Kodak EasyShare Z700

Auto Mode (7.5)
Auto mode is the heart and soul of this camera — it’s what you select when you want the camera to do the work. In this mode, the camera determines all elements of the exposure: the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and color balance. Autofocus defaults to multizone and single AF — which means it focuses (and locks) when you press the shutter button halfway. The user gets to choose the file size and the color mode. (Choices for color mode are limited to Color, Black and White, and Sepia. Sepia is like black and white, but with an old-fashioned reddish-brown tint.)

Auto mode will deliver the best snapshots this camera can produce in most situations. Many, many users of this camera will not need to go further.

Movie Mode (3.5)
The Z700’s maximum quality for movies is a resolution of 640 x 480 at 13 frames per second. A lower resolution 320 x 240 gets up to 20 fps. Video clips will generally look pretty choppy when recorded at a rate of less then 30 fps, and video shot at 320 x 240 resolution begins to enter into "why bother?" territory.

Drive / Burst Mode (6.0)
The Z700 can take six pictures in two seconds, which is fast for this kind of camera. It has two "burst modes" for taking sequences of photos.

The "First Burst" mode is the one that makes the most intuitive sense. In "First Burst," the user presses the shutter release, and the camera takes pictures as fast as it can, until the user stops pressing, or until it has taken six pictures, whichever comes first.

The second mode, called "Last Burst" sounds a little odd, but it could be useful in the right circumstance. In "Last Burst," the camera takes two pictures a second for up to 15 seconds, but it only saves the last five shots in the sequence. So, as it takes picture number six, it throws away picture number one. If the user shoots 30, the camera throws away the first 25. Kodak expects people to use this when they’re shooting something that will happen quickly, but that starts a little unpredictably. The problem is, you have to stop shooting as soon as you get an image you want to keep, or risk losing the shot in a couple of seconds, when the camera has taken five more shots.

The burst modes can be set with the same button on the top of the camera that activates the self-timer.

Playback Mode (7.5)
Kodak got the playback mode right on their new Z-line. This camera is meant for people who take pictures in social situations and want to share the pictures, so Kodak has made it easy for them.

Playback is only a button or two away; hitting the review button brings up the most recent shot in any mode, and then playback options are available via the camera’s control buttons. The zoom buttons can magnify the image, and the control dial navigates through the frames and activates a multi-image view, so the user can review a large number of images more quickly.

The user can set up slide shows on either the LCD, or on a television via the A/V jack. A menu allows the user to adjust the length of time each image is shown.

Custom Image Presets (6.0)
In addition to the typical Action, Closeup, and Landscape modes, Kodak adds 11 more settings: Children, Flower, Fireworks, Snow, Backlight, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Manner/Museum, Document, and Self-portrait. The camera also provides an extremely brief description of the mode, or a tip for using it. (I was baffled by "manner/museum." As it turns out, that’s the mode to use when you want to have good manners in a museum — it turns off the flash and the sound effects, so you won’t bother other visitors.)

There are only minor differences between similar settings, such as "Beach" and "Snow." "Action" and "Children" are just about identical; "Closeup" and "Flower" don’t have differences that the typical Z700 user would notice. "Fireworks" and "Night Landscape" actually are significantly different, though. The Fireworks mode will shut off the light meter completely, and makes a two-second exposure at the widest aperture, while Night Landscape actually takes a light reading.

While some of the settings do not seem distinct enough to merit a separate mode, Kodak has included enough settings to cover all necessary ground and satiate the automatic shooter.