Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS

Viewfinder
The electronic viewfinder on the Z712 IS contains 230,000 pixels of resolution—a good count for composing images—the 100 percent coverage allows for full assessment of picture edges. This seemed pretty accurate on the show floor.  However, the eye-cup for the viewfinder is awkward. It would have been beneficial if the cup extended out more from the camera body to keep your face from pressing against the LCD screen. There is plenty of information viewable in the EVF, such as mode, image size, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, frame number, exposure compensation, card or internal memory indicator, and a histogram. There’s a handy EVF/LCD switch button on the upper right that allows quick and easy switching between the two views.

LCD Screen
The Z712 has 115,000 pixels spread across its 2.5" TFT LCD, and it's not truly acceptable, although it's quite common on a compact camera. It's unfortunate that Kodak didn’t put more into the screen resolution, considering the camera’s design and target audience. Sure, the viewfinder has 230,000 pixels, but at a 7-megapixel image size, it would be nice to be able to review images at a decent resolution and get a better gauge of focus and details. Colors did not seem vibrant, and the resolution was poor. It’s easy to see why they didn’t provide 16x magnification for image review. The screen couldn’t handle it. However, the LCD’s angle of view was quite good, and there is a decent level of control available to users, including five setting levels for brightness and contrast.

Flash
The pop-up flash on the Z712 is a slim rectangle that is housed at the top of the camera. It pops up automatically when the flash is set to on, and since it’s so small, the housing doesn’t protrude too much from the camera body. Consequently, there shouldn’t be any problems with damaging the flash. The flash’s 1.6 to 5.4 feet range is decent. The flash coverage looked good for the wide-angle view, but the telephoto range (3.9 to 8.9 feet), will only do for close-up portraits, not for more distant views. It syncs at 140 ISO, so there should be little problem with noise when the flash is engaged. The flash settings are auto, red eye pre-flash, fill, and off.

Zoom lens
The Z712 boasts an optically stabilized Schneider Kreuznach Variogon lens, featuring a 12x, 6-72mm (equivalent to 36-432mm in 35mm format) optical zoom. The f-stop range, only f/2.8 to f/4.8, is poor for such a wide-angle range, so don’t expect to get decent landscapes from this one.

Barrel distortion was obvious at the wide-angle range and focus less crisp. Zoom response was slow and jumpy when the switch is released. We’ll be evaluating these specifics in the lab tests, as well as the Optical Image Stabilization performance.