Kodak EasyShare Z612

Viewfinder
The Kodak EasyShare Z612 has an electronic color viewfinder directly above the center of the LCD and slightly raised from the body of the camera. This raised position may help users from smearing their face against the LCD, but it’s not wholly unlikely. The viewfinder is circular with a square of slightly forgiving gray/black rubber surrounding it to function as an eyecup. The button to switch between the LCD and the viewfinder is located above the upper left corner of LCD. The electronic color viewfinder has 202,000 pixels of resolution, and is accurate and usable, two attributes often missing from optical viewfinders on inexpensive cameras.


LCD Screen
The LCD on the Kodak EasyShare Z612 is 2.5 inches with a resolution of 230,000 pixels, which is becoming more and more standard on high zoom cameras at the $399 price point. The LCD performed with a fair level of success, eventually solarizing when tilted at extreme angles. The LCD screen has a number of display options, including a live and review histogram display, manual controls, preset modes, date and image size/quality. The user will find a button directly above the left corner of the LCD for toggling between it and the electronic color viewfinder above the center of the LCD.


Flash
The Kodak EasyShare Z612 has an in-camera flash positioned properly, directly above the center of the lens for an even illumination of scene and to help control shadows. The flash is automatically opened when the flash options are set to an ‘on’ position and the shutter is depressed half-way.

The flash settings for the Z612 can be accessed and cycled via the flash button located on the top of the camera. The flash controls for this camera allow for settings of auto flash, fill, red-eye, and off to be set by the user. In addition to these controls there is also a flash compensation option that can be controlled when in program, aperture priority, shutter priority or manual modes. The flash option is located at the bottom of the LCD screen and enables the flash to be set to +/-1.0 in 0.5 steps. Press the jog dial to access the flash compensation setting, make the selection again by turning the jog dial, and press it again to finalize this setting.


Zoom Lens
The Kodak EasyShare Z612 contains an extending Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 12x zoom lens with a focal length of 35 mm – 420 mm (35mm equivalency) and has a maximum aperture of f/4.8 in telephoto mode and f/2.8 in wide angle. The zoom lens is accurately controlled via the rocker on the back of the camera. Since this control is bigger than those found with smaller framed point-and-shoot cameras, zoom distance is accurately registered when this control is handled.