Kodak EasyShare Z980 Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.
The Kodak EasyShare Z980's image quality is below average. The Kodak EasyShare Z980's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, which is evident at the base ISO speed of 64 in both JPEG and RAW files. The noise gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 100 to ISO 400 and then up to the virtually unusable ISO 800 and 1600 settings. Also problematic are the bright, over-saturated and frankly in-accurate colours (which some people may like), and the fairly obvious smearing of fine detail in all of our test photos.
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 dealt with chromatic aberrations pretty well, with purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were soft straight out of the camera, but you can change the in-camera sharpening level if you wish. The night photograph was fine, with the maximum shutter speed of 16 seconds allowing you to capture enough light for most situations.
The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no evidence of red-eye and good overall exposure. Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as just 1cm away from the subject at the wide-angle lens setting. Anti-shake is an essential feature on a camera like this and one that works well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or using the telephoto end of the zoom range. There was very obvious barrel distortion evident at the 26mm wide-angle lens setting.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Kodak EasyShare Z980. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the right:
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JPEG |
RAW |
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ISO 64 (100% Crop) |
ISO 64 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Focal Range
The Kodak EasyShare Z980's 24x zoom lens provides a focal length of 26-624mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.
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26mm |
624mm |
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File Quality
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 has 3 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. There is also a RAW mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
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12M Fine (6.5Mb) (100% Crop) |
12M Standard (3.8Mb) (100% Crop) |
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12M Basic (3.2Mb) (100% Crop) |
12M RAW (21.2Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the Sharpness option in the main menu.
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Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.
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Example 1 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 offers a Super Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro Shot |
100% Crop |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Kodak EasyShare Z980 are auto, off, fill, and red-eye reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (26mm) |
Flash On - Wide Angle (26mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (624mm) |
Flash On - Telephoto (624mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye Reduction settings caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye Reduction |
Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night
The Kodak EasyShare Z980's maximum shutter speed is 16 seconds, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using an aperture of f5.6 and shutter speed of 10 seconds at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Image Stabilisation
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 has an Image Stabilisation mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with the Image Stabiliser option turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with Image Stabilisation turned on, the images are sharper than when it's turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
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Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Image Stabilisation Off (100% Crop) |
Image Stabilisation On (100% Crop) |
| 1/8th / 26mm | |
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| 1/8th / 190mm | |
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Sample Images
This is a selection of sample images from the Kodak EasyShare Z980 camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.
Sample Movie & Video
This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 11 second movie is 12.9Mb in size.
Product Images
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera / Turned On |
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Isometric View |
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Isometric View |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed |
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Rear of the Camera / Main Menu |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Top of the Camera |
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Bottom of the Camera |
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| Side of the Camera |
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| Side of the Camera |
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| Front of the Camera |
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| Front of the Camera |
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| Memory Card Slot |
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| Battery Compartment |
Conclusion
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 super-zoom camera offers a lot on paper, but some serious flaws make it hard to recommend to either beginners or more experienced users alike.
Image quality is at the heart of any camera, but unfortunately it's also at the top of the Z980's list of problems. Noise is evident even at the slowest ISO speed of 64, and it will become apparent even in prints at ISO 400 and faster, limiting the Z980 to hand-held use in good lighting conditions only. It also has a tendency to over-saturate the colours, even in the default Natural Light mode - some people may like this effect, but it certainly isn't accurate. And all of our test photos suffered from an over-aggressive smearing of fine detail. One of the Z980's key features, its RAW mode, couldn't make up for the sub-standard JPEG images, thanks to slow processing times, the inability to record both a RAW and JPEG image at the same time, and the lack of a serious development tool, even the one provided by Kodak in the box. The 24x zoom lens suffers from a general lack of sharpness and obvious barrel distortion at wide-angle settings.
The Kodak EasyShare Z980 also suffers from some rather "curious" design decisions. Adding the supplied vertical grip is promoted as a benefit, but in our view it only makes an already big camera even larger and heavier. The reliance on using a mechanical switch to turn on the second shutter release button (itself a strange inclusion) and the inability to automatically switch the LCD display between portrait and landscape when you do is all rather 1999, rather than 2009. Add a too-small Jog Dial and too-unresponsive zoom button, poor electronic viewfinder and low-resolution LCD screen, and it all adds up to a mish-mash of a user experience that will frustrate the majority of users, both beginners and keen shutterbugs alike.
All of these issues might be forgivable (just) if the price was right, but sadly it isn't. $399 / £379 is only a little bit cheaper than the Z980's main super-zoom rivals - ultimately we'd definitely save the extra cash and shop elsewhere. While the Kodak EasyShare Z980's list of key specifications looks promising, in reality it simply doesn't add up as an overall package.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
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| Design | 3.5 |
| Features | 4.5 |
| Ease-of-use | 3.5 |
| Image quality | 2.5 |
| Value for money | 3 |
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Kodak EasyShare Z980 from around the web.
crunchgear.com »
I’ve been avoiding this moment for a month. Before I left for Europe, Kodak sent me their latest ultra-zoom camera, the Z980, and I’ve been carrying it for over 30 days and through five countries. I’ve taken about two hundred photographs and I’ve gotten to know this thing fairly well. My initial conclusion? I’m going to say this just to get it over with: I miss my DSLR. Now, read on for a bit of clarification.
Read the full review »
digitalcamerareview.com »
Back in the late '60s I carried a Kodak Instamatic camera with me to drag races at tracks across southern California, snapping photos of cars and drivers in the pits. In 1975 I graduated to a Nikon F2, with Kodak remaining almost exclusively my film of choice. I haven't shot a roll of film in eight or nine years, but another Kodak camera has found its way into my hands, if only for review purposes.
Read the full review »
steves-digicams.com »
The latest Super-zoom model from Kodak, the EasyShare Z980 is a power packed digital camera with 12-megapixels, a 24x optical zoom lens, 3.0-inch LCD, 720p HD movie mode, and RAW the JPEG image formats. Kodak designed this camera with all users in mind, whether you are an avid enthusiast or a newbie. For those with less experience, the Z980 provides a wealth of user-friendly exposure modes. These include the fully automatic "Smart Auto", Program AE, and 19 Scene modes. For the more experienced, the Z980 offers Aperture priority, Shutter speed priority, and even a full Manual exposure mode. The Z980 also includes most all of the Kodak EasyShare technologies we have come to know, like Perfect Though, Face Detection, and Image Stabilization.
Read the full review »
Specifications
| Standard features | ||
| Sensor type | 1 / 2.33 type | |
| Effective pixels | 12 MP (4112 × 3032) | |
| Lens | 26–624 mm (35 mm equiv.) f/2.8–5.0 SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON Lens | |
| Zoom | 24X optical, 5X advanced digital, total zoom range 120X | |
| Image stabilizer | optical | |
| Shutter speed | 1/2–1/2000 sec. (auto) 16–1/2000 sec. (manual) |
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| Monitor | 3 in. type high resolution (201K dots), 5 level brightness adjustments | |
| Storage | 64 MB internal memory* available, SDHC/SD card expansion slot | |
| Auto focus | ||
| Type | TTL imager AF system | |
| Modes | normal, macro, infinity, manual | |
| Focus range | wide standard: 0.7 m–infinity tele standard: 2.5 m–infinity wide macro: 0.1–1.0 m tele macro: 1.7–3.0 m super macro: 0.01–0.3 m |
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| Auto focus control | single, continuous | |
| Auto focus zones | TTL multi-zone, center zone AF, selectable zone AF (25 zones) | |
| Face-priority AF | yes | |
| AF assist light | yes | |
| Exposure control | ||
| ISO sensitivity | Smart Capture mode: auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 PASM mode: 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200**, 6400** |
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| Metering modes | multi-pattern, center-weighted, spot | |
| Compensation | ±2.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps | |
| Bracketing | ±1.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps, 3 images | |
| White balance | auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade | |
| Flash | ||
| Range | 6.2 m (@ wide, ISO 400) 3.5 m (@ tele, ISO 400) |
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| Modes | auto, off, fill, red-eye reduction | |
| Compensation | ±1.0 EV in 1/3 steps | |
| Shooting specifications | ||
| Drive modes | single shot, normal burst (1 fps up to 6 frames), fast burst (5 fps up to 9 frames) | |
| Shooting modes | Smart Capture, sport, P (program mode), A (aperture priority mode), S (shutter priority mode), M (manual mode), portrait, panorama (left–right, right–left), video, SCN (scene modes) | |
| Scene modes | high ISO, night portrait, landscape, night landscape, flower, sunset, backlight, candlelight, manner/museum, text, beach, snow, fireworks, children, self-portrait, stage | |
| Click to capture | < 0.2 sec. | |
| Shot to shot | < 1.5 sec | |
| Still capture | ||
| Still format | JPEG/EXIF v2.21, KDC RAW image file format | |
| Picture size | 12.0 MP (4000 × 3000)—4:3 10.7 MP (4000 × 2264)—3:2 9.0 MP (4000 × 2256)—16:9 6.0 MP (2832 × 2128)—4:3 3.1 MP (2048 × 1536)—4:3 2.2 MP (1800 × 1200)—3:2 2.1 MP (1920 × 1080)—16:9 1.2 MP (1280 × 960)—4:3 |
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| Compression level | PASM: fine standard, basic, RAW*** Smart Capture: standard |
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| Color modes | high color, natural color, low color, sepia, black and white | |
| Sharpness | high, normal, low | |
| Review options | single, magnification with navigation box, multi-up, multi-field search, slideshow, multimedia slideshow, histogram, view by | |
| Editing | on-camera crop, KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology, voice annotation, RAW*** file development | |
| File management | delete, undo delete, copy, protect, text tagging, one-button upload | |
| Video capture | ||
| Format | H. 264 AAC LC .MOV with stereo sound, QUICKTIME MPEG-4 with stereo sound | |
| Quality | HDV (1280 × 720) at 30 fps VGA (640 × 480) at 30 fps QVGA (320 × 240) at 30 fps |
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| Length | HDV: continuous up to 29 min. based on memory card capacity VGA/QVGA: continuous up to 80 min. based on memory card capacity |
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| Review options | play, rewind, pause, fast-forward and rewind, forward and rewind by frame, multi-up, multimedia slideshow, multi-field search bookmarks | |
| Editing | make a picture from video, action print (1, 4, 9, 16-up), trim | |
| File management | delete, undo delete, copy, protect, text tagging, one-button upload | |
| Customization | ||
| Custom settings | LCD brightness (5 levels), date stamp (on/off), image storage, capture frame grid (on/off), image stabilizer control, red-eye preflash (on/off), quick view (on/off), advanced digital zoom, orientation sensor, sound, volume, date & time, auto power off, video out, language, reset camera | |
| Sharing | ||
| Share button | yes | |
| Physical specifications | ||
| I/O interface | digital (USB 2.0 high speed) connector for data and video | |
| Power | KODAK Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable / Ni-MH Rechargeable Digital Camera Batteries (4 AA), optional AC adapter | |
| Tripod mount | ¼ in. standard | |
| Dimensions | W × H × D: 3.5 × 4.9 × 4.1 in. (90.5 × 123.7 ×105 mm) | |
| Weight | 14.6 oz (415 g) (without SD card and batteries) | |
| Compatibility | ||
| Direct printing | PictBridge-enabled | |
| Software | works with KODAK EASYSHARE Software | |
| Warranty | one year | |
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