Kodak EasyShare Z981 review– A Deficient 24x Megazoom
Thumbs Up:
The Kodak EasyShare Z981 comes with respectable incorporated sharing software and the camera has as catchy price.
Thumbs Down:
The Kodak EasyShare Z981 delivers really mediocre to poor photo quality and performance and the camera also doesn’t have a lot of basic options.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Manufacturer: Kodak
Part Number: 1020304
Price: $249.00 – $329.99
Product Type: Compact Digital camera
Weight: 19 oz
Dimensions (W x D x H) in inches: 4.9 x 3.3 x 4.1 inches
Optical Sensor Type: CCD
Camera Flash: Pop-up flash
Shooting Modes: Frame movie mode
White balance: Automatic and Presets
Exposure Modes: Program, Manual, Shutter-priority, Automatic and Aperture-priority
Shooting Programs: Text , Snow , Flower , Beach , Children , Museum , Landscape , Fireworks , Manor shot , Back light , Portrait mode , Sports mode , Night portrait , Self-portrait , Panorama assist and Night landscape
Special Effects: Natural, Sepia, High color, Low color and Black & White
Peripheral Devices: USB port & CD-ROM drive
Software: Kodak EasyShare & Drivers & Utilities
Cables Included: USB cable
Connector Type: USB, Composite video/audio output, DC power input
Additional Features: Audio recording , Face detection , Histogram display , Auto power save , USB 2.0 compatibility, YouTube capture mode , Scene Detection Technology , In-camera red-eye removal and KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology
Shooting Programs: Text , Snow , Flower , Beach , Children , Museum , Landscape , Fireworks , Manor shot , Back light , Portrait mode , Sports mode , Night portrait , Self-portrait , Panorama assist and Night landscape
Flash Modes: Fill-in mode, Auto mode, Red-eye reduction and Flash OFF mode
Focus Adjustment: Automatic and Manual
Included Accessories: Lens cap, Camera grip and Neck strap
Supported Battery: AA
Battery Type: 4 x AA NiMH rechargeable battery
Razzle Dazzle:
The design of Kodak EasyShare Z981 is just like any other compact Megazoom camera we’ve seen min the market; so there definitely is nothing to impress you in terms of looks. Measuring 4.9 x 3.3 x 4.1 inches, the design of the camera is planned around the enormous wide-angle 26x zoom lens of it and that is the reason behind the design similarity with the other camcorders as well. Though, having a huge wide-angle lens lets you do a lot around the camera. But the design actually seems to be inspired by Kodak’s Z980 launched in 2009; though the Z981 is comparatively compact than this. Also the Z981 comes without the hot shoe of the previous model.
Inside Dope:
The Kodak EasyShare Z981 is a late addition in Kodak’s camera lineup. The EasyShare Z981 was released alongside the other cameras of Kodak at CES 2010, but it was not showcased at the same time. The only resemblance we found in the Z981 and the cameras rest of the cameras released alongside it were the built-in sharing software and the sharing button. The combination of the software and the button lets you share your photos over internet. Apart from this the camera on a whole is a pretty sloppy, with some of the basic yet important features missing from it. Even the performance delivered by the camera was not all that good, with the poor photo quality and sluggish operational speed. Even the design of the camera is rather clunky.
The camera houses the shooting-mode dial on top of its body, in conjunction with a spring-loaded power switch. The position of power switch is a tad awkward, with it being placed so in front that you actually have to put some effort to turn on the camera. Positioned alongside the camera’s Mode dial is an upright dial that lets you adjust and select the shot settings. Though, it’s nicely placed at its place, but we still think that it would have been better on the rear end of the camera from where you can easily operate it with your thumb. The camera comes with a secondary shutter release button positioned at the lower end of cameras front edge of the handgrip. There is a switch given on top of the camera to activate it, and for changing the directional pad into a zoom toggle.
Turn to the back end of the camera and you’ll find a 3 inch LCD and an electronic viewfinder. The camera comes with a switch on the rear end of the camera on the left of the EVF for switching in between the two. The Menu, Playback, Info/help and Delete buttons for the camera can be found on the right down right hand side of the LCD. On the right of these buttons, the camera houses a directional pad for navigating menus, movies and browsing photos. The aforementioned Share button for Kodak EasyShare 981 is also positioned on the rear end of the camera. This share button lets you share your photos instantly on any particular social networking websites like YouTube, Orkut, Facebook and Flickr etc; you even can share photos on any compatible Kodak digital photo frames.
The camera has a rather simple menu system, with only two tabs given there: one is for camera set up while another one is for camera setup. The ports and slots for the camera include the one and only Micro-USB/AV port. This port is positioned under a door, on the right side of the camera.
The performance is the real downside for the camera and the Kodak EasyShare Z981 performed somewhat in equivalence with the other CCD-sensor-based megazooms. So it’s pretty clear that neither the quality, nor the speed of the camera was exceptional or even impressive. The camera took decent amount of time in all the respective speed test departments, so be it the 2.5 seconds for starting and getting ready for its first shot, or be it shot-to-shot time of 6.3 seconds, you surely cant expect a lot from the camera. This was quite upsetting as we know Kodak cameras to be fast.
Not only was the speed, the photo quality of the camera also was not that impressive. The photos taken even at the very low ISO had apparent noise and were soft (the noise were more apparent when we checked the photos in 100 percent). The photo quality delivered by the camera was more of like taken from videos than being taken from still. Though, the video quality was acceptable (considering the web usage purpose only).
Nitty Gritty:
The Kodak EasyShare Z981 has a catchy price tag around its neck and has pretty decent sharing in-built software; but the camera lacks some really basic shooting options and delivers really mediocre performance and photo quality.
