Kodak has produced the Easyshare Z980, an ultra-zoom with a massive 24x zoom and 12-megapixel sensor. It also has the unique hardware setup where you can rotate the camera 90°, and shoot using a second shutter button and extra grip. The pre-production floor model we used felt a bit on the flimsy side, but this might be cleared up by the time it hits the market. The Z980 will be available in Spring 2009 for $399.95
We had the opportunity to take the Z980 for an extended test drive at the Consumer Electronics Show. Here's what we found.
Manual Control Options The Z980 has a significant degree of manual control, with a full set of Program, Aperture, Shutter and Manual modes. However, strangely absent is a custom white balance mode, which is usually fairly common, and one would expect to see on a camera that otherwise has a full set of manual controls.
Focus Auto Focus
Auto focus can be set to multi-zone, center-zone and selectable zone, the last of which lets you choose the area of the frame where you would like to focus.
ISO The ISO runs from 64 to 1600, with 3200 and 6400 at reduced 3.1-megapixel resolution.
White Balance The range of manual white balance presets feels pretty limited, with only auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent and open shade on offer. As mentioned above, there is no way to manually white balance, a feature sadly lacking.
Exposure Compensation Exposure compensation can be set ±2 EV in 1/3 steps, and the camera can auto exposure bracket at ±0.3, ±0.6 or ±1 EV.
Metering Metering types available are multi-pattern (looks at whole image), center-weighted (looks at whole image but mostly center), center-spot (looks only at the dead center of the image).
Shutter Speed Thanks to shutter priority and manual mode, the exposure length can be set directly to anything from 1/2000 to 16 seconds, a decent spread.
Aperture Like shutter speed, aperture size can be manually set, and has a maximum level of f/2.8 wide and f/8.0 tele. Picture Quality / Size Options The Kodak Z980 has the ability to shoot RAW, or JPEG at three different compression qualities.
Image Ratio
Size
4:3
12MP, 6MP, 3.1MP, 1.2MP
3:2
10.7MP, 2.2MP
16:9
9MP, 2.1MP
Picture Effects Mode
The only real picture effects on the Z980 are its color modes: high color, low color, natural color, sepia and black and white.
