Kodak M590 Review

Kodak EasyShare M590 Overview

Posted: 08/23/2010

The Kodak EasyShare M590 digital camera is, according to the company, the world's thinnest digital camera with a 5x optical zoom lens. Bearing Schneider-Kreuznach branding, the Kodak M590's lens offers 35mm-equivalent focal lengths ranging from 35 to 175mm, a rather tight wide angle to a useful telephoto. Unfortunately, Kodak's spec sheets don't list the aperture range for the lens. We do however know that the Kodak M590's lens includes optical image stabilization. The lens sits in front of a fourteen megapixel, 1/2.3-inch CCD image sensor that allows ISO sensitivities to 3,200 equivalent at full resolution, or 6,400 equivalent at a greatly reduced 3.1 megapixel resolution.

The Kodak EasyShare M590 doesn't include an optical viewfinder of any kind, instead opting solely for a smaller than average 2.7-inch LCD display with 230,000 dot resolution, roughly equating to a 320 x 240 pixel array, with three color dots per pixel. The EasyShare M590 can store images on either MicroSD or MicroSDHC cards, and also includes 64MB of built-in memory, of which only 32MB is available for storage purposes. Power comes courtesy of a Kodak KLIC-7000 lithium-ion battery, and unusually the M590 can also be charged with a standard USB charger.

Kodak's EasyShare M590 includes the company's face detection and recognition technology, allowing it to locate and identify the faces of a limited number of specific individuals, who can then be automatically tagged when their face is detected in an image. This can then be used for quick location of their photos in-camera, or in software that can read the tags. Other features of the camera include 30 frames-per-second 720p (1,280 x 720 pixel) H.264 / MP4 high-definition video capture, in-camera three shot panorama stitching, and Kodak's Smart Capture mode, which can automatically select from a subset of scene types.

Available from August 2010, the Kodak EasyShare M590 is priced at around $200, and can be purchased in four body colors - silver, red, purple and blue.