several days trips(without taking a laptop to download the pictures) a 512MBs SD memory card would give you more space (so if a 256MB gives up to 350pics a 512MBs would provide some 700 pics).
I also recommend to buy the Kodak leather small bag, it is just great for carring the camera on the belt or with the shoulder strap.
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