Kodak EasyShare Z980

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.

The Kodak EasyShare Z980 is Kodak's current big gun in the ultrazoom compact digital class, boasting a 24x optical zoom and 12 megapixel sensor. Kodak is quick to point out that the 12 megapixel sensor of the Z980 means "you can crop and enlarge and still have great picture quality". Here's an original shot and then the same shot cropped to 12 x 8 inch size – the cropped shot still maintains 220 pixels per inch, which is enough to provide a pretty decent print.

There's also the ability to make 720p HD video, full manual controls in addition to the obligatory automatic and scene settings, ISO sensitivity ranging to 1600 at full resolution (and 6400 at 3.1MB), plus a RAW file shooting option. Kodak's come a long ways from my old Instamatic; let's see just how far.

BUILD AND DESIGN
The Z980 is carved out of the current mold for ultrazooms, resembling a slightly scaled-down DSLR in feel, if not weight. This is the largest ultrazoom dimensionally that I've tested, and it compares rather closely size-wise to the Olympus E-420 DSLR.


The body exterior is composite, and while the camera appears well-built, there is a shiny black plastic panel that wraps around one side of the camera, surrounds the monitor and literally screams "fragile looking". I would think Kodak knows what they're doing with this piece functionally, but the shiny plastic conveys a toy-like impression from an otherwise business-like instrument.

Ergonomics and Controls
The Z980 features a deeply sculpted handgrip on the camera body, and there is good room for the fingers between the grip and the lens barrel. The rubberized material in the grip area is a cut above most other ultrazooms I've tested, providing a bit firmer hold than most others.

The right index finger falls naturally onto the shutter button and the thumb to the thumb rest area on the camera back without conflict with controls. While the camera back and top are adorned with buttons, there is adequate spacing to minimize accidental activations.

While I'm not a video guy, I have gotten spoiled reviewing cameras that allow you to start shooting video with the press of a single button. Unfortunately, the Z980 isn't one of these – you have to select the video setting via the mode dial and then do a full press on the shutter to capture movies.

The Z980 provides shutter buttons on the top and right side of the camera body, with the latter simplifying shooting in the vertical (portrait) format. You have to select which button is active via a switch on the top of the body, and Kodak has thoughtfully provided an easily attached vertical grip to promote a more secure hold when shooting verticals.

The vertical grip is light and performs no other function, but it also improves the horizontal grip, allowing my little finger to grip the front of the camera rather than curl up under the body. The grip adds about an inch to the height of the camera, but unless you need to keep the Z980's dimensions in check, I'd install the grip and leave it on.

Make sure you attach the lens cap to the camera via the provided cord or the first time you forget to remove the cap and power up the camera with it in place, the extending lens will launch the cap into space.

Menus and Modes
This being my first review of a Kodak product, the menu system wasn't at all familiar but a fair amount of settings were located intuitively. Kodak provides a bare-bones user's guide with the Z980, running only some 25 pages and dealing with only the simplest of functions.

Of course, they do provide Spanish, French, and Portuguese versions to ponder while looking unsuccessfully for the information on how to change the camera's ISO setting. Hint: it isn't in the user's manual – you have to go to the online extended user's manual for that. Personally, I'd like to see Kodak flesh out the printed manual with info for the folks who aren't going to merely set the camera on auto and fire away.

"Smart Capture" is the Z980's auto setting, and it incorporates "intelligent scene detection" to analyze scene conditions; "intelligent scene capture" to set focus, exposure and ISO; and "intelligent image processing" to reduce noise and clear up shadows. For those of us who think we might know better than the camera, there are the typical manual controls found on DSLRs and more advanced compacts: program auto, aperture and shutter priority, and fully manual exposure options.

Smart Capture, the manual controls, portrait, sport, panorama (stitch-assist), and video shooting modes are selected via the mode dial atop the camera body; there is also a scene mode accessed on the dial that offers the user 16 additional shooting options via internal menu: children, backlight, high ISO, beach, snow, sunset, self portrait, night portrait, candlelight, night landscape, landscape, museum, stage, fireworks, flower, and text.

In addition to the icon for each individual mode in the scene menu, the Z980 also presents a brief explanation of each option as you select it.

Display/Viewfinder
The Z980 boasts a 3.0 inch LCD monitor with 201,000 dot composition and five levels of brightness adjustment.

Even with that range of adjustment, the monitor can be difficult to use for image composition in bright sunlight, although the size helps some. Thankfully, there is also a viewfinder for those difficult lightning conditions, but there is no diopter for eyesight adjustment.

The viewfinder offers good eye relief and I had no trouble using my reading glasses with it, although that's not my favorite way to shoot. The alternative is to gaze through the blurry viewfinder until the green focus icon appears along with a "beep" to let you know the camera says the focus is a go. Kodak doesn't specify in the user's manual or online, but monitor and viewfinder appear to offer around 95% coverage – they're both fairly accurate in depicting what the final image will contain.