Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS

Kodak’s EasyShare system is branching out when it comes to adding advanced features and prosumer stylings to newer models – and has done so without sacrificing the ease of use associated with the brand. The Z712 IS is Kodak’s latest ultra-zoom offering, with a specifications list to rival much more expensive models.

The design of the camera is typically Kodak, with chunky silver buttons and a black, tough-looking casing. There are a few issues with the build quality. The zoom lever, for example, is a tad too small and the jog dial gets in the way when you’re trying to zoom in fast. The doors covering the memory card (SD/MMC) and connections (USB/AV and DC-in) slots feel flimsy and are difficult to close after use. In contrast, the battery compartment’s sliding cover is incredibly tough, even slightly stiff at first, and feels as though it could easily survive a drop – not something that we tested out, mind!

One oddity is the d-pad: this is a good size, but feels wasted, as it’s only used for navigation in the menu system and in playback. The usual shortcuts, such as focus and flash options, have their own buttons and changing the shooting options, like aperture and shutter speed, is done with the jog dial, making the d-pad almost pointless. Why not just have the jog dial navigate the menu too?

Booting up the camera is more hassle than it should be, using a sliding power switch that rebounds to its starting position. It’s not always responsive, which isn’t great if there’s a candid shot to capture. A simple button would have been much better. Still, a couple of seconds later you’re ready to shoot, which might sound a lot, but when you’ve got a 12x zoom with image stabilisation to get ready, then it’s not a bad figure.

Kodak claims this camera has a best-in-class click-to-capture rate of 0.26sec, and despite this being based on data from November 2006, we reckon this isn’t too far off the mark. However, the camera takes a little longer than we’d like saving the image once it’s taken, so you can get that first image almost instantly, but you might miss the next one while you’re waiting for the first one to save. The autofocus is also a little slow, especially in low light. And try zooming in on an image in playback and see how long it takes you to get frustrated with the ‘busy’ icon.

The Z712 IS is packed with features, many of which you wouldn’t expect to find on a camera like this. Visually, the most obvious is the lens, which at 12x optical is a beast. It sits out from the camera body and when powered on it extends a good 10cm, adding weight to the front of the camera. The sensor offers 7.1MP too, which combined with the lens opens up a world of shooting opportunities.

The Mode dial is your next port of call, as this shows just how many shooting options you have. For the beginner, the auto mode, called Smart Scene, analyses the scene you’re composing and selects shooting options based on the subject, optimising your portrait, landscape and macro images. The 16 scene modes are again fixed in terms of exposure, but they enable you to make sure that the camera is using the right settings for less generic scenes.

There are dedicated modes for High ISO and Sport, too, meaning that whatever you’re shooting, you should get perfect results by choosing the right automatic mode.

Program opens up flash and focus options, as well as ISO settings and white balance. If you prefer more manual control, then you have aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual. This is where you have to start using the jog dial. Rotate it to move between the on-screen options (typically a combination of shutter speed, aperture, EV compensation and ISO depending on the mode), press the dial to change the selected setting, rotate again to cycle through the options, and press in to accept the setting. It’s a fiddly process at first, but you soon get used to it.

Kodak’s Color Science Chip and PerfectTouch Technology combine to give great images even when on the automatic and scene settings. This shows in the image quality, with excellent rendering of fine detail and superb colour saturation. Chromatic aberration does become visible in high-contrast scenes and some distortion occurs at the long end of the zoom, but both problems are minimal. Low light can cause problems with focusing, but the High ISO mode does a good job of creating blur- and noise-free shots most of the time. The macro option is a little disappointing, with the minimum distance of 12cm making some creative floral shots, for example, impossible.

Overall, the quality of the images is good, especially when you’re paying under £200 for a camera with more features than you have the right to expect! Kodak’s ultra-zoom models have always scored well with us, and the Z712 IS is certainly no exception.