Disappointment Comes In Big Packages
Written: May 14 '06 (Updated Mar 30 '09)
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Pros: Great features, viewfinder, high zoom, 6 megapixels
Cons: Features don't work as they are supposed to, blurry images
The Bottom Line: This is a camera designed to be used by amateur photographers but mainly useful to parents who don't want their kids touching their good digital camera.
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| noangels's Full Review: Kodak EasyShare Z612 Digital Camera |
The Kodak Easyshare Z612 was released within the last week, bringing with it a high 12x zoom and image stabilization (IS) technology. This camera can be summarized with one word: disappointment.
Brand
Kodak has long been known to make some of the easiest to operate digital cameras. The "Easyshare" name doesn't lie. The camera tells you everything you need to know for basic operation on the LCD screen or on the buttons. Kodak has earned a bad reputation among many consumers. A lot of people have "technology-savvy" friends who tell them that Sony or Canon are the way to go. Canon does make a lot of amazing models and my latest purchase was a Canon digital camera, however, just like any brand there are some bad models. The same goes for Kodak. When choosing a camera, it is best to compare individual models rather than brands as a whole.
Z-series
A step up from Kodak's 'C' point-and-shoot line, the Z-series is Kodak's high-zoom series of cameras. These cameras all have 4-12x optical zooms and are intended to be a step before digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras. The Z612 is the replacement for the p850 with a few changes that should theoretically improve the camera.
Processor and Sensor
This camera uses Kodak's Color Science processor for vivid colors. Some people don't like the color on Kodak cameras, saying they are saturated. I think more color is good for home photos. The camera has a 6 megapixel sensor which allows it to be effectively blown up to poster size (above 16" x 20"). This is a step up from the previous model which had only 5 megapixels. While this is not a necessary upgrade for most people, it is a nice little bonus.
Lens and Zoom
This camera uses the Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens, one of the highest quality point and shoot lenses out there. It far surpasses the quality of Kodak's zoom lens on their lower end cameras. The camera has a 12x optical zoom, great for those who need to capture their kid's sports games or the amateur photographer who doesn't have $1000 to blow on a digital SLR. It also has 4.2x digital zoom which is a useless feature included on every camera. It is a so-called zoom that digitally stretches a photograph, making it blurry and cropping the edges. This feature should be disabled at all times. If you want to ruin your photos, please do it on a computer so you can salvage the original file instead of letting the camera permanently maul your images.
Still Features
Scene Modes:
This camera includes several scene modes, all of which are defined on the camera's screen when they are enabled. For example, close up mode says "use when subject is 28 inches or closer." The included modes are:
Sport: Fast shutter speeds help you freeze the action.
Night Portrait: brings the subject into sharp focus with the flash enabled
Portrait: brings the subject into sharp focus in the daylight while blurring the background
Landscape: decreases the aperture to allow a wide depth of field bringing the entire area into focus
Night Landscape: increases the depth of field of an entire area at night
Self Portrait: for those times we can't resist reaching our arms out to take pictures of ourselves (although cheaper cameras can be used for pictures on myspace)
Flower: for close up pictures of flowers in bright sunlight
Sunset: adusts the white balance and aperture to capture that sunset as you see it
Backlight: for clear pictures when light is behind the subject
Candlelight: adjusts the white balance for candlelight for that romantic ambiance
Manner/Museum: turns off all flash and sound
Text/Document: for pictures of a text, allowing you to capture clear and readable words
Beach: for obtaining realistic colors in those bright, normally washed out settings
Snow: for bright snow scenes, this mode adjusts the white balance to ensure that snow is the whitest white
Fireworks: brings the fire into sharp focus, sharpening the edges and blurring the background
Children: increases the shutter speeds for freezing images of children who can't sit still.
Shooting Modes:
This camera can shoot in auto, SCN (scene mode), P (program mode), A (aperture priority mode), S (shutter priority mode), and M (manual mode).
Color Options and Focus:
Color options included high color, natural color, low color, sepia, and black and white. High color is extremely vivid. The available options for sharpness are high, normal, and low. I found the low sharpness to be relatively useless but I guess it could be useful for more artistic photos.
Shutter and Aperture:
The shutter range is 16-1/1000 second in 1/3 step increments. I was extremely disappointed with the maximum shutter speed. I would expect a camera that is being marketed as a camera that will "take you to the next level" in photography to have a much higher speed for shutter. Several point and shoot cameras with low optical zooms, such as Kodak's V570 and the newest addition to my collection, Canon's SD 600, have a faster speed with a max of 1/1500 second. The aperture range is f/2.8 to f/4.8. This was also a very small range for a camera that is marketed toward the amateur photographer.
Megapixels and Compression:
Megapixels can be set to 6.0 megapixels best (2832 × 2128), 5.3 megapixels best 3:2 (2832 x 1888), 4.0 megapixels better (2304 x 1728), 3.1 megapixels good (2048 x 1536), and 1.1 megapixels e-mail (1200 x 900). There are three modes for the image compression: JPEG fine, JPEG standard, and JPEG basic. This is important because many people have complaints about over compression on Kodak cameras throwing away picture quality.
Light Sensitivity and White Balance:
The camera has automatic, ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400 and ISO 800. It is important to note that ISO 800 is ONLY available on a 1.1 megapixel (email) setting. I can't even fathom why they would make it this way but lo and behold they did. The images are very noisy but who can tell when you can barely print them as a wallet anyway. White balance options are automatic, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, and open shade. Automatic does a really good job of balancing and I find that manual is only necessary when you want to take an artistic license on the pictures.
Exposure:
Exposure compensation is +/- 2.0 EV with 0.3 EV steps.
Continuous Shooting and Self Timer:
The self timer can be set to 10 seconds for both a single shot or two shots. The shutter can also be set to a 2 second delay. Burst mode records at 2 frames per second.
Video Mode
The video mode records in a Quicktime format with audio at 30 frames per seconds in two possible resolutions VGA (640 x 480 pixels) or QVGA (320 x 240 pixels). Shooting is continuous up to 80 minutes depending on the available memory.
Flash
The flash is relatively strong but fires often when it is unnecessary. Often pictures are dark because the flash fired when there was sufficient light and the shutter speed was reduced causing less light to be captured and the picture to be underexposed.
Image Stabilization
This camera has Image Stabilization (IS) Technology built in for maximum clarity of pictures. Or so they say....
Image Quality
Pictures from this camera are blurry. With or without image Stabilization on, a tripod is necessary even without zooming. I've never seen a camera take such blurry pictures. I expected blurry images at a 12x zoom without a tripod but the blurriness was insane. I was able to get clear pictures in sports mode (faster shutter speed) but at 12x zoom, these pictures were very dark. ISO 400 was very noisy (surprisingly). I really have never seen pictures this bad come off of a Kodak. The V570 has much better image stabilization and it does not have that feature. 6 megapixels and 12x zooms are great if you want to make poster size close-ups of blurry landscapes.
Battery Life
This camera uses the new Kodak KLIC 8000 battery. It's basically a rechargeable CRV3. Battery life isn't as good as Kodak's other lithium ion batteries and the batteries are difficult to find since they are new. It's only a small step up over the last model's alkaline batteries.
Physical Attributes and LCD Screen
The camera is comfortable to hold and mid-sized. It weighs 10.6 ounces without the battery but is reasonable for a camera of its type. The LCD screen is 2.5 inches. The picture is good and the colors are vibrant on the screen. The camera does have a viewfinder (hole you look through) for those times when you want to save battery or the screen isn't visible due to sunlight. Note that a small vibration can be felt in the camera when using just about every feature. I thought perhaps something was wrong but this occurred with several cameras I checked.
Memory
The camera comes with 32 megabytes of internal memory. Digital cameras all come with "starter" or "overflow" memory that isn't meant to be used as primary memory for your pictures. The camera has an Secure Digital (SD) memory card slot. The most widely used memory card type, SD is the easiest type to find and the cheapest to purchase. As always, I recommend a high-speed 1 gigabyte memory card (such as San Disk's Ultra II 1 gigabyte SD memory card). These are relatively inexpensive ($59.99 on dell.com) and will hold more than enough pictures for most people.
Connectivity and Software
The camera is hooked up with a USB cable to the computer. It is easy to connect and the software is easy to use. You can also use a card reader for the memory card which I always prefer over taking out USB cables for each digital camera in the house.
Minimum system requirements:
OS: Windows 2000 SP1 or XP,Mac OS x 10.3 or higher, 600 MHz processor or greater, 128 megabytes RAM, Internet Expoler 6.0 or higher or SAFARI 1.1 or higher, 200 megabytes hard drive disk space available, CD-ROM drive, Available USB port, Color monitor, 800 x 600 display resolution, 16-bit minimum
Package Contents
The package includes:
-Kodak Easyshare Z612 Zoom Digital Camera
-Kodak Li-Ion Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery
-Kodak Li-Ion Battery Charger
-USB and AV cables
-Lens cap with strap
-Neck strap
-Kodak Easyshare Software
-Getting Started Kit
-Custom camera insert for optional Kodak Easyshare Camera and Printer Docks
Dock Compatability
This camera is compatible with the Kodak Easyshare Printer Dock Series 3 and Kodak Easyshare Printer Dock Plus Series 3, Kodak Easyshare Camera Dock Series 3, and Kodak Easyshare Photo Printer 500.
Price
The retail price is $399.99. If the features worked as they were supposed to, this price would be fine but buying this particular model would be a waste of money.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 399.99
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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noangels
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Member: Jamilynn
Location: Staten Island, NY USA
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