Digital Camera Review

First Impressions Review

The Kodak EasyShare Z650 with a 10x Schneider-Kreuznach zoom, a 6 megapixel CCD sensor, and Kodak's trademark ease of use, follows up on last year's Z740. With a suggested retail price of $350, the EasyShare Z650 lacks image stabilization, a hot feature with long telephoto cameras. It does, however, offer a fairly fast lens and a full complement of manual controls to make up for it. Kodak's Z series cameras are a step up from their beginner C series and target a segment of users ready to experiment with a longer lens, but still requiring plenty of options for shooting automatically.
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Likes
-Image Quality looks strong on initial evaluation
-Ease of use
-Compact size
-Good ergonomics             
Dislikes
-No custom white balance
-Slow operation
-LCD is small and low-resolution
-Lacks image stabilization           

Kodak apparently strained to hit its price point with the EasyShare Z650, leaving out image stabilization and skimping on the LCD in favor of the lavish electronic viewfinder. We think that the real problem with the camera is its lack of custom white balance – the only piece missing from a very good manual control implementation and a Kodak Color Science Chip.

Still, the fundamental impression we take away from the Kodak EasyShare Z650 is one of sharp, low noise images, good color, and a very straightforward user interface. So far it looks promising; check back to see if further testing results seal the deal.

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