Kodak EasyShare Z950

Viewfinder (0.00)

There is no viewfinder on this camera: all operations are carried out through the LCD screen.

Display (4.15)

The LCD screen of the Z950 is a 3-inch TFT with 230k pixels. That’s pretty average for cameras of this type, and the resolution is high enough to get a decent preview of the images. They do appear slightly blocky, though, and you have to zoom in to get a decent preview of the fine details.

Flash (4.50)

The flash is a small unit embedded in the camera body above and to the left of the lens. This is a little too close to the lens for comfort; this small distance exaggerates red eye and reflections. The camera does include a red-eye reduction mode, though, which uses a single pre-flash to contract the iris and reduce the appearance of red-eye. Kodak claims a maximum range of 5.4 meters (about 18 feet) for the flash, but as usual, this seems grossly optimistic; we found that it was generally only good for about 8 to 9 feet in total darkness.

Lens (7.50)

The Z950 is built around a Schneider Kreuznach lens with a focal length range of 6.2mm to 62mm. That’s equivalent to a 35-350mm focal length range on a 35mm film camera, which is a decent zoom range. It is a little short at the wide angle end of things, though; group shots and landscapes are easier to compose and frame with a 28mm wide angle option. The aperture range of the camera is decent, though; it goes from f/3.8 to f/8.2 at the wide end, and f/4.8 to f/11.3 at the telephoto end.

Examples of this zoom range are shown below.

Zoom Ratio Examples
6.0 mm	30.2 mm	62.0 mm

Battery (5.50)

The Z950 gets its juice from the KLIC-7003 Li-ion rechargeable battery that fits into the cavity on the bottom of the camera. This can hold around 1150mAh hours of charge, and is recharged in the camera from either the included charger or over a USB cable. This is a good thing; it means that you can use a laptop to charge the camera, meaning you have to carry one less thing on a trip. The USB cable can also be used for charging or for transferring images to a computer.

Memory (3.00)

Photos and video can be stored on either the 32MB of internal memory or on an SD/SDHC memory card. Images can also be copied from one to the other; useful if you want to keep a favorite photo on the internal memory to show off.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs (2.00)

There are just two ports on this camera: a power input and the combination USB/AV output. Both are located below a rubber cover on the right side of the camera body. The power input is kind of redundant; the battery inside the camera is charged through the USB/power cable. One thing to note here is that the USB/Av out port is a proprietary one; if you loose the included cable, you’ll have to buy another one from Kodak.