Kodak EasyShare Z915 [printer-friendly] • reghardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.com/2009/06/19/review_compact_camera_kodak_easyshare_z915/

Kodak EasyShare Z915

10x zoom without the price magnification

19th June 2009 12:58 GMT

Review Kodak is the latest company to enter the super-zoom market, with the EasyShare Z915. Equipped with a 10x optical zoom, plus a good sprinkling of features, it is aimed at the person who wants to get closer to the action with their compact camera. What’s more, it sells for less than £200. So do you really get more for less with the Z915?

Kodak's EasyShare Z915

As would be expected for a camera sporting an extra large optical zoom, the Z915 is bigger than most compacts, measuring 107 x 72.4 x 35.7mm. but it’s not overly large, as it more compact than Canon’s PowerShot SX 110 IS, which also sports a 10x optical zoom.

Weighing in at around 260g with battery and card, you’d struggle to fit this camera in your trouser pocket, although it’s quite comfortable to carry around for long periods of time. At the top of the Z915 are the tiny power button and a larger mode dial. To the right, the shutter button, zoom lever and three tiny buttons for flash, macro and drive mode settings.

On the back is a 2.5in LCD screen composed of 230,000 dots. There is a large bezel around the screen and one can only assume that cost considerations led to Kodak not putting a 3in or even 3.5in screen onto the Z915. To the right of the screen is a row of black buttons, which are used for selecting delete, menu, info and playback.

To the right is a four-way controller and the red share button, which can be used in conjunction with supplied EasyShare software for printing or emailing images. A rather flimsy plastic cover hiding a mini USB port resides on right side of the camera body. On the bottom is a cover for the SD/SDHC card slot and battery compartment.

Opting for a 2.5in LCD, no doubt helped keep costs down

The Z915 takes AA-sized batteries, both alkaline and rechargeable (NiMH and Lithium) and the camera comes supplied with a couple of alkalines. A word of warning when opening the flap: the batteries are pushed against some strong springs and if you’re not careful, they can spill out of the camera whenever you open the cover.

No memory card is supplied, although there is 32MB internal memory. Bear in mind though, that only 13.5MB is actually allocated for storing images, enough for around half a dozen shots at the highest resolution. Also, if you want the full instruction manual, you’ll have to go online and download it from Kodak’s website. That’s not very consumer friendly Mr Kodak.

The optical zoom is equivalent to 35-350mm on a 35mm camera

In terms of features, the Z915 comes with a 1/2.3in CCD composed of 10 megapixels (effective) with a maximum resolution of 3698 x 2736, down to 1280 x 960. Kodak makes a lot of noise about the Z915 offering HD images, which basically means you can shoot images at 1920 x 1088 resolution for displaying on a 16:9 HD Ready set. Video is also offered, but only in VGA or QVGA resolution at 30fps. The 10x optical zoom offers the equivalent of 35-350mm f/3.5-f/4.8 lens on a 35mm camera and Kodak has included an optical image stabilisation system.

Shutter speed range is 1/8 – 1/1250sec in auto mode and 16-1/1000sec in manual operation. The ISO range is 64-1600 in auto mode but, oddly, only 100-1600 in manual or semi-manual modes. There’s no continuous shooting mode, but a burst mode, which fires off three frames at 1.5f/s. There are the usual multi-pattern, centre-weighted and spot metering modes and three AF zones: multi, centre and face priority. You can set the exposure bracketing interval for +/- 0.3 EV, +/- 0.7 EV or +/- 1.0 EV steps, and even use it in conjunction with the exposure compensation system.

The Z915 is ready to shoot around three seconds after switch on. We have to confess that it’s not the most comfortable of cameras to hold and its boxy shape doesn’t offer many places for your fingers to rest naturally. The LCD screen looks a bit small with such a large bezel, although it is clear and bright, and five brightness settings are available.

There are plenty of shooting modes to select including, smart auto, which basically decides what scene you’re shooting and then adjusts the shooting parameters accordingly. It also applies Kodak’s Perfect Touch technology, which is designed to reduce noise and improve exposure in dark areas. For the more adventurous, there are program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual and scene modes, as well as the option of taking panoramic shots and shooting movies.

There's no continuous shooting mode, just a three pic burst at 1.4f/s

Manual mode lets you adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO speed. There are fifteen scene modes to choose including, portrait, sport, night portrait and one quaintly titled “manner/museum,” which disables the flash. You can also tweak your images by selecting one of a series of colour modes that include sepia, black and white and high colour, and there are also three levels of picture sharpness.

Sample Shots

ISO 100
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ISO 200
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ISO 400
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ISO 800
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ISO 1600
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Sample Shots

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Sample Shots

Close up
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Wide angle

Tele-photo
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Panorama
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Image stabiliser off
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Image stabiliser on
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Kodak has tried to make the Z915 as simple to use as possible. The menu system has two tabs for camera mode: one for capture and the other for set-up, and you use the four-way controller to scroll through the menus. A nice touch is that you can scroll down to say, histogram, select “on,” and if you then partly depress the shutter, the menu screen clears and you’re ready to shoot.

Can't be too fussy about performance on a 10x zoom at this price

If you’re in manual mode, for example, and you want to make a quick adjustment, press the info button, and at the bottom of the screen, you are presented with a horizontal menu displaying aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings. In playback mode, there’s an additional tab for editing images – you can apply Perfect Touch technology, crop or add a sound tag.

In use, noise was apparent, even at ISO 200, and chromatic aberration was another issue. We also noticed that some shots had an artificial look about them, which is probably the result of all that digital processing. The supplied batteries also ran out of juice after shooting fewer than 200 shots.

Verdict

When it comes to performance, there’s no doubt that the 10x optical zoom is a bonus, although its specification is disappointing at the wide angle end. However, the optical image stabilisation system ensures you get rock-steady images when shooting at the extreme end of the telephoto setting. We also liked the panoramic mode, which was easy to use, and stitches up to three images in-camera. But picture quality was not so glowing. Perhaps we are being a bit hard on a sub-£200 camera with a 10x optical zoom, but we would have preferred it if Kodak had dropped a few features and concentrated a little more on improving performance. ®